Upgrade Report
October 12th, 2004
proudly presented by
PC World
Technology Advice You Can Trust
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Upgrade tips, tricks, and how-to's that will help you get the most
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October 12th, 2004
Tech At Home: High-Def Recording Hassles
by Michael Desmond, Digital World contributing editor
As long as there have been technologies to record and play back media,
the companies that lay claim to content have done everything they can
to stop you and me from enjoying it. Witness the panic from studios
when the first VCRs emerged. Or consider the ill-fated DivX
(pay-per-view DVDs) effort, thrown up by a greedy retailer hell-bent
on cashing in on the early momentum of DVDs. It makes you wonder if
Gutenberg had to fend off wild-eyed monks screaming about
printing-rights management.
Those "threatening" technologies went on to become huge moneymakers
for the companies that had so bitterly fought them. VHS decks launched
the golden age of video rentals, where even the worst movies can turn
a buck. My local video store has a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen section.
A whole section! And DVDs are an absolute gold mine for studios that
have rereleased countless titles.
High-definition TV is now emerging as a viable technology, and
products for recording HD content are emerging alongside. These hard
disk-based digital video recorders (DVRs) and Digital-VHS (D-VHS)
videocassette recorders can capture the full 1080 interlaced or 720
progressive video signal. Imagine recording, in full high definition,
your favorite team's performance in the Super Bowl or an entire season
of "The Sopranos."
Port Problems
Alas, Hollywood is doing its level best to restrict the use of HD
outputs on every type of consumer video gear, from set-top boxes to
HD-capable DVRs. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has
successfully blunted adoption of FireWire, the high-speed digital
transport better known on camcorders and PCs, according to Fred von
Lohmann, senior legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
FireWire is perfect for moving high-def content among electronics
devices such as set-top boxes and DVRs. Unfortunately it does too good
a job.
"It's the usual mess," says Avi Greengart, senior analyst for the Home
Theater Research Service at Jupiter Research. "Hollywood would still
like to live in a world where it could control how you watch any of
its programming."
I found this truth out the hard way, when I tried recording HD with
JVC's HM-DH40000U, a D-VHS VCR. The $1000 deck made prepackaged
high-definition movies look stunning---"Backdraft," with all its fire
and action, made particular impact; you can really see a difference
between DVD and HD-VHS. But I had also invested in Adelphia Cable's HD
package and hoped to tape baseball games in high definition.
Fussing With FireWire
I spent nearly two days looking for a way to record HD with that VCR.
But while my 36-inch Sony WEGA TV uses analog-component video ports to
accept HD signals, the D-VHS VCR uses FireWire. Neither of the set-top
boxes I tried--Scientific Atlanta's Explorer 3250HD or its Explorer
8000HD--would output high-definition video via FireWire.
So I called Todd McDuff, who manages the electronics department at The
Superstore in Williston, Vermont. When I asked if I might borrow an
HDTV tuner to connect to the D-VHS recorder, he said the store had not
one piece of HD equipment with the requisite FireWire output.
And even when you do find FireWire ports, they may not work. The
Scientific Atlanta 8000HD has them, but they're disabled. The PC World
Test Center in San Francisco has a Comcast set-top box for TV testing;
its FireWire ports work (for now), but Comcast may disable them.
Matt Stevens, an independent film producer from Connecticut, has waged
a battle with media and consumer electronics companies to record HD
content at full fidelity. In order to copy recorded shows to his D-VHS
VCR, he purchased a Dish Network Player-DVR 921 digital video
recorder, which had FireWire ports when it was introduced.
But when Stevens learned that Dish Network had quietly removed the
FireWire ports from the DVR 921--preventing him from outputting to the
VCR--he was livid. "I bought the DVR 921--one thousand bucks. I forced
them to give me a refund," Stevens complains.
Yet another connector--the High-Definition Multimedia Interface
(HDMI)--is emerging. HDMI piles copy protection onto the DVI digital
connection familiar to owners of flat-panel PC monitors. HDMI does a
lot of good things--like combining audio and video in a single cable
and pushing enough bandwidth to support even progressive-scan 1080
resolution--but you won't find many HDMI-capable TVs or receivers for
sale yet. Most important, HDMI enables studios to lock up content,
meaning recording over it may be impossible--or greatly limited,
depending on how the content is flagged by the broadcaster. Read "Flak
Over Flags" for background:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/247879/21421682/755816/0/
Can't Copy That
The MPAA has pressed hard to restrict unfettered access to HD signals,
fearing massive losses should content end up on the Internet. The
group has even lobbied Congress to mandate that component-out
ports--the only available HD connections on millions of HDTVs--be
dumbed down to standard definition (SD) TV levels to prevent
unauthorized copying.
In April the FCC began requiring that cable operators provide set-top
boxes with FireWire outputs--a welcome development even if these ports
will likely be encumbered with copy protection. However, the 8000HD
set-top box likely won't receive a firmware update to enable its
FireWire outputs until the end of this year or early next. Even then
it will continue to bug me that I have to watch HD shows on someone
else's schedule.
For more news on this front, go to PC World's Web site:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/247879/21421682/755817/0/
For how-tos and reviews of consumer electronics--including the latest
high-definition televisions, DVD players, and mobile phones--browse PC
World's Digital World site:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/247879/21421682/755090/0/
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Top News From PC World
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Editors' Picks
Free Games: Ruthlessly Claw, Blast, and Shoot Your Opponent
>From the sublime to the absurd, these games are sure to entertain--and
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Chicken-Fight v1.0
Claw and scratch your opponent in this silly chicken fight game.
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Desert Combat 0.7 Full Install
The full-sized, 620MB Desert Combat installer for Battlefield: 1942.
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Tribes: Vengeance multiplayer demo
Try out the multiplayer gameplay in this latest addition to the Tribes
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World Wind
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Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 demo
Take a spin at building your own amusement park, rollercoasters and
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For a full list of this week's Editors' Picks, go to:
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