DVD burning on way to market
DVD Forum approves new recordable disc with CSS copy-protection
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 12/7/2006
DEC. 7 | Industry efforts to develop a uniformly compatible download-and-burn system have cleared the last major technical hurdle, opening the way for commercial implementations of customer burning services early in 2007.
At its Nov. 29 meeting, the DVD Forum gave formal approval to a new type of recordable disc that will accept movies encrypted with CSS, the same copy-protection system used on retail discs, for playback on set-top DVD players.
The step was considered critical because the widespread use of any other copy-protection protocol carried the risk of incompatibility between burned discs and standard DVD players, all of which support CSS but could choke on other encryption schemes.
However, CSS itself was designed not to work on recordable discs—part of a strategy to prevent piracy—which presented proponents of a download-and-burn system with a major technical challenge.
To meet that challenge, a new type of recordable disc was developed that permits the use of CSS.
Over the past month, hardware makers and disc manufacturers have conducted compatibility tests with the new media to make sure the discs work as advertised.
Based on the positive results of those tests, the DVD Forum gave its technical blessing to a single-layer version of the new discs. Tests continue on dual-layer media.
According to a statement posted on the DVD Forum Web site Nov. 30, couched in the group’s usual technical jargon, final written specifications for the new discs are to be presented for final approval by the Forum’s Steering Committee no later than Jan. 31, and preferably by Dec. 31.
A motion to “instruct the [Technical Coordination Group] to make best efforts so that the new optional portion of the DVD-R specification book for Managed Recording with CSS protection is to be forwarded to the [Steering Committee] immediately after the TCG December meeting for consideration by letter voting of the SC before the end of the year 2006, but in no event later than would allow voting by January 31, 2007,” was “approved,” the statement said.
“The news is that the Steering Committee has mandated that there will be a final spec [for the new discs] by the end of January, if not sooner,” Sonic Solutions senior VP Jim Taylor said. “That was contingent on the results of the compatibility tests, which are now done. The only other thing that needs to happen is for the DVD CCA to set an effective date” for the use of CSS with the new discs.
Taylor chaired the inter-industry committee of the DVD Copy Control Assn., which developed the protocol for download-and-burn using CSS as well as the new discs.
In addition to DVD authoring software, Sonic is a leading provider of DVD burning solutions for consumers through its Roxio division and has been a vocal proponent of download-and-burn.
“I think this a potentially huge business across all the channels,” Taylor said. “There has always been a big interest in doing short-run and on-demand manufacturing, but you couldn’t because you needed CSS. So I think this could really open the floodgates, not just for all the content the studios have never released on DVD but for non-Hollywood content as well.”
Shortly after the DVD Forum voted, Time Warner chairman/CEO Richard Parsons told the Reuters Media Summit in New York that Warner Bros. is planning to launch a download-and-burn business in 2007.
Warner Home Video officials declined to elaborate on Parsons’ comments. But according to Taylor, the studio is well-along in preparing thousands of unreleased titles from its vast catalog for release via download-and-burn.
“They have something like 6,500 movies and 65,000 TV episodes in their library, and they’re actively working on preparing those for download-and-burn,” Taylor said.
Packaging for the new discs will include a special logo and description to help consumers distinguish them from ordinary DVD-Rs. The new logo also was approved by the DVD Forum.
