Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Damage from Lightening

While component works for you now, try Googling, "analog sunset", and "image constraint token".

Thanks guys. Club: Not sure I understood what I read quickly, particularly on the results when I searched analog sunset, but what I did understand seems like a bummer. Oh well, it's not my main TV viewing area, and I am at least covered for now.

Well, the analog sunset isn't so bad, provided you already own equipment with component outs. It just sets the date for when no new players can be made with component video connections. So as long as your player keeps working you can keep using the component video, just don't expect new players to still have them.

The ICT (Image Constraint Token) is something that has already be included in any Blu-ray player with component connections. At any time, a disc maker can include a token on the disc which says, "the image output over an analog connection must be constrained to SD resolution only". So while you're getting a good picture over component now, any time in the future (people are saying December 2010), discs can start showing up with the ICT set, and you'll only get 480 lines instead of 1080.

My impression was that the content providers had the ability to constrain or turn off any connections they chose to. So, they could choose to turn off component completely for content on a given disc.

I'm surprised this isn't already happening.

The ICT spec doesn't allow the turning off of outputs, only constraining the resolution. I was wrong about the resolution, it just has to half the 1080 lines, to 540, so not quite as low as DVD's 480, but definitely not HD.

It's the player which has to do the resizing (which is why it was kept a simple 1/2 so no complicated scaling has to be done).

OK, maybe that only applies to computers, or it may have been dropped all together. My source was an old Microsoft white paper from 3 or 4 years ago.

The whole "works with Vista" thing for monitors was a scare tactic from Microsoft together with monitor and video card makers to sell more hardware. Still, it wouldn't turn off the analog or other none HDCP outputs, only limit the resolution at which they could be used. Too, that would only happen when a program, like BD playing software, requested an HDCP protected connection.

And as long as your at it, Add "Anydvd HD" to that list of terms.

Yup. And I don't think they are going away any time soon. It doesn't matter much for me as I rent movies so I don't have a library I want to digitize and store online.

It just bugs the hell out of me that big business wants to tie us up in DRM knots so their senior execs can continue to give themselves huge bonuses.