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Thread: Vista and HD

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    Vista and HD

    http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41635

    A bit worried by this.

    Shamelessly pandering to the Big Media copyright holders, Vista automatically degrades so-called "premium" content such as high definition movies and audio tracks when they are output to less than bleeding-edge new devices that don't happen to support Intel's High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) DRM scheme. It apparently does this even if the media files being played are not copyright protected commercial media but the users' own home movies or music they've recorded in high-definition format, Gutmann said.
    I do a lot of 3D rendering. Some of it at insane resolutions (certainly higher than 1080), and according to that, it'll still degrade it
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Re: Vista and HD

    There were reports of this months ago, in fact, i think when Vista was still in Beta. Pretty sure it was found to be untrue, and actually only applied to DRM proteted content.

    Just read the linked PCW article and they don't come to the end-of-the-world conclusion TheInq comes to.

    "The more premium content you have, the more output is disabled."
    So Vista will degrade the quality by less if you only have a couple of files compaired to 50? I smell some creative miss quoting going on here.

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    Re: Vista and HD

    Quote Originally Posted by Funkstar View Post
    There were reports of this months ago, in fact, i think when Vista was still in Beta. Pretty sure it was found to be untrue, and actually only applied to DRM proteted content.
    Yeah that's what I thought too, but this article has made me question it. It could well be the inq...well...being the inq as usual, but i'd like to know 100% either way as this would have a serious effect on what I use windows for.
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Vista and HD

    Indeed, i can only imagine them implementing it when you display the output of your rendering.
    Your actual render would be fine, if that makes sense.

    I think we do need some form of almost governmental ruling on this, because the hollywood studios control too much. If my TV turns out to not support a new DRM they deam a requirement, why should i have to replace it, its capable of the 1080p, why should i buy a new one. In many ways its in the intrest of the hardware firms to try and do this. HD Ready anyone?

    But at the same time, far too many people are pirating, someone i used to work with (tight little barstard he is) pirated a DVD of Peep Show series 1, which was on sale at the local tesco express for the princly sum of £6. No one can claim that is justified. So how do you stop people like him?
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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Re: Vista and HD

    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    Yeah that's what I thought too, but this article has made me question it. It could well be the inq...well...being the inq as usual, but i'd like to know 100% either way as this would have a serious effect on what I use windows for.
    If this is right, then far more news sites will be slamming MS for this rather than just TheInq saying that a New Zealand researcher "implied" it in a presentation.

    Hardware manufacturers will also be up in arms about it. And i'm not taling about PC component companies. HD camcorders are big business, and will probably be many consumers main source of HD material for the next few years. Companies that have no interest in selling you a new TV or PC are going to get pretty pissy at microsoft (JVC or Canon for example).

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Vista and HD

    No ones going to sabbotage HD like their suggesting, it would help no one.

    TheInq talking about a presentation at usenix.

    sounds like un-baised well informed reporting to me!
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    Re: Vista and HD

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Indeed, i can only imagine them implementing it when you display the output of your rendering.
    Your actual render would be fine, if that makes sense
    Oh yes, totally. I know they wouldn't go as far as altering the rendering in the disk, but thats not whats worrying me.
    Playing back the video is the only way to spot errors / artifacts / lighting issues (which is common) / things I've missed after the render.
    If this brings an element of "I don't know if its Vista degrading it or an error in the video", its going to be a major headache for me.

    Im not taking what the Inq is saying as gospel (that would just be stupid ), but its certainly had me a little bit more worried than previously.
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

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    Re: Vista and HD

    I guess one way to prove it to yourself is to run a rendering tool under XP and see if there is a difference in the quality of output. There are also rendering tools available that run under Linux (and no doubt mac) that you could compare the results with - but of course they involve investment in hardware and software (Mac and XP trials) and maybe hardware and software (I haven't looked to see what OS/freeware tools are available or hopw good they supposed to be) and a great deal of time learning to use them.
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    Re: Vista and HD

    When rendering to disk, we don't render directly to video, but rather to a lossless image format.
    That way, if the rendering is stopped for whatever reason, we can simply carry on from whatever frame was last done. This is impracticable when rendering directly to video.
    Secondly, it allows us to compress the video directly from source, without any loss of quality other than that caused by the codec. If we want to do an output in several resolutions and several codecs, this is by far the easiest way.

    The only real way of checking would be to play teh same output on 2 machines, one being Vista and the other not. I might try that next week actually, just to set the record straight (and for peace of mind).
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

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