http://www.electroni...e.new.partners/
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem edged closer to an actual launch today by settling on a new name for its copy protection scheme, UltraViolet (UV), and unveiling new partners. In addition roughly 60 major electronics, content and software firms, the Internet media locker standard now has support from Korea's LG as well as the ARM chip designer Marvell and LOVEFiLM. The group now expects UV to enter the test phase later in the year.
The technology is designed to ease cross-portability of media across different devices while still giving the content providers security against easy piracy. With UV, a customer can buy or rent content such as a movie and have access to it just by signing into a digital rights locker that, if necessary, lets the owner download the content again.
Notably absent from the group are Apple and Disney. The studio is developing its own equivalent, Keychest, and may have had support from Apple for its development. Apple chief Steve Jobs sits on Disney's Board of Directors and is the company's largest individual shareholder.
In recent years, Apple has insisted that it be in control of most technology that determines its fate and has been extremely resistant to having to use copy protection it doesn't own. It prefers to go without copy protection altogether rather than use a standard like UV, which would force it to wait on agreements with dozens of other firms to act on changes. Apple is rumored to have its own cloud-based iTunes movie service in development and would likely use it to drive customers to the upcoming Apple TV as well as the iPad and other video-friendly Apple mobile devices.
Read more: http://www.electroni.../#ixzz14LLfRLcZ
The technology is designed to ease cross-portability of media across different devices while still giving the content providers security against easy piracy. With UV, a customer can buy or rent content such as a movie and have access to it just by signing into a digital rights locker that, if necessary, lets the owner download the content again.
Notably absent from the group are Apple and Disney. The studio is developing its own equivalent, Keychest, and may have had support from Apple for its development. Apple chief Steve Jobs sits on Disney's Board of Directors and is the company's largest individual shareholder.
In recent years, Apple has insisted that it be in control of most technology that determines its fate and has been extremely resistant to having to use copy protection it doesn't own. It prefers to go without copy protection altogether rather than use a standard like UV, which would force it to wait on agreements with dozens of other firms to act on changes. Apple is rumored to have its own cloud-based iTunes movie service in development and would likely use it to drive customers to the upcoming Apple TV as well as the iPad and other video-friendly Apple mobile devices.
Read more: http://www.electroni.../#ixzz14LLfRLcZ
Imagine that after you buy a movie — either physically in a store or online — you can watch it on any device, in any format. That's the promise of UltraViolet, which will begin testing in the fall. If it delivers, it could be more popular than Hulu.
Virtually every major electronics manufacturer and content provider has dreamed of true <a href="http://dvice.com/archives/2010/06/breakthrough-so.php">"convergence," where all our devices become simple windows to our movies, music, photos and everything else. The device would truly become independent of the content. UltraViolet, which just happens to be backed by virtually every major electronics manufacturer and content provider (disclosure: DVICE's parent, NBC Universal, is one of the members), is the closest thing we've seen to this concept realized.
Here's how it would work: When you buy a title, you gain access to a copy of it in the cloud, regardless of what format you bought it in. So if you bought, say, an Amazon download of Glee to watch through your Blu-ray player, that would also enable the capability of streaming that same episode to your smartphone. Having an UltraViolet account will be free — it's just the content that costs money.
Sounds fantastic, but will it work? It seems doubtful Apple will play nice, considering this is essentially bypassing iTunes. If you couldn't stream UltraViolet content to your iPad or iPhone, that would really suck. And Disney happens to be developing a competing system, so it's probably out, too. But if deals can be worked out, the concept promises a future where you could seamlessly transfer a stream from phone to computer to TV and back again. We've had tastes of it before, but that would be real convergence, and it's about time.
Virtually every major electronics manufacturer and content provider has dreamed of true <a href="http://dvice.com/archives/2010/06/breakthrough-so.php">"convergence," where all our devices become simple windows to our movies, music, photos and everything else. The device would truly become independent of the content. UltraViolet, which just happens to be backed by virtually every major electronics manufacturer and content provider (disclosure: DVICE's parent, NBC Universal, is one of the members), is the closest thing we've seen to this concept realized.
Here's how it would work: When you buy a title, you gain access to a copy of it in the cloud, regardless of what format you bought it in. So if you bought, say, an Amazon download of Glee to watch through your Blu-ray player, that would also enable the capability of streaming that same episode to your smartphone. Having an UltraViolet account will be free — it's just the content that costs money.
Sounds fantastic, but will it work? It seems doubtful Apple will play nice, considering this is essentially bypassing iTunes. If you couldn't stream UltraViolet content to your iPad or iPhone, that would really suck. And Disney happens to be developing a competing system, so it's probably out, too. But if deals can be worked out, the concept promises a future where you could seamlessly transfer a stream from phone to computer to TV and back again. We've had tastes of it before, but that would be real convergence, and it's about time.
Comment