[mythtv-users] FCC admits CableCARD a failure, vows to try something else

[Simon Hobson]

Brian Wood wrote:

>But digital copies of films are far more subject to piracy than film prints.

I'd assume they use some form of encryption through the chain - along 
the lines of HDCP. Slightly easier to manage since the the target 
market is smaller. Of course, these days a whole film could fit on a 
portable hard disk and potentially each copy could have it's own 
watermark to trace any piracy.

>It's a LOT of trouble to digitize a 35 or 70mm print, requiring a high-cost
>telecine machine and a lot of time. Digital copies can be pirated in seconds
>for almost no cost.

But once you factor in that many modern films are actually made in 
the digital domain then the whole "cost of digitising" argument goes 
out the window. In fact, I suspect very few films are made with 
analogue techniques now - you know, like making masks, multiple 
exposures, etc to make composites where you can see a faint image of 
one thing through another because the mask wasn't 100% opaque.

>The equipment to even show (project) a 35 or 70 mm file is extremely
>expensive, I'm surprised it isn't close to the cost of a digital projector.

I'd be surprised if there is cost parity - the resolution required 
for a cinema sized screen is waay bigger than anything else around, 
and then there's the amount of light required. The mind boggles at 
what's in them - some mind numbingly expensive digital shutter panels 
I expect. But of course, even if a digital projector is the same 
price as a good film projector, it's not either/or - the cinema will 
still need the film projector so any digital equipment is an extra 
cost, not an alternative cost.


But this is getting waay off topic. At least over here we have a 
culture where we expect to get multiple channels in the clear (eg 
Freeview and Freesat), and subscribing to closed boxes (eg Sky and 
Virgin Media) is optional. OK, there's some decent stuff only on 
subscription, but there's enough to watch without.

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.