Audio Video News

Public Knowledge and a half-dozen other consumer groups are leading the charge against selectable output control, Hollywood's attempt to deny signals to the component video inputs on early (in fact, all) high-definition TVs.

The prospect of selectable output control last reared ugly its head back in 2002, when the Federal Communications Commission banned it as part of the CableCARD agreement signed by the major TV makers and cable companies. In May of this year, the Motion Picture Association of America asked the FCC for a waiver that would permit TV program providers to deliver high-def programming only via encrypted outputs such as HDMI. Selectable output control would shut off signals to your HDTV's component video and other analog inputs, which do not allow encryption. The studios say they need to do this to secure video-on-demand distribution of hot movie titles, with an early release window between theatrical and DVD/BD release.

Not so fast, says a written comment by Public Knowledge, with the backing of the Consumer Federation of America, Digital Freedom Campaign, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups. They raise three objections:

First, granting the waiver will frustrate consumer expectations. Customers of MVPDs [cable and satellite companies] have invested thousands of dollars in high definition home electronics equipment with the understanding that it would be able to use all current and future content. If MPAA uses this waiver to minimum effect, millions of viewers will be forced to purchase costly new equipment to view content that their current equipment is quite capable of displaying. Some customers will be able to receive this content, while others will not, simply because of what kind of cable they happen to use between their set-top box and their television. And while MPAA touts this forced upgrade as an advantage, in reality it is both a violation of consumer expectations and an imposition of a large, unnecessary cost on users.

Second, the waiver is unnecessary. Releasing movies to the public at an earlier date is not new and does not qualify as a "new business model." In reality, shifting the release window is a simply a business decision--and a business decision that other companies have already made. Further, Petitioner has provided no evidence that disabling analog or unprotected digital outputs would have any significant effect on copyright infringement, with or without this change in release window.

Finally, granting the petition will give MPAA members unprecedented and undesirable control over consumer device design. The waiver is not limited to analog outputs, and would allow the selective disabling of any output on MVPD networks. [Emphasis added.] Should the MPAA choose to turn off other types of connections, it will harm even more users. Perhaps worse, it will give content owners the leverage to decide which outputs should be used in consumer electronics. Using this leverage, content owners could force consumer electronics designers and manufacturers to agree to almost any conditions to display SOC content, including design choices which are consumer-unfriendly and which are not driven by reasonable consumer desires or technological considerations.