Say Goodbye to Analog Ports on Blu-ray Players

I guess this article proves that Blu-Ray and HDMI have not learned from the past and are destined to repeat it. If they honestly plan to move forward with this it will lead to the end of the Blu-Ray revolution. No one will support a technology that dead ends at a technology that is not ready for the mass market or custom installation. Can anybody say Laser Disc?

This is great news! That means we should see a great demand for downloaded content, rather than using disks. When installers have to upgrade the millions of end users with another disk player ( with dubious hardware), installers will give the bad news to the client about the cost of install and possible service issues; we should see a greater demand for downloaded content. Disks were obsolete years ago, lets put the effort into developing new technologies for online content.

There are two things that are for sure for the future. I say it will be in the next 5 years.
1) XM/Sirius radio will go under in a big advancement of Internet radio that brings it to the mobile masses.
The other thing that is destined is the demise of any disk based system for movies, music, or entertainment. Streaming content is in wide use now, and iyt is only a matter of time before the internet becomes a big enough pipe for HD streaming with great reliability and control.
By taking the SD ports off off all new equipment, they will only change one thing. The people who need it will get help the company that builds the product that converts the ports that a customer has into what he needs. All the rest will have already gone to HDMI. I will bet that the same companies who take the ports off of the Blueray players, will be the same companies who bring conversion boxes to market.

“January 1, 2011, software manufacturers will be able to insert something called an Image Constraint Token into any Blu-ray disc. This bit of digital information will turn the high-definition component video output OFF the player(s).”

Does this mean everyone who currently has video distribution using component is at the mercy of the new discs in that these discs will be able to turn off 1080p component distribution even on old (currently installed) equipment? I couldn’t imagine the equipment being subject to this new feature without a firmware upgrade. I guess that means don’t upgrade??

Most of the upscale homes and wealthy individuals in this country have custom installations that include component video matrix switches and component wiring.

Can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they hear they must pay to upgrade to a system that does nothing more than what they had before and probably doesn’t work reliably with their existing TVs even if they did pay for the upgrade.

All this for Copy Protection that does nothing to stop copying!

On demand will eventually replace discs and I expect someone will provide $19.99/mo for unlimited downloads of every movie and tv show produced—HD included.

Vote with your wallet.  Every time you sell a cheap piece of $#@ with lame features you dig your grave a little deeper.

Shame Shame Shame. Anyone that thinks this is a move in the right direction needs to check it.
This is nothing more than big companies forcing the consumer into spending monies to replace what they are perfectly happy with.
What if your customer doesn’t want downloaded content?
Ultimately, “you” represent the product you sold them that will soon be obsolete, as a result of this greed driven change.
Once again I am reminded of the elderly lady that taught me this lesson:
“young man, you come to my home and cook for the 13 people I cook for everyday, and I will learn to program this VCR”

Heard about this a few months ago, but a date was not mentioned as to when this would be implemented..

Does this include the digital and toslink audio outputs as well? 

What about the use of a DVD player as a source to the MZA system?  How many processors can break out the analog audio of the HDMI output??

When will cable and sat receivers follow this guideline?

Just a correction..
there are devices to send HDMI over a single CAT5e or CAT6 already being sold by Gefen..

Streaming content is a long way off for those of you who think it’s just going to magically replace Blu-Ray and DVD disks:

#1 - People do not all have a 10MBPS+ internet connection in their homes.  DSL is still running at 1.5mbps (or 768kbps) in most areas.  You CAN NOT stream a high definition video over that type of connection, especially with latency and packet loss.

#2 - Rural america is still years off from having any kind of broadband solution.  Why would the phone company spend $100,000 to run fiber optics to one house up in the mountains or out in the country?

#3 - Consumers want control of their content - if I buy a DVD or Blu-Ray disc, I should be able to loan it to my friends and family.  When you download content online, the DRM kicks in and you can’t even burn it to a DVD or loan it to a friend.

I could go on and on, but I think you get my point.

Anyone know if the “sunset” only applies to component video output and not analog audio?

I’m pretty sure that the analog sunset only means that component outputs will be limited to 480i or 576i, not altogether eliminated. Those of us with component video distribution systems in the wild won’t be 100% screwed, just screwed on picture quality.

Dougie Fresh - my understanding is that multi-channel analog outputs would also be killed (2-channel remains).

Being as they’re taking away something on existing devices, shouldn’t we be getting our money back?

Cool!  This will be better than a tax rebate or the $300 stimulus check!

I don’t care so much about the new stuff, I just don’t want to see existing equipment disabled because the client does not want to buy new hardware.

I do discrete switching of audio and video using our matrix switchers.  That’s a feature that would be lost when transitioning to HDMI.  Just another example…

A quick correction: There is no sunrise on the Image Constraint Token, content owners are permitted to set that token today.

R Doherty

Do be aware that image constraint tokens will not appear on every disc, and are not permitted until 1/1/2011 per the agreement.  So no, you are not correct on your assertion.

This is a bad idea for a already struggling industry. HDMI is obviously the future of HD, but to tell the consumer that their HDTV with component video is now useless for recorded HD content is deplorable. We as professionals have seen rapid growth and development of HD since its inception, but prior to that standard televisions remained virtually unchanged for 20 + years. How can we now tell our consumers “I know we only installed your system 7 years ago, but we need to tear everything apart, run new wire for HDMI, and oh by the way, you need to buy a new TV to because your only has component video, which no longer supports new HD devices.” I would not be a satisfied customer, especially if I had a control system installed with a centralized video switching system that cost tens of thousands of dollars in parts and installation. Yes, we can introduce baluns to the system, but there is no guarantee that the wiring used can support the bandwidth. I feel this is going to hurt us all. There is no reason devices such as Bluray players can’t continue to output HD content via component video. They can keep it the way it is now with a max resolution of 720p/ 1080i. We would all like to up-sell our clients and give them the latest and greatest equipment on the market, but we shouldn’t tie their hands and force them to upgrade their TV to accommodate new HD content.