ZDnet likes Divx.....................................
digitaltheater.com
Video rental moves to DVD
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ZDNet News via Individual Inc. : Welcome to the age of the digital movie
rental. It won't be coming over the Internet, but over the counter, just
like video tapes do today.
That's Digital Video Express's view of the future. The joint venture between
audio-visual retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. and a Los Angeles
entertainment law firm, DVE announced a consortium of supporters for its
copyright standard for DVD, called Divx.
The standard enables movies to be bought for a low price -- say, $5 -- on
digital video disc and played at home. The contents are encrypted and will
only be readable for 48 hours after the disk is first placed into the DVD
player. After that, the consumer can save the disk and re-rent it to view it
again.
The encrypted contents of the disk can only be read by a Divx compatible
player, which consumer-electronics makers Zenith, Thomson Consumer
Electronics and Matsushita Electric will be manufacturing.
The Divx copyrighting technique supposedly gives "extraordinary safeguards
against movie copying and piracy." The multiple layers of protection include
individual serialization of players and discs, strong encryption and
watermarking and analog-copy protection.
With support from major content producers like Disney, Paramount, Universal
and Dreamworks, the next-generation of video rentals seems like a sure
thing.
<<ZDNet News -- 09-09-97>>
[Copyright 1997, Ziff Wire] |
