Broadcast Flag Struck Down
May 6th, 2005 at 4:38 pm by Soham
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the FCC’s mandate that all digital receivers (includes PC tuner cards) honor the broadcast flag today. News.Com has the story. This is a big win for technology and everyone that cares about digital rights.
I’m no lawyer, but I’ll try to give a quick synopsis about what all this means. First of all, normal TV, the kind we’ve had since TV was invented, is analog. Over the last decade, like all things, TV has been slowly going digital and there’s a run on HD TV’s before the Super Bowl every year.
Since the broadcast spectrum is a protected resource, it is regulated by the FCC. Well, in a post-Napster world, content providers are worried that their unencrypted, free and clear, over-the-air content will be captured, perfectly duplicated, and mass distributed. They lobbied the FCC to require that all digital TV receivers honor the broadcast flag – a flag in the stream that tells the receiver how accessible to make the content. The FCC ruled that post July 1st, all tuner cards and related software (like Beyond TV) would have to be redesigned to support the broadcast flag – a big headache and a big cost.
Well, several consumer groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have been arguing that the FCC has no right to force technology manufacturers to make their products a certain way. Today, the courts agreed with them. What will happen in the end remains to be seen. There still remains the chance that the ruling will be appealed or that Congress will get into the fray.
As far as SnapStream goes, we are definitely working on over-the-air digital support and are watching all of this very closely. Our current work focuses on supporting digital tuner cards that are already available or similar to those already available. These cards do not support the broadcast flag, so it’s good to hear that our efforts thus far won’t be wasted. Of course, this probably isn’t the end to the content protection issue, so we will keep watching it and may still have to adjust our software later to be able to support the next generation of digital tuner cards. As far as the release of an HD version of Beyond TV goes, we have not yet determined all of the details. So look for more information in the coming weeks once we finalize our plans. But rest assured HD is coming. I’m anxious to set it up at home myself!
May 12th, 2005 at 11:02 am
First, I love BeyondTV (I have a HTPC built around it). Second, I want my HDTV. A few months ago, I purchased an ATI HDTV card, to watch OTA HD Sports, and love the quality. But, the native software is very poor, and recording is next to impossible. I want an integrated solution, and there is one available…. Microsoft Media Center 2005. I don’t want to leave BeyondTV, but many already have, and more probably will, as long as the future is undefined. I would suggest that you try to commit to some more defined plans as soon as possible, to keep, and build your Customer Base. Thanks.
May 12th, 2005 at 11:28 pm
100% agreed.
June 10th, 2005 at 9:03 am
So, it has been over 4 weeks. Are we going to get some details?
July 7th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
In one week, I am moving into my first purchased house, and I am in the works of designing a complete system in the house. I would like to run Beyond TV, but I want to know when I can count on HD support! Without some sort of time frame on when HD support will be available, I cannot reasonably choose Beyond TV. A vague promise that HD recording will be available in the future is simply insufficient. I may have to pick MCE after all, simply because I know right now that they support HD. Come on, BTV, show us that you’re serious about this. At least give us a version # and season in which it will be released!
October 25th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
[...] so it’s ideal for displaying shows in HDTV. So with the broadcast flag having been struck down this past summer, TV tuner card manufacturers have a renewed inter [...]