Here' s a great article from IGN:

http://gear.ign.com/articles/702/702074p1.aspx

If it proves anything , it' s how nobody really cares about us - consumers.

The hackers that break HDCP are not the criminals in this sordid tale of consumer abuse. Technologically illiterate Hollywood executives and the equally uneducated politicians they finance are the felons here. Preying upon Americans' lack of knowledge on the topic, these parties, and major industry players like Microsoft are steamrolling HDCP, even after its critical flaws were publicly announced five years ago. The train has already left the station, and we will live with this situation for a solid decade. Such is the price for obeying the law.

But if they did change it who' s to say they wouldn' t have figured how to crack what ever matrix they constructed next. However it does look rather money grabbing from their end in not doing much about it.

dasher where are you from? You' re pretty new here but you' re all over the place :)

What games do you play now and what' s your take on Nintendo , Sony and MS ?

This thing is, flawed... Of course, There is always a work around, and people will always find it and exploit it.

This wont last, like everything before it.

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

dasher where are you from? You' re pretty new here but you' re all over the place :)

What games do you play now and what' s your take on Nintendo , Sony and MS ?

I' m from britain. I guess you can say i' m new but iv' e been looking at kikizo for a long while especially for the e3 coverage. Right now i' m waiting for my tomb raider to come aswell as elder of the scrolls (even though it' s not my kinda game thought i' d try it) but now i' m playing doa4 again (to amuse myself). And I use to be a much bigger nintendo (during the snes era) fan than I am now been sort of wearily loyal since gamecube and though they make out of the ordinary deciscisions (err that word) but I still find myself buying their systems even if I don' t like it (which has only been gamecube) just to play the games I can' t stay away from so i' m a sorta hesitant fan. Sony I dislike with a vengence mainly because of their (mainly) arrogance and propriety tendancies
but their marketing strategies isn' t anything I think is to be desired. Microsoft I like simply because I think the new guy needs to be given a chance sometimes that and the fact that they have a library full of games I like (like nintendo) and even though like the rest they' re trying to make money from us consumers they don' t seem as seedy and underhanded in their strategies so microsoft is as good as nintendo (for now). Anything else...

Oh I also think microsoft misses a lot of chances to get ahead of contenders. For example as a supporter for the hd-dvd era I would have thought they would release some movies that supports it to sort of counter the ps3' s release and give hd-dvd a bit of a head start...saying that though I don' t think a lot of people would be prepared to buy a hd-dvd add on as yet.

And another reason why I don' t like sont is that they always look like they make products that only benefits them but at the expense of the consumer their recent venture is a prime example (I think that' s all now).

ORIGINAL: dasher232

Oh I also think microsoft misses a lot of chances to get ahead of contenders. For example as a supporter for the hd-dvd era I would have thought they would release some movies that supports it to sort of counter the ps3' s release and give hd-dvd a bit of a head start...saying that though I don' t think a lot of people would be prepared to buy a hd-dvd add on as yet.

Actually Microsoft are playing an extremely smart business strategy here. They are smart not to get too involved during these turbulent times. Knowing which format will come out on top is impossible. While they are supportive of HD-DVD (as many of the other big players are) - they aren' t completely committing themselves to it. This gives them much more freedom than Sony.

If HD-DVD wins - great business for Microsoft and they get to say they were right all along. If HD-DVD loses - they simply release a Blu-Ray addon instead - still great for Microsoft. They can reap the benefits from both worlds. Unlike Microsoft, if the first case scenario happens - it will be a disaster for Sony.

edit:

It' s a shame that HDCP has this rather glaring issue exposed. But it' s not like it' ll change too much. Hackers/crackers will always exist and everything eventually gets worked around/hacked completely at some stage. Only a matter of time.

Yea that' s a good point I forgot about the possibility of them having a blu-ray add on. So by not commiting themselves they get to stand back and see which is more successsful, however by doing that if blu-ray does get the thumbs up microsoft will end up being second best seeing as sony is billboard-boy for it and if hd-dvd is accepted they would have still missed an opportunity to have slipped ahead. Personally I think it' s going to be down to which is cheaper and easily understood a lot of silly (or just unaware) people won' t understand what blu-ray means believe it or not where hd-dvd spells it out.

I guess another reason microsoft has made a good move by not taking much action on it yet is that the production costs for the 360 is enough as it is so to make a hd-dvd add on would stack their prices up so by staying for a while and seeing the prices drop will give them leverage to introduce which ever add on later at a resonable price.

I agree about Sony , but I totally disagree about MS - they are about 50% as good as Nintendo when it comes to treating consumers with truth and so on, and they 50% like Sony when it comes to dealing with consumers.

Nintendo might have turned their fans into Wii-ners but it didn' t lie or misguided them or overhyped their games (that later turnd out to be a disappoitment - in my case:Halo 2, Forza,Fable and so on).


There' s one problem about this hdcp flaw that you don' t see - HDCP requires you to get a new hardware - you need to have new player (HD or BR) new TV (in a few years when HDCP is in full effect), new monitor and new graphics card and every other component of your computer, cause it all must use HDCP to run Vista.


Now the thing is you need to buy all that crap to have a protection system that is flawed and that has it' s flaws well known to public.Making consumers pay for it is insane - the only reason they want it is cause they' ve already investet a lot - those motherfuckers.

...microsoft releasing a Blu-Ray add-on...

...wouldn' t really look good in their ' posturing war' with Sony would it??....


...slightly off topic, but is it true that 360 has no HDMI or DVI ports?... ...don' t tell me you hook 360 to your 42" plasma using scart....

Expect to see a ton of disgruntled consumers when the new products suddenly stop working past a certain date due to the strict nature of HDCP. Meanwhile, net savy people will see a new demand for a solution, and will offer the quick fix around HDCP. Therefore, HDCP is not only absurd as it is, it will bring about more interest for shady business, resulting in great losses. Then again, I' m no analyst, so don' t think what I say is 100% correct by any means. However, consumers will want to pull a 100 Crack Shine Fist on the HDCP people, that' s for sure.

...slightly off topic, but is it true that 360 has no HDMI or DVI ports?... ...don' t tell me you hook 360 to your 42" plasma using scart...

Component - I would guess. Though I know a guy doing it through Scart... Not had the pleasure of seeing that just yet

to get HD quality you need to use either component cables or VGA cable - it has no DVI or HDMI out.

PS3 will have HDMI outputs (2 of them) and they want to make it the new HDMI - compatible with old one but with some upgrades.