Hollywood puts another nail in the coffin of HD formats

[DeadKenny]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/25/hollywood_demands_64-bit_pcs/

Crazy. Force everyone to go 64bit to play HD movies just for copy protection reasons, and yet 64bit Windows and 64bit apps are a very long way off maturity. The vast majority will be running 32bit even on 64bit hardware for a long while yet.

I can't believe it just comes down to the word length of the processor though for copy protection. Sounds like some Hollywood boss just read an article that said more bits makes the encryption more secure :oh-hum:

[hexland]

The 64-bit version of Windows Vista will not allow unsigned kernel mode drivers to be installed (the 32-bit version will). The implication is that the 64-bit version (as far as the studios are concerned) will be more secure, and no dodgy drivers and workarounds can be installed to get past the encryption.

[DeadKenny]

How long I wonder though before someone works out how to load unsigned kernel drivers or a means of self signing them rather than going via MS.

I can't see manufacturers keen on being forced to go through Microsoft's certification process to get drivers signed. I know they do get them certified anyway eventually but many often release uncertified drivers in between the certified releases as Microsoft's process is too long and costly.

[R-T-C]

How long I wonder though before someone works out how to load unsigned kernel drivers or a means of self signing them rather than going via MS.

Between 10 minutes and half an hour based on the normal speed of these cracks. Its the same as all the Macrovision stuff - complex and expensive just to stop casual piracy, but almost irrelevent to the real hardcore pirates.

[Dan]

That 64 bit only story has been denied now.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/25/microsoft-clarifies-hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-playback-in-32-bit-vista/

[camaj]

I'd imagine most people intending to have a HD drive would have a 64 bit system anyway

[MrSynner]

I'd imagine most people intending to have a HD drive would have a 64 bit system anyway

Not too sure that's true - I had a system built around XP-64, but eventually had to abandon it and install XP-32, as XP64 was just so s-l-o-w - it was like my PC was heavily medicated.

Take the slowest task you can find on XP32, and multiply that by 5 to get an idea of just how pants XP64 is. Can't see Vista-64 being any better either. If there is the same performance hit in Vista, then how it can decode HD video on the fly is beyond me - XP64 struggled to playback SD video on my 2ghz system even with hardware acceleration from the graphics card.

[DeadKenny]

At the moment there's a lot of stuff that doesn't work or isn't available on XP64.

Vista is another matter but that's still a while off and requires most people to do a major system upgrade, whereas existing 32bit XP systems may be perfectly capable of HD playback (certainly at least at 720p).

[R-T-C]

I'd imagine most people intending to have a HD drive would have a 64 bit system anyway

I was hoping to have one, my current system will probably die if I tried to install an HD drive.

Since quite a lot of people watch DVDs on their computer (mostly students who are some of the biggest buyers of DVDs) and many more like to take them with their laptops I think that dual-sided HD-SD discs, or simply including the SD disc in with the HD version will be the way to go for quite a while yet.

[Grandmaster]

I'd imagine most people intending to have a HD drive would have a 64 bit system anyway

Um, why? :?: