Studios Pledge Blu-ray Disc Support of Analog HDTV... For Now
By Chris Boylan
As reported in
Business Week, major studios such as Sony, and now Universal have pledged that the initial wave of BD (Blu-Ray Disc) titles will support full resolution High Definition resolution support via both digital (HDMI, DVI) and analog HD outputs (component video).
What does this mean to you? Well, if you have a relatively new HDTV or projector that includes an HDMI connection with HDCP support, then it means nothing. But if you're one of the millions of early adopters who owns an HDTV with only component video inputs (those three connector Red, Blue, Green video cables), then it means you'll be able to enjoy your HD movies on Blu-Ray disc at full resolution. At least for now.
Of course, the Blu-ray Disc specs do allow studios to make the decision on a title by title basis whether to "down-res" the output of Blu-Ray discs to 480P resolution on the analog HD outputs. This down-res process would mean that your fancy new High Def BD movie on your expensive new BD player will look no better than a standard DVD. The reason the studios may want to do this is that the analog HD signal is not currently copy-protected, but the digital (HDMI) HD signal is, via the HDCP protocol.
Among the major studios, only Warner Brothers seems likely to enforce this down-resolution, although there has been no official word yet as to whether this will be the case and, if so, on which titles.
