Audio News for March 3, 2007

More DRM Gripes – Be sure to see this month’s guest editorial on Digital Rights Management which argues for completely dropping copyright protection. The article doesn’t address how this would cure untold current technical hassles, but it would. I was reminded of one of the problems when I began to view a DVD and my 1080p screen displayed a series of dark distorted images in purple and green, going entirely to black in between. It needed a slight push of the HDMI cable into the back of the display to correct the problem. This technology is simply not ready for prime time. The socket is flimsy, the fit is much looser than any RCA plug and jack, and the expensive HDMI cables are heavy, causing them to pull out easily.

The High Definition Multimedia Interface was developed by Intel’s Silicon Image with several of the electronics manufacturers. They added HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) at the instigation of the major movie studios. Though the cables are expensive, they may not work with all players, AV preamps and displays. The system can now supposedly carry the new lossless audio formats of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, but most of the Blu-ray and HD DVD players don’t offer them yet. The players are made under an interim adopter agreement because no final agreement has yet been written into the Compliance Rules of the licensing administration for copy protection, the AACS-LA.  Therefore most players only deliver 48kHz-16bit signals from the unencrypted digital outputs, automatically downsampling any 96K and 192K sources. Digital-Only Tokens may prevent certain video material from being output at unprotected digital outputs. There is no standard logo warning a purchaser about the type of copy control used on a particular disc. Without a final agreement concerning HDCP and AACS copy control, early adopters could be surprised in the future when their players won’t play certain discs at the best resolution or won’t play them at all! (My current best universal player occasionally refuses to play certain SACDs and DVDs, and neither the manufacturer nor the labels have shown any interest in identifying or correcting the problem.)  For more information, check out the HDMI website; as well as the one for Simplay Labs, who test HDMI gear.

Upcoming AES Conferences – Two impending European conferences of the Audio Engineering Society cover some interesting subjects: The 30th International Conference is scheduled for Finland March 15 thru 17, on Intelligent Audio Environments. This emerging field concerns using a variety of different devices and applications working together to create an integral audio experiences for users. The applications must become aware of the surroundings to unite with each other and with the acoustical environment. The means used to control and render various sound events is part of the equation.  The 22nd UK Conference is titled “Illusions in Sound: the application of psychoacoustics to audio, and takes place in Cambridge April 11 & 12.  It will concern the knowledge of how the ear/brain combination works to enable us to hear and localize the sounds around us. The latest developments in spatial recording and reproduction will be examined, along with a panel asking “What do we really want from surround sound?” Details at www.aes.org