Rich Fiscus
28 Sep 2007 0:08
With the offical acceptance of CSS technoloy on DVD by both the DVD Forum and DVD-CCA licensing group, responsible for CSS licensing, Sonic Solutions is moving forward with plans to offer the technology to both consumers and content vendors.
On the consumer end, the plan is for downloadable DVDs to become available online which can be burned using the company's Qflix sofftware. A lack of copy protection has long been a studio argument against distributing high quality video across the internet. Despite the fact that CSS encryption was cracked several years ago, it's the only encryption that can be used for DVDs without making them unplayable on a standard standalone DVD player.
For vendors, Sonic would like to see the technology used for on-demand burning. Unlike traditional pressed DVDs that aren't economically feasible to produce in small numbers, DVDs created with Sonic's DVD On Demand technology could theoretically be sold at a much lower cost, and even be created by automated kiosks like those currently being operated by Polar Frog. On-demand DVD burning kiosks could potentially revolutionize DVD sales because they can provide a great deal of variety while keeping inventory and shelf space to a minimum.
Sonic is also hoping to sell on-demand burning to internet retailers. Although they don't have the same kind of display issues as brick and mortar stores, like traditional retail outlets they could benefit greatly from reduced inventory.
Sonic plans to use their existing relationships with various partners to make sure the hardware required to make commercially burned CSS encrypted DVDs a reality.
Sources:
InformationWeek
Video Business