Protection of Content
Inevitably Sony as both consumer videography vendor, and major player in the entertainment industry covering both hardware and software (broadcast video gear, movies and TV programs), will work hard to protect and maintain protection over entertainment content – expect the code-breakers to be a year or less behind them! Sony will favour lock-in approaches, which separate time-shifting technology from user controllable recording technology. This approach makes it harder for consumer videographers to edit and distribute their home and amateur movies. This may explain why D-VHS has appeared, but no digital link from DVD players. It may also be a factor in the lack of definition of an MPEG-2 tape format or digital link for migration of 6.3 and 8mm tape camcorders from DV CODEC to MPEG-2 CODEC acquisition. Hopefully, competitors will see a market niche and provide what Sony seeks to avoid.

We can appreciate that once movies are distributed in digital format, digital terrestrial broadcasting starts, digital format video tape recorders become widespread and compatible with PC editors, that users will have very powerful tools to grab content, edit out ads and “watermarks” and circulate pristine copies. It’s a bit like the advent of CDs providing a digital master for tape copies. Clearly, technology to block recording of content is already in use (try copying a VHS movie onto your transcoding TRVxxx without a TBC in the path), and is a foretaste of what will be attempted in the digital realm. It may transpire however that Sony and others recognise the inevitability of these systems lasting only a short time before being hacked. In which case, they may go for a similar solution to that which affects some constituencies regarding audiotape – a levy is charged on blank media. Of course, this will affect PC media as well as dedicated video media, and will add costs to original videography. Perhaps videographers holding an appropriate license will be able to buy levy-free or obtain tax credits?

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What Do We Know About?
Camcorders
Docking Stations
NLEs
Tape Formats