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With my DVR+, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire Stick taking up all of my TV's HDMI ports, I thought I'd take off the increasingly annoying Monoprice 3 mini HDMI switch and put the PS3 into the component video in. Voila! No more jumping up to swap from Apple TV to PS3.
One problem: Blu-Rays are windowboxed. That is, there are black bars on every side of the picture, and the picture is squished so that everyone is tall and skinny. Major fail.
If we go back in our time machines about five years, we can find out why:
"The new CECH-3000 series PS3 requires HDMI only for BD movie output in HD, in compliance with AACS standards," Sony told Ars Technica. "PS3 continues to support component output for HD gaming and streaming content." The restriction is just on high-definition video from Blu-Ray discs.
...
The strange part, then, is that the PS3 ever supported HD Blu-ray playback through component. Digital Foundry speculates that the rule didn't kick in officially until the AACS Final Adopter Agreement in December 2010, and thus only affects PS3s produced after then. That would mean that Sony (and pretty much every other electronics company) skirted its own rule for as long as possible. [emph mine]
Nice. Thank heavens I can't record the Blu-Ray with... well, with what I don't know... in full HD glory. For that, I'd need the net and a fast connection. So difficult to find those two things.
I hate DRM. I mean, I get it. Protect what you've got, and put a lock on to keep the honest folk honest. But the implementation is so shoddy. I mean, even Sony doesn't want to mind their own content protection rules. I wouldn't've even minded too much if the BluRay output was downsampled when it came out over component if they could do it cleanly, without screwing up the dimensions of the output (it looks like it's shooting for qHD, but I'm not sure why my TV would windowbox it skewed). I just want the blamed thing to display properly on my television.
Also managed to corrupt the hard drive somehow while I was doing all this testing. It's been a great couple of days.
[Q:]... The publisher apparently withheld [a Stephen King book's eBook version] to encourage people to buy the more expensive hardcover. So I did, all 1,074 pages, more than three and a half pounds. Then I found a pirated version online, downloaded it to my e-reader and took it on my trip. I generally disapprove of illegal downloads, but wasnโt this O.K.? C.D., BRIGHTWATERS, N.Y.
[A:]An illegal download is โ to use an ugly word โ illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical.... Thus youโve violated the publishing companyโs legal right to control the distribution of its intellectual property, but youโve done no harm or so little as to meet my threshold of acceptability...
What crap. Is the book out of print? Is that hardcopy somehow obsolete now? Of course not. There's obviously value added with the eBook or ole C.D. wouldn't've wanted it. How does Mr. Cohen (the "Ethicist") decide when you've paid enough into the system to begin illegal civil disobedience?
Can I pay for the movie in the theater and then download?
Better parallel: Can I burn a Blu-Ray b/c I've purchased the DVD at full price?
What if I paid a clearance price for the DVD? Have I still paid in enough for someone to forward me a bootleg Blu-Ray in high def?
If I've read the book, can I sneak into a theater showing the movie that's not quite filled? Where's the harm in that?
Would it really put poor, poor CD out to take along that "more than three and a half pounds" of codex on his trip? Really?
Look, if you want a law changed because, in this case, you feel superior enough to remark "the anachronistic conventions of bookselling and copyright law lag the technology", then start lobbying. Now show me one fair law that's anticipated a specific technology perfectly. Sort of another anachronism, ain't it? Honestly, I think eBooks are an interesting way to leverage your ownership of IP into more profit. As long as we're not EULAing hardcopies, knock yourselves out.
Furthermore, in this case we have easier solutions for CD. Wait for the g*******d eBook to be released. Trade time for money. Read another book on your trip. I just finished Water is Wide by Pat Conroy on my iPod. You'll enjoy it. If you want to read a new book now, ya gotta pay. Or why not go to your local library and reserve a copy to read while you're waiting. That's a pretty good deal, isn't it? You're not out a buck. Now you read Conroy on your trip and you get to know the latest and greatest from that sick-o King[1]. And guess what, you've already paid for the privilege. Take advantage of it.
Had Cohen even so much as said, "Though the risk of being caught is low, it does exist, and in NY the penalty is [X]. I would also say that you need to delete the eBook as soon as you return from your trip, when its marginal utility is gone, and that once the eBook is released, you should stop using this rationalization immediately," I would have felt a little better.
As it stands, it bothers me that a representative of what's essentially the record of the United States could show such a simpleton's approach to ethics and encourage his readers to break the law without understanding the ramifications on themselves and the corporations that provide them with their goods. I'm no corporate cheerleader, but when a "ethicist" rationalizes stealing in officially sanctioned e-print, you know society's gauge of right and wrong had long since made a turn for the gutter.
[1] Actually, I'm suspicious King is one of the best authors alive. I've read a few of his books that aren't about blood and guts, and they're all exceptionally well written. Still, I tried that city in a bubble book and couldn't get past the first few chapters. SICK. It's all about how you apply yourself, I guess.
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