[Column Review] DVD Authoring: Killer App, Niche Mugger, or Stillborn Wonder?

Tuesday, January 23, 200l

Andreas Pfeiffer has written a commentary for ZDNet News entitled "DVD Authoring: The Next Killer App?" that we would like to run through our Hype Detection Unit. . .

Pfeiffer says that Apple has embraced DVD authoring "as a cornerstone capability of its latest Macs." (This applies only to the high-end model, but "cornerstone" has a nice ring to it and we won't quibble.) He also calls this capability "momentous," which stikes us as somewhat overblown, given that Compaq is going to provide (in March) the same DVD authoring system, using the same drive from Pioneer, in a desktop computer that costs $1,000 less than the yet-to-be-delivered high-end PowerMac. There are other issues as well (see below), but Pfeiffer is on a roll:

Once it's in place, DVD authoring will create a flourishing market for independent filmmakers and video producers. The considerable potential of DV camcorders really only comes to fruition once users are equipped with the proper output medium, and their possibilities will be dramatically enhanced through the video DVD option.

This access to the means of production will inspire all sorts of creative spirits who may not yet be considering digital video as a medium. Just as with desktop publishing, there will be a groundswell of new users who are not (yet) video professionals and who will push this technology into the most astonishing market segments. DVDs will be everywhere: Imagine real-estate agents distributing DVDs with virtual tours of prime properties, and you get the picture.

We do think that Pfeiffer is a bit too enthralled by the "digital lifestyle" scenario. DVDs may well be turn out to be "everywhere," but most households, offices, and libraries still have no means of viewing them. His most humorous flight of fancy, however, involves real estate agents, an occupational category notorious for resisting technological change.[Send your realtor an email message and see if he or she ever replies, hoo-hah. And take a look at a typical real estate Web site: usually produced from Windows templates, the listings appear 4 or 5 levels deep and frequently say "no picture available." Your editor can take his digital camera outside, take a picture of his house, and display it on a Web page in about the time it takes you to read this sentence, but "Real estate agents distributing DVDs..." ? In your dreams, Andreas! :-) -- JHF]

But here's what his column has completely neglected to mention: CPRM technology. . . do you know what this is? You should, because using computers to copy digital content of any kind may soon be next to impossible. And as far as DVD is concerned, just read the following excerpt from a message published by John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"What is wrong is when companies who make copy-protecting products don't disclose the restrictions to the consumers. Like Apple's recent happy-happy web pages on their new DVD-writing drive, announced this month (http://www.apple.com/idvd/). It's full of glowing info about how you can write DVDs based on your own DV movie recordings, etc. What it quietly neglects to say is that you can't use it to copy or time-shift or record any audio or video copyrighted by major companies. Even if you have the legal right to do so, the technology will prevent you. They don't say that you can't use it to mix and match video tracks from various artists, the way your CD burner will. It doesn't say that you can't copy-protect your OWN disks that it burns; that's a right the big manufacturers have reserved to themselves. They're not selling you a DVD-Authoring drive, which is for "professional use only". They're selling you a DVD-General drive, which cannot record the key-blocks needed to copy-protect your OWN recordings, nor can a DVD-General disc be used as a master to press your own DVDs in quantity. These distinctions are not even glossed over; they are simply ignored, not mentioned, invisible until after you buy the product.

It isn't just Apple who is misleading the consumer; it's epidemic. . ."