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One of our insiders has let us know that the AACS Final Adopter Agreement went discreetly online on June 5, without any fanfare or announcement. AACS (Advanced Access Content System) is the content protection scheme for Blu-ray, just like CSS is for DVD. It has been operating on an interim license agreement since inception, and a final agreement was long overdue.
The main things you need to know about this are that the Image Constraint Token will be introduced and this will limit analog output (component) to 540p - Blu-ray movies with ICT will be labeled as such on the packaging.
Then starting in 2011, new Blu-ray players manufacturered will only be able to output through analog at SD interlaced resolution. And then in 2014, no Blu-ray players are allowed to have analog video outputs.
There is also something called a Digital Only Token, which will prohibit discs from being outputted through analog - but this will only be used mainly for non commercial titles (for example, Academy preview discs in a fruitless aim to stop piracy).
Is it me or are the Blu-ray people a bit too paranoid about this piracy thing?
The other bit of news is that Managed Copy, the function which allows users to make copies of the movie under controlled conditions set by studios, has survived the specifications. However, it is purely optional and no studio will take advantage of this unless forced to do so by the consumer (perhaps due to market pressure as digital downloads and streaming become ever more popular).
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