MPAA still pushing to close the "Analog Hole"

By masteroffm

Friends Of MissingRemote

Sep 04 2009

The MPAA is once again trying to push forth "Selectable Output Control" which would give the MPAA and movie studios the ability to disable the analog output of set-top boxes at will. This would leave anyone not using a digital connection such as HDMI to have to replace their televison and/or other hardware such as set-top boxes. This would also render such devices as the Hauppauge HD-PVR useless.

Ars TechnicaBut critics of the proposed deal want to know why the FCC should let the studios on whose behalf MPAA is petitioning—Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers—limit the capabilities of home TV systems that consumers have already bought and installed. "The side effect," warns the consumer group Public Knowledge in an educational video it has put out on this question, "is that SOC would break all eleven million HDTVs in the US that don't have digital input. In essence, all the MPAA wants is to control when and how you watch the stuff you've already paid for."