Tuesday, February 28th 2012

'Project Phenix' Announced to Advance Digital Ownership of High Definition Movies

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, SanDisk, and Western Digital today revealed "Project Phenix" (working title), an initiative that will give consumers an easier and faster way to organize, store and move their high definition digital movies and TV shows - including new releases in up to full 1080p quality - across multiple devices. In addition to local storage, the content will also be backed up via the UltraViolet industry standard as well as other cloud-based services.

The project is being developed by the newly formed Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA). Established as an LLC, this coalition will create and license solutions that secure high definition and other premium copyright-protected content on local and portable hard drives, and flash memory products such as USB flash drives, SD cards and solid state disk drives (SSDs). Once content is downloaded to a hard drive or flash memory product, it could then be accessed, online or offline, on any SCSA-enabled device such as a connected TV, laptop, Blu-ray player, tablet, mobile phone or game console. The optimized content will be made easily available for purchase via digital download, digital files bundled with physical media, kiosks in retail stores, or other means of secure digital delivery.

"Developing solutions that will allow consumers to easily access and store true HD digital content is a critical component supporting digital media and entertainment consumption," said Darcy Antonellis, President, Warner Bros. Technical Operations. "Through the SCSA, we will accelerate the development of products that will make it easy for the consumer to download, store and playback their high definition digital movies and TV shows, in full 1080p, on any SCSA-optimized device at home and on the go."

"The vision for this new product is to store, play and back up in the cloud personal and professional content," said Mike Dunn, President, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. "The device renders content up to 10 times faster than over-the-top internet. We see Project Phenix as a key component of the emerging digital ecosystem."

The SCSA's solutions will be designed to work with the industry-backed UltraViolet (UV) ecosystem and aimed to complement other next-generation high definition content protection technologies already in the market such as Intel Insider. The SCSA expects to make its solutions widely available for license this year.

"The SCSA will provide consumers with a digital solution for movies and TV shows that is as simple to use as DVD and Blu-ray discs," said Bert Hesselink, CTO of Western Digital Branded Products. "The SCSA solution will allow the consumer to store high definition purchased content, including copies of certain DVD content, in a secure, consumer-owned digital home library on a hard drive, along with their personal photos, music, and videos. Digital library content can be easily viewed inside the home on a TV, PC or tablet, or when owners are on the move with a portable library copy, providing mobile viewing even when a reliable Internet connection is not available, such as a plane, car, train or remote location."

"Consumers around the world will finally be able to enjoy locally stored premium Hollywood content in up to 1080p quality anywhere they desire on a broad range of electronic devices," said Sumit Sadana, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at SanDisk. "With the involvement of major Hollywood studios and leaders in the HDD and Flash memory industries, the SCSA alliance's openly licensable security standard holds the promise of fostering new device capabilities, new business models and ultimately improved value for consumers. SanDisk is very pleased to participate in this ground breaking alliance."
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17 Comments on 'Project Phenix' Announced to Advance Digital Ownership of High Definition Movies

#1
dir_d
I would only use this if it was a netflix style service. I would not pay 2 to 3 dollars a movie or TV show. I would rather just continue netflix and my DVR.
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#2
Static~Charge
I can't wait to find out how much they'll charge us for the right to move the content that we already own from one device to another....
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#3
[H]@RD5TUFF
Can't wait to say HELL NO to this half baked industry turd!
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#4
NC37
Static~ChargeI can't wait to find out how much they'll charge us for the right to move the content that we already own from one device to another....
Yep, and sadly, people will do it.

I really wish they would have protested this crap for the PS Vita but Japanese consumers just seemed like it was ok for Sony to charge them again for content they already owned on the PSP. Such a shame where business has gone. Decade ago, they would have released an addon to copy titles from one to the other, even if some got pirated. Now its, DRM them to death and the concept of no customer being an honest customer so it is ok to do this crap.

All this actually makes me want to turn to pirating. Just because I know they are hiding behind it as an excuse to rape our wallets even more.
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#5
[H]@RD5TUFF
NC37Yep, and sadly, people will do it.

I really wish they would have protested this crap for the PS Vita but Japanese consumers just seemed like it was ok for Sony to charge them again for content they already owned on the PSP. Such a shame where business has gone. Decade ago, they would have released an addon to copy titles from one to the other, even if some got pirated. Now its, DRM them to death and the concept of no customer being an honest customer so it is ok to do this crap.

All this actually makes me want to turn to pirating. Just because I know they are hiding behind it as an excuse to rape our wallets even more.
Agreed 100%, when I asked a guy in the $ony booth at CES why I would even want to re-buy content I already owned, "because this is new" was the best answer he could give me.

I am 100% in favor of a free market, but I am not in favor of gouging and raping your customers in the name of "advancement of technology".
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#6
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
as soon as i saw cloud services i realized how worthless it is.


locally stored content you cant watch without being online? oh yay.
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#7
NC37
That response alone, gives me reason to worry about the next generation of games and entertainment. Got a bad feeling it is just gonna get worse before it gets better.
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#8
[H]@RD5TUFF
NC37That response alone, gives me reason to worry about the next generation of games and entertainment. Got a bad feeling it is just gonna get worse before it gets better.
Especially with more and more ISP's imposing limits on bandwidth .. . .:shadedshu
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#9
Benetanegia
[H]@RD5TUFFEspecially with more and more ISP's imposing limits on bandwidth .. . .:shadedshu
Yeah don't worry. If this new delivery (and control) method proves more profitable than the one they have now, they will find a way to "liberate" us from those limits (while imposing others, obviously). The spice must flow...
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#10
Red_Machine
Spell it right, jackasses. I'd expect better from global corporations.
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#11
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
[H]@RD5TUFFEspecially with more and more ISP's imposing limits on bandwidth .. . .:shadedshu
try being in a country where the average monthly quota is 20GB. then its 64Kb (not KB, 8 effing KB/s)
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#12
digibucc
and it's to kill competition, the isps are ALSO the cable companies for the most part, and a service run by Twentieth Century Fox & Warner Bros. is such a direct competition they can't handle it, bandwidth limits already affect netflix easily, and that's sd compared to the content they are talking of.

isps have too much control to let a service replace their cable counterparts.
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#13
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
digibuccand it's to kill competition, the isps are ALSO the cable companies for the most part, and a service run by Twentieth Century Fox & Warner Bros. is such a direct competition they can't handle it, bandwidth limits already affect netflix easily, and that's sd compared to the content they are talking of.

isps have too much control to let a service replace their cable counterparts.
you should look at the NBN in australia.

the idea is to replace *all* copper phone lines with fiber, and move to a pure voip/fiber era.


of course the main company objecting to it has 'agreed' to it for a mere 12 billion... oh and anyone who connects via them? has to keep the copper AND the fibre. nice one, lock the customer into 3-5 year contracts forcing them to keep something that you're meant to remove, and cockblock the entire process.

side note, they also have the lowest data blocks of any ISP in australia.
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#14
digibucc
that couldn't be more blatantly ridiculous, but it just shows exactly how in control they are.
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#15
Static~Charge
Because of b-s like this, I have no qualms about ripping my audio and video discs and converting the content myself. As far as I'm concerned, if I own a legitimate copy, then I have the right to convert it to whatever format I need (anti-decryption laws be damned).
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#16
[H]@RD5TUFF
Musselstry being in a country where the average monthly quota is 20GB. then its 64Kb (not KB, 8 effing KB/s)
I'll pass, and really the whole issue of crappy interwebz is the main reason I have refused 2 "promotions" to go live and work there (Australia).
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#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
[H]@RD5TUFFI'll pass, and really the whole issue of crappy interwebz is the main reason I have refused 2 "promotions" to go live and work there (Australia).
oh there are a few ISP's you can pay for real unlimited net, its just that most people dont give a shit that it exists.


but yes, its a problem when ISP's have the power to inhibit innovation like this.
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