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July 1, 2004
• Vol.2 Issue 7 Page(s) 7-9 in print issue | |
CE News | |
  ClearPlay Helps Censor Content RCA (www.rca.com) has rolled out the first DVD player—the $70 DRC232N—that incorporates ClearPlay's (www.clearplay.com) content-filtering technology. ClearPlay edits out foul language, nudity, sex scenes, and graphic violence from a variety of movies, all on the fly. It works by loading censoring data into the unit's internal memory that tells the player exactly what segments of a movie it needs to modify. For example, when you insert a "Pirates Of The Caribbean" DVD and you've enabled the proper filters, the player automatically recognizes the disc and mutes the audio when characters use crude language. The filters let you control the amount of censorship you want to apply to the movies you watch. Using a number of settings in the three main categories of Violence, Language, and Explicit Scenes & Nudity, parents can lock out everything from strong profanity and explicit sex to blasphemy and moderate violence. There's even a setting that blocks scenes that involve explicit drug use. The downside to ClearPlay is that it can only censor movies for which you've loaded the associated filters in the DVD player's internal memory. The RCA unit comes preloaded with 100 movie filters for a variety of box office hits, and you can download hundreds of other filters from the ClearPlay Web site, burn them to a CD, and copy them into the DVD player's memory. Single filters cost $1.50, or you can subscribe to ClearPlay for $4.95 per month or $49 per year to access all filters. Both ClearPlay and retail stores that sell ClearPlay-enabled hardware, such as Wal-Mart, also plan to offer prerecorded CDs containing additional filters that you can use if you don't have a CD burner. The DRC232N is a progressive-scan DVD player with component, S-Video, and composite video outputs. It also has analog composite stereo outputs and a coaxial jack for digital audio output.  Palisade Systems Blocks The Music As if people who download music illegally didn't have enough to worry about with all the random RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lawsuits and the end of the RIAA's amnesty program, Palisade Systems' PacketHound 3 may stop the downloads all together. This hardware is designed for installation on business networks, where it monitors network activity to detect whether copyrighted materials are being transmitted. Instead of acting like a firewall and blocking ports, a method easily bypassed by savvy file sharers, PacketHound 3 looks for certain protocols and applications that are associated with illegal file sharing and stops associated network traffic dead in its tracks. Network users have no way of knowing that the hardware is there because it passively monitors traffic, and when it notes that a flagged protocol or application is being used, it sends a reset packet to the machine on the other end, instantly severing the connection. All users see is a standard message telling them that they failed to connect to the other machine, so for all they know the file they requested is no longer available. PacketHound is highly configurable, so it doesn't necessarily have to completely block access to protocols and applications. Instead, administrators can set it up so that if a protocol or application eats up a certain percentage of a company's Internet bandwidth, PacketHound blocks other network users from using those protocols or applications until the bandwidth use levels drop.  New TI Processor To Improve Streaming Media Texas Instruments announced the development of a new streaming media processor for use in consumer electronics devices that could dramatically improve movie, music, and photo playback and storage capabilities in future products. The new processors are powerful enough to handle multiple types of content and require less bandwidth than current designs, which means it will be easier to deliver high-quality video that requires more bandwidth or to deliver more streams simultaneously. Modern streaming media products designed for home use can already deliver high-quality content, but TI claims the new processors will be used mainly to create a new class of videophones that display video at 30fps (frames per second) and have CD-quality sound. The company expects that devices using the new technology should appear by 2005, and it's currently working with various manufacturers on standalone videophones, as well as videophones that are integrated directly into televisions. In the future, the technology could improve to the point where HD streaming video is possible, which should add a whole new twist to call screening. 
Tidbits Of people who listen to digital music, 90% keep fewer than 1,000 songs on their PCs, and 77% of people interested in buying a portable digital music player want the device to hold at least 1,000 songs. Source: JupiterResearch 68% of wireless phone customers are satisfied with the coverage and services of their wireless providers. Source: JupiterResearch DTV sales increased 124% in January and February 2004 compared to the same period last year, with 853,443 units sold. That was enough TVs to generate $1.3 billion in revenue, a 100% increase from last year. Source: Consumer Electronics Association 55% of adult Internet users have broadband access either at home or at work. Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project 14% of Internet users who used to download illegal music files now no longer download music files at all. For 33% of those users, the threat of lawsuits changed behavior. Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Sony and Toppan Printing have developed a Blu-Ray DVD that stores 25GB of data but is manufactured from 51% paper, making it easy to cut the discs with scissors to destroy them for security purposes. Source: Sony |
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