HDTV, patents, DRM (was: Re: [Ffmpeg-devel] [ bug ] converting png to dv gives solid black )

[Dieter]

> For all of NTSC's drawbacks, it has no DRM, it works with all my
> hardware, it's patent-free, and stuff that supports it is dirt cheap.
> I'm personally against the switch to HDTV - at least until the patents
> expire and the hardware costs come down to Earth.

OTA (over the air) HDTV has no DRM (at least in the US, other countries
may vary).  Of course most material will be copyrighted, so there is a
limit to what you can legally do with it.

Which patents?

> That being the case, perhaps the people designing blue ray and hd dvd
> understand that a large fraction of their audience have TVs using NTSC
> and want their content to have a matching framerate.

There are other sources of HD than Blu ray and HD-DVD.  There is OTA,
cable and satellite.  And probably the Internet.