Post by Renown on Feb 2, 2007 1:42:39 GMT -5
DRM, or Digital Rights Management is an interal system that solely exists to limit the options the user has with whatever digital content they purchase or rent. There are several seperate interpretations to DRM not officially governed under the DRM name, such as FairPlay; Apple's interpretation of DRM for it's iTunes store. I can't begin to describe the illegitimacy behind the DRM act, first off it endlessly limits your options as to what you can or can not do with digital content or premium content as it's begun to be referred to as.
For those of you wondering whether or not Vista is worth the upgrade price or retail price, for whatever package catches your eye, I can only say DRM or in Vista's implementation: SPP (Software Protection Platform) will severely limit your viewing options and hardware for that matter. Vista is pretty hungry when it comes to applications, background tasks and resources (especially resources), so when it comes right down to it, in the long run Vista may require up to 4GB of RAM to run as proficiently as Windows XP does with only 1 or 2GB.
Vista is an outright push to ratify analog output of any kind as quickly as it can possibly occur, blame who you want in the process, but most of this is left up to MPAA - therefore the fault lies with them as well. What do I mean you ask? Take for example you're still using your motherboard's audio codec, whether it be Azalia or AC '97 and your speakers are routed through a Toslink connection, Vista will view this connection as 'unsafe' and pretty much disable it, leaving you with either crumby 2-channel sound or no sound at all.
The only sufficient way around this is to use an audio card that can route your speakers through a digital coaxial connection which delievers higher quality audio bitrates than the somewhat standard S/PDIF connection anyway. Vista also requires users to have hardware that supports such standards if they intend to use Vista as an HD port which is even more of a pain than the audio issue. To effectively convert your PC into a living, breathing HD port you must have a video card that supports HDCP which encrypts data passing through a DVI or HDMI digital monitor connection or HDTV to prevent it from being captured or burned to a disc for further distribution to one's buddies. Your monitor must be able to support a native resolution (that's right native.) of 1920 x 1200 (capable of a 1080i signal at best.) and Vista Aero already requires a native resoultion of 1280 x 720 (720p) or 1280 x 768 (I forget which one exactly.) and to use the full features requires an even larger resolution to effectively be viewed.
Without these bare (a faint understatement) essentials you'll never be able to even watch an HD movie on a Vista PC without getting an awesome error message or just a plain old black screen reminding you of what a blackout it like. Until these security measures are worked around (meaning loosened up and not so damn restrictive) I'll be sticking with XP until 2009 when Microsoft officially drops support for it, business users have until 2011.
For those of you wondering whether or not Vista is worth the upgrade price or retail price, for whatever package catches your eye, I can only say DRM or in Vista's implementation: SPP (Software Protection Platform) will severely limit your viewing options and hardware for that matter. Vista is pretty hungry when it comes to applications, background tasks and resources (especially resources), so when it comes right down to it, in the long run Vista may require up to 4GB of RAM to run as proficiently as Windows XP does with only 1 or 2GB.
Vista is an outright push to ratify analog output of any kind as quickly as it can possibly occur, blame who you want in the process, but most of this is left up to MPAA - therefore the fault lies with them as well. What do I mean you ask? Take for example you're still using your motherboard's audio codec, whether it be Azalia or AC '97 and your speakers are routed through a Toslink connection, Vista will view this connection as 'unsafe' and pretty much disable it, leaving you with either crumby 2-channel sound or no sound at all.
The only sufficient way around this is to use an audio card that can route your speakers through a digital coaxial connection which delievers higher quality audio bitrates than the somewhat standard S/PDIF connection anyway. Vista also requires users to have hardware that supports such standards if they intend to use Vista as an HD port which is even more of a pain than the audio issue. To effectively convert your PC into a living, breathing HD port you must have a video card that supports HDCP which encrypts data passing through a DVI or HDMI digital monitor connection or HDTV to prevent it from being captured or burned to a disc for further distribution to one's buddies. Your monitor must be able to support a native resolution (that's right native.) of 1920 x 1200 (capable of a 1080i signal at best.) and Vista Aero already requires a native resoultion of 1280 x 720 (720p) or 1280 x 768 (I forget which one exactly.) and to use the full features requires an even larger resolution to effectively be viewed.
Without these bare (a faint understatement) essentials you'll never be able to even watch an HD movie on a Vista PC without getting an awesome error message or just a plain old black screen reminding you of what a blackout it like. Until these security measures are worked around (meaning loosened up and not so damn restrictive) I'll be sticking with XP until 2009 when Microsoft officially drops support for it, business users have until 2011.