HDTV signals offer great opportunities to broadcasters, but there is also the negative side – a high risk of piracy. In order to protect prime content against illegitimate use, content-protection mechanisms can be used.

For the digital HDMI interface between an HDTV set-top box and an “HD ready” display device, HDCP technology is chosen. This is a tool that can be used at the discretion of the broadcaster who can activate it by means of a switching signal. In the case of a piracy attack, the technology offers a revocation mechanism whereby a list of revoked devices is transmitted in a safe way to the receiver, where it is stored.

The availability of a content protection mechanism – being a mandatory requirement of the EICTA “HD ready” logo – does not mean that the display device always needs to be fed in a protected manner. Free-to-air signals that are transmitted in the clear are always displayed.

The first HD services have now been deployed on pay-TV platforms using content-protection measures such as HDCP, in accordance with contractual obligations mandated by the production studios. Before long, free-to-air TV platforms will also become involved in HDCP.

This article provides technical information on the HDCP system, which is used to protect the HDMI link from a set-top box to a display device (HDMI is the HDTV equivalent of the familiar “SCART” connector used with standard-definition television). The article also explains “what HDCP is” and “what it is not”, and outlines the views of several different European broadcasters on methods for controlling content protection.

The Internet is growing quickly as a network of heterogeneous communication networks. The number of users is rapidly expanding and bandwidth-hungry services, such as video streaming, are becoming more and more popular by the day. However, heterogeneity and congestion cause three main problems: unpredictable throughput, losses and delays. The challenge is therefore to provide: (i) quality, even at low bitrates, (ii) reliability, independent of loss patterns and (iii) interactivity (low perceived latency) ... to many users simultaneously.

In this article, we will discuss various well-known technologies for streaming video over the Internet. We will look at how these technologies partially solve the aforementioned problems. Then, we will present and explain Multiple Description Coding – which offers a very good solution – and how it has been implemented and tested at STMicroelectronics..