HRRC Urges FCC to Protect HDTV Consumers in Cable "Plug and Play" Accord

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HRRC Urges FCC to Protect HDTV Consumers in Cable "Plug and Play" Accord
Praises Agreement's Adoption of Encoding Rules and Ban on Selectable Output Contol, Urges Consumer Protection from

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Washington, District of Columbia 4/1/2003

In a filing submitted Friday evening, the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) called for the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) swift adoption of the December 19, 2002 agreement reached between the consumer electronics industry and several cable operators, but urged the FCC to protect consumers by completely banning the practice of program-by-program "downresolution."
The agreement, commonly known as the "plug and play" agreement, provides for home recorders to be directly attached to digital cable systems, and adopts "encoding rules" to protect consumers' reasonable and customary recording practices. In exchange for requiring devices to implement secure digital connections, it provides for FCC-adopted "encoding rules" that prevent content providers and distributors from abusing such technology by frustrating reasonable consumer practices. These encoding rules do no allow for content providers or distributors to turn off consumer home interfaces on a program-by-program basis -- a practice called "selectable output control," which has been heavily criticized by key Members of Congress. It extends such protection against a similarly criticized practice, the "downresolution" of HDTV programming, in the case of free terrestrial broadcasts, but leaves up to the FCC whether such protection should be protected for other programming.

"This ground breaking agreement not only promises to propel the DTV transition forward by accessing the nearly 70 million U.S. cable households, but, through the agreement's encoding rules, it also preserves consumers' customary expectations in the digital era," said HRRC Chairman Gary Shapiro of the agreement and the filing. "This protection will be completed by a total ban on the practice of "downresolution," which could deprive at least four million consumers of the ability to watch HDTV cable and satellite programming, even though they own HDTV receivers and subscribe to these services."

As HRRC explained in its filing, if a set-top box, connected to an HD-ready display through the connectors on most HDTV receivers sold to date, receives a "downres" signal, it removes half the horizontal and half the vertical resolution, resulting in a picture with only one-quarter of the pixels intended for viewing. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has advocated this technique in aid of HDTV copy protection. The HRRC filing, however, pointed out that, before attempting to retransmit an HDTV signal over the Internet, consumers would have to compress and degrade it severely anyway. So "downresolution" is not even effective in addressing the motion picture industry's stated primary concern with respect to home recording.

HRRC wrote in the filing, "It would be bitterly ironic if the Commission, in approving the plug and play regulations, would smooth the way toward a swift and successful roll-out of DTV to the consumer, but simultaneously erect in its path the twin roadblocks of selectable output control and downresolution.

"While HRRC prefers outcomes that place maximum trust in the fairness and reasonableness of most consumers, it recognizes, in the copy protection provisions of the plug and play agreement recommendations, a balanced approach consistent with prior public and private sector outcomes on these issues. Acceptance of this approach would be in line with prevailing public and private sector policy to date. Rejection of such balance would be grossly out of step, and would be a debacle for American consumers."

Confident that the FCC will not leave stranded the consumers who have been pioneers in the digital transition, HRRC called for quick and decisive FCC action. "HRRC consistently has maintained that consumers should be allowed to freely distribute digital content within their home," Shapiro continued. "This agreement both respects that right and content owners' rights. It's a win-win situation that calls for the FCC's quick seal of approval."

Further information on this and related issues can be found on the HRRC website, //www.hrrc.org.

About HRRC:
The Home Recording Rights Coalition, founded in 1981, is a leading advocacy group for consumers' rights to use home electronics products for private, non-commercial purposes. The members of HRRC include consumers, retailers, manufacturers and professional servicers of consumer electronics products.