Will the Broadcast Flag Break Your TiVo? - The FCC ruling explained.

Paul Boutin has a great article at Slate today answering a popular question around here: "Will the Broadcast Flag Break Your TiVo? - The FCC ruling explained."

Paul does what he does best in his articles, cut to the chase and get a real-world analysis of something most armchair critics (myself included) conclude must be doom and gloom. The outlook doesn't look as bleak as you might have heard (I'm still not happy to see it), but there will be some crippled functionality and buying HDTV gear pre-July 2005 might prove to be a great investment eventually. Boutin rightfully observes what everyone in the tech industry has been saying, that basically this won't curb piracy, and at best might only add a step or two to those truly wanting to pirate shows and movies.

Comments

[pb]

This reinforces that Tivo has no argument for disallowing analog program extraction. Wish they'd wake up.

[Fofer]

My concern about the pre-July 2005 gear is that it'll (still) be incredibly overpriced (likely more so, if it's uniqueness gets hyped properly) and also, that eventually the "flag" will seek out and play only on compliant equipment. Then what?

I'd like to spring for the HD DirecTiVo when it comes out, but at $1000 it better last me a looong time... and work just as well as my current DTiVo, but with HD and even more features.