HDMI technology picks up a tech Emmy
The founders of the High-Definition Multimedia Interface, which advanced the propagation of HD but angers many who dislike the specification's digital content control mechanisms, have been awarded an Emmy for their work.
The HDMI spec, released just over six years ago, manages one or more inputs in over 620 million products shipped so far; by the end of this year, 100% of digital televisions are expected to have at least one HDMI input.
The Technology and Engineering Emmy has a fascinating history: NASA received one in 1969-70 for managing to broadcast color TV from Apollo missions; Sony picked one up for Trinitron technology in 1972-73 and in 1975-76 for a concept that eventually became the VCR, to name but a few. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is no stranger to controversy, giving an award in 1986-87 to the fiends that developed colorized movies, turned Frank Sinatra's famous blue eyes brown, and made Jimmy Stewart cry during Congressional testimony. (Enjoy your award, Colorization Inc...in hell.)
The HDMI award isn't the first for a technology that might be considered a form of digital rights management, either. In 1985-86, M/A Com Inc. received a nod "for their contributions to satellite TV encryption and scrambling technology." (Ironically, Sony received an Emmy the very same year "for their design and manufacture of a consumer videotape recorder making it possible for the consumer to time-shift recording and viewing.")
But HDMI occupies a special place in the craw of tech folk, since its image constraint token can be used to block or seriously degrade playback of content -- even legally purchased content on legally owned machines. In particular, consumers who prefer to play back content through their computers are apt to run afoul of HDMI. That's mainly fine with content providers, who say they're doing to thwart piracy, but consumers have been rather vocal about seeing things differently.
The Emmy will be presented to ten companies involved with developing and propagating the standard. Those companies are Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips Consumer Electronics, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba, Intel, Japan Aviation Electronics (JAE), and Molex. The actual presentation, part of the 60th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Award ceremony, is scheduled for Wednesday evening at CES. A full list of this year's award recipients is available on the Emmy site.