What this means is that if you have an older HDTV, video projector, or home theater receiver that does not have HDMI or DVI-HDCP connections, you will no longer be able to access high definition resolution from a Blu-ray Disc player, if the player is manufactured from January 2011 and beyond.
In addition, those consumers that currently own Blu-ray Disc players, even though high definition resolution via Component video will still function with your current Blu-ray Disc collection, the movie studios are now free to activate the currently held-back Image Constraint Token on any future Blu-ray Disc releases, at the Studio's discretion.
This means that Blu-ray Discs will be encoded with an instruction that will only allow the discs to be played back in standard definition (480i) if the disc detects that it is being played on a Blu-ray Disc player that is using the Component Video output connection option, instead of HDMI or DVI-HDCP via HDMI/DVI adapter cable.
Keep in mind that the "Analog Sunset" provisions and the Image Constraint Token does not affect you if you connect your Blu-ray Disc player or other high definition source device to your HDTV or Home Theater using HDMI. Only consumers that own pre-HDMI or pre-DVI-HDCP HDTVs, Video Projectors, and/or Home Theater Receivers will be affected. All HDTVs sold for some time now have HDMI connections.
The reason for this is that although the Component Video connections currently allow owners of older, pre-HDMI, or pre-DVI-HDCP equipped HDTVs to enjoy the high definition benefits of Blu-ray, video signals traveling through Component connections are more easily pirated (since they are analog) than those that travel through the digitally copy-protected signal traveling through an HDMI connection.
The disabling of high definition capability via Component video connections as a result of the Analog Sunset Rule, combined with the application of the Image Constraint Token on forthcoming Blu-ray Disc releases essentially seals the fate of Component Video as a viable high definition video connection option going forward, and will slowly be phased out on high definition source devices, just as S-Video is now being removed as a connection option for standard definition video connectivity.
By 2013 it is expected that all analog video output connections will be eliminated from Blu-ray Disc players. At that time HDMI will be only connection approved for passing high definition video signals from a Blu-ray Disc player, Home Theater Receiver, and possibly Cable/Satellite Boxes to an HDTV.
For more details and perspective on this important, and anti-consumer, development, check out the reports from CE Pro, Audioholics, and Home Theater Magazine.
Related Story: The FCC Approves Optional Hi-Def Component Video Output for Cable/Satellite
