Buffalo Technology’s LinkTheater High
Definition Digital Media Player offers HDTV via
HDMI outputs (Fig. 4). It supports 720p and
1080i video output in addition to 480i and
480p video modes. The unit includes USB and
10/100 Ethernet ports. Of course, it has audio
and video outputs, too. It can handle a range of
audio, image, video, and multimedia formats,
including JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF file display
plus MP3, WAV, WMA, Dolby Digital (AC-3), AACLC,
and AAC-HE audio.
Of course, the LinkTheater High Definition
Digital Media Player requires a data source.
Buffalo Technology offers a number of DLNA
options. The technology additionally works with
other DLNA-certified sources, including many
PCs that run the Linux or Microsoft Windows
operating systems.
People will want DLNA-compatible DVRs,
which dredges up some issues that have
slowed down agreements on the standards and
long-term adoption of the technology. At the
top of the list is copy protection, or, depending
on your point of view, customer management.
Digital rights management (DRM) is the
watchword and as much a sticking point as the
multiple protocols and hardware interfaces, if
not more so.
There’s some commonality in certain areas,
such as HDTV HDMI links that employ highbandwidth
digital content protection (HDCP),
but this isn’t something used across streaming
video standards or storage standards. DRM
won’t disappear completely, even though many
designers wish it would. Hopefully, the trend of
decreasing DRM on the audio side will trickle
down to the video arena.
The problem is that DRM uses encryption,
but it has absolutely nothing to do with system
security and authentication from a user’s perspective.
In addition, a tremendous amount of
time and effort has been spent on DRM, with
comparatively little on user management of
system security and authentication. An overarching
system design should really start with
security and management, including making it
easy to use.
The number of remote access links into a
home is increasing, and using only firewall/
gateway-style protection is a sure path to botnets
that are even more massive than those
infesting PCs already. Most standards haven’t
overlooked security, but it should be a unifying—
instead of a secondary—design issue.
Expect the emergence of DLNA devices and
the appearance of HANA devices this year, as
well as the adoption of ZigBee control units and
similar control platforms. Likewise, HDTVs will
be mandatory, leading to a range of potentially
networkable products available to consumers
and as targets for developers.
Unifying this disparate collection of devices
remains a long-term goal using common protocols
and applications. Still, it’s likely to remain
a challenge to developers and consumers for a
number of years to come.