AfterDawn: News

Dolby chooses Philips watermarking technology for digital cinema

Philips has announced that Dolby Laboratories will offer its customers the option of Philips CineFence anti-piracy watermarking technology to help protect digital cotnent. New cinema releases shown via Dolby's digital cinema solution can be embedded with Philips CineFence forensic watermark, thus allowing the content to be traced and protected.

Illegal camcorder copying has been identified as one of the major and most difficult to track forms of digital content piracy. With Philips CineFence, the watermark pinpoints the specific location, time and date the illegal camcorder recording took place. Thus the implementation of Philips CineFence not only allows for the tracking of pirated digital content, it also acts as a severe disincentive to those engaged in this illegal activity.



"Dolby is committed to providing the market with the most reliable and secure digital cinema systems," said John Iles, Vice President, Cinema, Dolby Laboratories. "We are pleased to offer the Philips solution to help deter piracy." The CineFence watermarks are imperceptible to cinema audiences, but maintain their integrity in the copied material, even after severe quality degradation such as cropping, compression and scaling.

"Philips CineFence technology is proving to be the most favored forensic watermarking technology for digital cinema. To date, Philips CineFence has been deployed at thousands of screens, an amount not far off to the total number of digital cinema screens in the US," says Alex Terpstra, CEO of Philips Content Identification. "We feel proud to welcome a true cinema solutions leader as Dolby to our growing list of CineFence licensees."

Source:
Press Release

Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Sep 2007 19:59

• Previous article

• Polk I-Sonic adds iTunes tagging for HD Radio

• Next article

• Ex-Comcast customers just want to know what the limits are

• 14 comments

• WierdName

  Dolby will "...offer its customers the option of Philips CineFence anti-piracy watermarking technology" eh? Hey, here's a thought, what happens if the cammers opt out of this? And how would that pinpoint the exact location the cam was done? Sounds to me like that could be a massive invasion of privacy meriting yet another class action lawsuit.

  8.9.2007 23:53 #1

• clamUp

  I'm reasonably sure the technology is imperceptible without electronic aid, but if I ever spot signs of watermarking during my cinema-going experience which distract from the show, I'm going straight to the ticket counter for a refund.

  9.9.2007 06:11 #2

• BTFan

  Dolby chooses...

  9.9.2007 06:12 #3

• mm2000y

  Seems to me this kind of watermarking is to punish theater owners for not being agressive enough to stop someone from recording a movie in one of their theaters. Shouldn't bother the consumer except for maybe theater owners patting them down before being allowed to watch a movie and walking up and down the aisles with flashlights grabbing anyone who looks like the might be holding something other than a pop or a bag of popcorn.

  9.9.2007 07:04 #4

• Dela

  Originally posted by btfan: Dolby chooses...thanks man, wrote that item at like 5am here so never noticed ;-)

  9.9.2007 07:22 #5

• magnets

  I'd much prefer to see cinemas using (invisible) watermarking technology instead of being searched on entry or having the ushers wandering up and down every so often.

  9.9.2007 18:22 #6

• ripdox

  I'd be willing to bet that some of the theater owners get paid good money to let the odd cam slip by

  9.9.2007 18:24 #7

• Unfocused

  If theaters ever get to the point of doing airport security checks upon entry and ushers walking the aisles, this will be the day that I stop going to the movies. I've already got a nice home theater setup and seeing a movie now or later really doesn't bother me.

  9.9.2007 18:33 #8

• plazma247

  Cant find a spec on CineFence, however I assume its a better effort than the daft Dot system.
  
  Anyway thinking out loud, its not going to be long before someone works out how a way to use something like virtualdub filter to detect it in the frame and then just drop it out with logo away or something similar.
  
  Im assuming its not placed at a set time or even at a certain place in the picture, but its got to be something pretty major to survive rhe transcodes.
  
  Just guessing i would assume that the code probably has a marker some set frame before or after the actual watermark, which would mean the waterwark could be suttle but would only be able to be found once you located the marker was located and new you knew where to look.
  
  Or even multiple points, which could then be checked against a formula to provide a video frame refrence.
  
  If you didnt have the formula u wouldnt know where the watermark was.
  
  Anyway just something to munch on...
  Anyway

  10.9.2007 08:46 #9

• maryjayne

  You wont be searched, but they will probably start taking IDs since they can pinpoint where the CAM vid occurred. Next it will be blood and urine specimines.

  10.9.2007 12:51 #10

• sssharp

  If they want to begin to motivate and satisfy movie watchers a simple thing can be done. When you purchase the ticket at the theater a voucher is given to you, this voucher is for the dvd when released free of charge for buying the ticket. This would be good motivation to get more people to go to the theater instead of waiting a couple months for the dvd release to rent from blockbuster/netflix. Customers dont want to pay twice to see one movie. Its either at home or at cinema, not both. Their crying will never end.

  10.9.2007 13:52 #11

• magnets

  mmm i like that idea sssharp. Not sure it would be feasible financially though. It would cost a lot to print non forgeable vouchers, perhaps they could have it as an option, you could pay for the cinema, or pay cinema+fee and get a voucher for the dvd, perhaps if you filled in a form there and then, and the then the dvd would be posted to you. means you don't have to carry vouchers around and stuff. Or they give you like a rewards card which you swipe when you visit, and it gets you free dvds or something, sounds like the perfect tie in with those post to your door video rental outlets.
  
  With regards to the water marking, perhaps it's audio rather than video based, it's easier to watermark audio IMHO.
  
  I don't know why they don't just get a massive infrared stobe going off in the theaters, invisible to humans, massively irritating to cam corders (get your video camera/phone cam/webcam and record you pointing a remote control at it and pressing the buttons, now imagine that at strobe flash levels)

  10.9.2007 22:23 #12

• WierdName

  Originally posted by magnets: I don't know why they don't just get a massive infrared stobe going off in the theaters, invisible to humans, massively irritating to cam corders (get your video camera/phone cam/webcam and record you pointing a remote control at it and pressing the buttons, now imagine that at strobe flash levels)That's a really good idea. Maybe they don't because they haven't thought of it. And that's a little know fact that cameras (without IR filters) pick up those faint light waves that the human eye has to be adjusted to pitch black to see.

  10.9.2007 22:49 #13

• borhan9

  i thought dolby was cross all products. watermarking is only goin to cause cracks created.

  11.9.2007 02:27 #14