JPEG Images Could Soon Have DRM Protection Baked In

The same technology to protect movies, music and books could soon be coming to your images. The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) recently announced an initiative that may one day bring digital rights management (DRM) to the most common image format in the world.

While the concept is still in discussion and no actual changes to the JPEG format have been announced, the proposed change could potentially protect EFIX and metadata but also prevent you from copying or even opening images. Imagine not being able to repost images on social media or in blogs on the web. Imagine all the memes we would be without!

The proposed actions have some people quite upset, especially fair use rights supporters. The proposal of DRM on a photo could make it difficult for news organization, education and others to use images.

This caught the attention of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who sent representatives to Brussels where the JPEG meeting was taking place. They argue DRM does not in fact work and would inhibit, again, fair use.

“We warn against any attempt to use the file format itself to enforce the privacy or security restrictions that its metadata describes, by locking up the image or limiting the operations that can be performed on it,” the EFF wrote.

Now is DRM JPEGs a good or bad thing? I'm not a privacy expert so I don't have the answers. But imposing this kind of content management on the world's most popular image format doesn't seem like a good idea. As photographers, we all deal with protecting our images with how easy the Internet has made it to copy and repost work without attribution. The option could be available to a accepted format for sensitive information, but opening up the floodgates to suddenly make anyone with Photoshop a license manager isn't what I had in mind.

Should all JPEGs be copy-protected? Or are there better ways? How are you protecting your images?

Xiaomi launches 4K smart TV with upgradable smarts… and a self-balancing scooter

Chinese electronics company Xiaomi may be best known for its smartphones, but for the past few years the company has been offering fitness trackers, TV boxes, and even blood pressure monitors, among other things.

The company also has a line of smart TVs, and the company’s latest is a 60 inch model with a 4K display, a slim design, a relatively low price tag, and an upgradable module that could let you make your smart TV smarter in the future without scrapping the display itself.

The Mi TV 3 is priced at about $786 in China, and it’s a big-screen TV with an aluminum frame that’s just about 11.6mm thick at the thinnest point and 36.7mm at its thickets.

Xiaomi says the TV supports high color gamut and MEMC motion compensation. But the cool part is the Mi Port which lets you connect the new Mi TV Bar which is sold separately for about $157.

The Mi TV Bar is basically an external sound bar with the guts of an Android computer. The Bar has a quad-core ARM Cortex-A17 processor with Mali-T760 graphics, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, three HDMI ports, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, an Ethernet jack, VGA port, AV input, and audio output.

As Xiaomi points out, a typical TV can last for 10 years or longer, but smart TV hardware can be outdated in a year or two. Theoretically you could just buy any old TV and keep it smart by plugging in the latest third-party TV box like a Roku, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire TV. But the Mi TV Bar isn’t just a media streamer. It’s also a speaker system and input device for the TV.

The Mi TV Bar runs Xiaomi’s Android-based Mi TV user interface, allowing you to stream internet video and run third-party apps on the TV. And since the audio and video inputs are on the sound bar, you can mount the TV on a wall and run a single cable to the sound bar to hide the usual tangle of wires you’d get when connecting gaming devices and other peripherals to a TV.

Xiaomi has also introduced a $16 Bluetooth voice remote control that looks an awful lot like a cheaper version of the Amazon Fire TV remote, and a $94 Mi Subwoofer 6.5″ speaker unit.

Oh yeah, Xiaomi is also branching out into yet another area: the company has launched a cheap, self-balancing two-wheel scooter called the Ninebot mini.

It’s basically a tiny Segway that sells for about $315 and which has a bar that can rest between your knees, but which doesn’t go all the way to your hands. You can control it using a smartphone, and Xiaomi says the electric vehicle should be able to travel about 13 or 14 miles between charges.

A new HDMI certification program will make it easier to avoid crappy cables

One HDMI cable is as good as another, right? Wrong. The old saying “an HDMI cable will either work or it won’t, because digital is all or nothing” is a myth. A poor-quality HDMI cable can deliver a degraded signal, resulting in a snowy picture or worse. A crappy HDMI cable, especially a long one, can also cause problems that you can’t see: radiating enough electromagnetic interference (EMI) to cause problems on your Wi-Fi network.

Having said that, bad HDMI cables are pretty hard to find, at least when asked to carry 1080p video just a few feet. It can be a different story when you enter the realm of 60-frames-per-second 4K video with high dynamic range, high-resolution multi-channel audio, and perhaps even ethernet. According to the standard, an HDMI 2.0 cable should be capable of delivering “ultra-reliable performance at the full 18Gbps bandwidth.”

To that end, HDMI Licensing LLC—the group responsible for developing and maintaining the HDMI standard that’s used on nearly every TV, PC, monitor, projector, Blu-ray player, A/V receiver, and media streamer shipping today—has announced a new cable certification program. Instead of hoping for the best—or paying ridiculous prices for cables made by companies with marketing budgets that dwarf what they spend on manufacturing—you could just shop for HDMI cables labeled “HDMI Premium Certified Cable.”

HDMI LICENSING, LLC

Certified HDMI cables will carry this authentication label.

Cables labeled as such will have gone through expanded cable speed tests at an HDMI-authorized testing center to certify that they are capable of delivering bandwidth of 18Gbps, and that they radiate very little EMI. The certification label will have a QR code printed on it that you can scan with your smartphone to verify the cable’s certification status and that it’s not a counterfeit product.

The impact on you at home: The certification process and the labels, however, are completely optional, and manufacturers that choose to participate must pay a fee on top of the royalty they pay for the right to use HDMI in their products in the first place. Consumers will be expected to pay that cost—and probably a little more—in exchange for the assurances the certification program provides. But cables labeled “High Speed HDMI Cable” or “High Speed HDMI Cable with ethernet” (minus the “Premium Certified” and the label with the QR code) shouldperform just as well—provided they’re made by a legitimate manufacturer.

HDMI LICENSING, LLC

You should be able to find certified Premium HDMI cables in the first quarter of 2016.

If you’re wondering why you’d ever need an HDMI cable that can also carry ethernet data, you probably never will. When I asked HDMI Licensing President Rob Tobias about that during a briefing last week, he said “We’ve seen it in industrial applications where it was useful to use just one wire. For consumer applications, the growth and maturity of Wi-Fi has been good enough.”

“HDMI has a lot of diversity,” added HDMI Licensing Tech Evangelist Jeff Park. “The spec has optional features to give manufacturers flexibility. It would be great if every device had every feature, but then every device would cost $10,000.”

The HDMI Cable Certification Program became available to HDMI adopters at the end of September. Certified cables should be available in the first quarter of 2016.

How to connect a laptop to TV with HDMI and more: watch movies and video from a laptop on a TV

Basic Home Theater—Connect Directly to Your TV

The simplest way to configure your home theater is to plug all your devices directly into the TV, as shown here:

To switch from one HDMI source to another (for instance, from your cable box to the Blu-ray player) simply use the TV’s remote control.

If you have more source devices than available input ports on your TV or if you need flexibility to add and remove mobile devices quickly, you can purchase a stand-alone HDMI switch.

Home Theater with AV Receiver

In systems that include an AV receiver, source devices are typically routed through the AV receiver to the TV, as shown here:

In this type of system, switching between HDMI source devices is controlled by the AV receiver’s input selector controls.

TIP: If your TV has a port labeled “ARC,” it supports the Audio Return Channel. This can be used to route audio from your TV to an HDMI-enabled sound bar or other audio gear.

Selecting the Right Cable

Cable length - Always round up when estimating connection distances. It’s better to have a bit too much cable than to come up short.

Cable Type - If you plan to enjoy 1080p content (i.e., Blu-ray Discs) or any advanced display technologies (3D, 4K, Deep Color, 120Hz refresh rates, etc.), a High Speed HDMI Cable is recommended. For 1080i or 720p signals (most cable, broadcast, and satellite HD signals), a Standard HDMI Cable is recommended. For more information about HDMI cable types, see here. (Link is http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/finding_right_cable.aspx). 

Longer Cable Runs

In complex home theater set-ups, such as multi-room environments, components can be placed relatively far from each other. There are several technologies available for these installations:

25 to 100 feet - If you need to send a 1080p signal more than 25 feet, or a 1080i signal more than 49 feet, active electronics will help boost the HDMI signal to compensate. You can purchase either a stand-alone booster box or an active cable, where the circuitry is embedded in the connectors themselves. Both types require an external power source.

Tips from the Pros

•  Make sure you are buying genuine HDMI products from Licensed Adopters or HDMI Associates.
      If you have any doubts, contact HDMI.
•  HDMI ports on your equipment are always "female,"
•  The connector plugs on the cables are always "male."
• If you need to run cable through walls, ceilings, or floors, a 7/8" drill hole will accommodate most HDMI connectors.
• Don’t staple directly to walls or studs; use cable cleats instead.
• As with any electronics cable, don’t tug or manhandle the cable, or twist the connectors.