Sonic Solutions, which owns the Roxio DVD creation products and high-end DVD authoring systems, has announced Qflix, a certification and licensing program which will enable users to burn downloaded, Hollywood studio video to DVDs protected with Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption—and these DVDs would be playable in any standard consumer DVD player. The catch: Qflix requires a completely new end-to-end system to work: Qflix-created disks will require special DVD media, burning software will have to be updated to support Qflix, and burners will either have to be replaced or upgraded via firmware. Sonic also has to roll out a network of secure key servers to support the technology. But that’s all easy stuff, right, for the benefits of a simple buy-download-and-burn solution for distributing DVD friendly digital video. (Right?) Sonic will detail the solution—which will come in two flavors, Qflix for consumers and Qflix Pro for enterprises—next week at CES.
Digital Trends
