Not long ago, Hitachi introduced a TV set with an iVDR card box slot. According to the sources attending this year’s iVDR Association meeting, China CCTV has started on-site testing of broadcast equipment based on iVDR.
Eight Japanese companies, including Canon, Hitachi, Pioneer, Sanyo Electric and Sharp, first proposed iVDR in 2002. "The format has now entered the commercialization stage." Toshiaki Hioki, senior manager of Sanyo Digital Systems Research Center and president of iVDR Association, said. Although the format is not expected to become a removable medium that dominates the market, he said, its large capacity and high data rate will play an important role.
In order to adapt to the future development of drive technology, the capacity of iVDR card cartridge drive is scalable. This drive is equipped with serial ATA interface, and theoretically the transmission rate can reach 3Gbps.
"In Japan and other parts of the world, the supply capacity of high-definition content is rapidly increasing. IVDR is the best medium for applications that require large storage content and secure copyright protection. " Hioki said.
Several Hitachi subsidiaries, including Hitachi Global Storage Technology Corporation and Hitachi Maxell Ltd, have jointly developed LCD and plasma TV sets equipped with iVDR. Hitachi has launched five TV sets, including a built-in 3.5-inch 250GB iVDR hard disk drive and an iVDR removable hard disk cartridge slot. Hitachi Global Storage Company provides 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch iVDR hard drives, and Hitachi Wansheng Company sells 80 and 160GB cartridge drives.
Although the SATA interface speed can reach 3Gbps in theory, the actual data rate of the first iVDR product is lower. Because these data must be encrypted and compressed/decompressed, the speed of Hitachi iVDR drive is currently 540Mbps. Nevertheless, this rate is still 15 times faster than the original data rate of 36Mbps for Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD (a possible competitor of IVDR).
Hitachi TV has a built-in slot on one side, which can be inserted into iVDR hard disk.
No matter what kind of storage medium, content protection is a key issue. Hitachi, Pioneer, Sanyo and Sharp, members of iVDR Association, developed a system called Safia Digital Rights Management (DRM) for iVDR, which means Security Architecture for Intelligent Attachment.
Safia adopts AES-128 content encryption algorithm and mutual identification technology based on PKI. Safia drive contains a tamper-proof module in which all security-related data (such as security keys and usage rules) are stored. According to Hirofumi Sukeda, manager of Hitachi’s content access business center, systems without Safia certificates cannot access these data, and data can only be transferred between iVDR fixed drives or cassette drives with security functions.
Japan Digital Broadcasting Promotion Association has approved Safia as the official DRM system of removable hard disk. Japan’s radio industry and broadcasters association has also approved the use of Safia. In 2005, four developers of DRM system established Safia authorization team, which is responsible for issuing licenses for the scheme.
Taking iVDR as a "bridge medium", Hitachi believes that the iVDR card box can further expand the role of the built-in hard disk drive in TV sets. Users can use hard disk boxes to expand their capacity, or each family member has his own hard disk drive to store his favorite content, said Makoto Ebata, general manager of the licensing group and CEO of Hitachi’s consumer business department.
March towards China
At the recent meeting of the Association, Kokusai Seik Company, which specializes in developing professional broadcasting system for China market in Osaka, reported that it recommended a system based on iVDR to China CCTV, which can complete a whole program production process from video recording to editing and archiving system. Go Kaishin, president of Seika Company, announced at the meeting that China CCTV agreed to adopt the system recommended by the company in April, and Seika will start to provide equipment in July.
Alps electric appliance company has started mass production of CD loading mechanisms with iVDR, and provided it to Seika company for experiment.
The number of members of the iVDR Association has now expanded from the initial 8 to 50, among which Toyota Motor Corporation, Nissan Motor Corporation and Seagate Technology Corporation, a driver manufacturer, are executive members, while Samsung Electronics Corporation is a general member. However, consumer electronics giants Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, Sony Corporation and Toshiba Corporation withdrew from the association.
Obstacles to development
Like most standards, to gain a foothold, iVDR first faces the traditional "chicken and egg" problem. For example, if automobile manufacturers adopt iVDR in in-vehicle entertainment systems, it will greatly promote the iVDR standard; But a Toyota spokesman also pointed out that car companies are likely to wait until iVDR is widely accepted before considering embedding it in cars.
A Seagate spokesman said that the company believes that the set-top box with iVDR will be a prerequisite for the format to enter the US market. The spokesman pointed out that compared with optical disks, iVDR has advantages in capacity, data rate and security, but optical disk drives are superior in cost and durability. In this market, it is difficult for iVDR to catch up with CD-ROM drives because the iVDR camp is building its business model from scratch, he added.
This format will also face the challenge of another hard disk drive competitor. Toshiba launched a TV with a mobile hard disk box slot in the Japanese market in April. Hard disk drive with eSATA interface (an external extension of serial ATA) can be directly connected to Toshiba TV.
"For the sake of cost and capacity, we chose to use popular hard disk drive specifications," a Toshiba spokesman said. "In addition, the security system is proprietary."
Toshiba said that after verification, at present, 13 HDD models from I-O Data Device Company can be used as external drivers for its new TV.
I-O Data Device also produces products compatible with iVDR. It is reported that so far, this peripheral manufacturer has sold about 6,000 iVDR cartridge drives. As a test version of this format, these drives are equipped with USB adapters that can be connected to a PC.
However, apart from Hitachi, no other consumer electronics company has announced the commercial listing plan of this product. For iVDR, the key question is when it will be accepted by the market.
Author: Harayuko