The bad news (regarding delays) and good news (regarding ICT) keeps pouring in these days. This time it’s more of the latter. Universal Studios has said that they will not be using the Image Constraint Token (ICT) on their HD titles. This is in addition to the previously mentioned Sony, Fox, Disney, and Paramount.

Currently, Universal is only supporting HD DVD. But this decision is good either way, because ICT causes HD movies to be down-rezzed to 960 x 540 on a player’s analog outputs. This kind of consumer shafting should be opposed wherever it happens.

With reports of over 7,000,000 owners with HDTVs that can’t make the digital handshake that movie studios would like for content protection and the fear of both a class action law suit or worse – consumers not jumping on board with the new formats has Hollywood home video executives changing their tune about they way they may or may not flag their content. It is looking more and more likely that in the early days of the HD disc formats most, if not all of the studios, will be going without protection.

av revolution - Universal Changes Stance on Downresing HD Content on Analog HDTVs