HDTV and DRM

Excellent article over at Ars Technica covering HD, Windows Vista, DRM etc.

I had been wondering about this topic for some time, and this article confirms my fears. Basically for HDTV, we will get whatever DRM we are given. We will not be able to avoid it except in return for lower quality.

Will this slow down the adoption of HDTV and related technologies such as blu-ray? Will someone come up with something legal or illegal that breaks through this? Will the content creators have learned from iTunes that it is POSSIBLE to have DRM that is (generally) consumer-acceptable? I suspect no - they'll do whatever they've always done - limit stuff as much as they can to start with.

However, I'd be very careful about spending a bucketload on a high end tv (or computer monitor for that matter) until this whole area resolves itself. I've already learned through experience that "HDTV-ready" for instance is meaningless. If you buy a set today, buy it for what it does for you TODAY, and don't justify higher amounts by what it MIGHT do tomorrow (cause you'll just be disappointed!).