Sony decides against downsampling on analog HDTV
 

With the imminent war over which format will be the successor to the much-loved DVD about to get underway, Sony is throwing a bone to owners of some older HDTVs. At a technical briefing last week, Sony said that it will not use the Image Constraint Token to downsample the video output on analog HDTVs.

The Image Constraint Token is part of the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) used in both next-generation optical formats. A couple of months ago, we reported that ICT would be used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD to downsample video from its 1920x1080 glory to a relatively crufty 960x540 if the player detected that it was hooked up to an analog HD display or any other display lacking an HDMI input. We also noted that use of ICT would be left up to the individual studios, rather than being made a mandatory part of the AACS spec.

oh well, looks like the format war has at least one benefit to the consumer