Four major media and technology firms have jointly launched an initiative that will give consumers an easier and faster way to organise, store and move their high definition digital movies and TV shows.

The “Project Phenix” (working title), launched by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group, SanDisk and Western Digital will also cover new releases in up to full 1080p quality - across multiple devices, said a statement. 

In addition to local storage, the content will also be backed up via the UltraViolet industry standard as well as other cloud-based services.

The project is being developed by the newly formed Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA).  Established as an LLC, this coalition will create and license solutions that secure high definition and other premium copyright-protected content on local and portable hard drives, and flash memory products such as USB flash drives, SD cards and solid state disk drives (SSDs), it said.

Once content is downloaded to a hard drive or flash memory product, it could then be accessed, online or offline, on any SCSA-enabled device such as a connected TV, laptop, Blu-ray player, tablet, mobile phone or game console. The optimized content will be made easily available for purchase via digital download, digital files bundled with physical media, kiosks in retail stores, or other means of secure digital delivery, said the statement.

 “Developing solutions that will allow consumers to easily access and store true HD digital content is a critical component supporting digital media and entertainment consumption,” said Darcy Antonellis, president, Warner Bros. Technical Operations. “Through the SCSA, we will accelerate the development of products that will make it easy for the consumer to download, store and playback their high definition digital movies and TV shows, in full 1080p, on any SCSA-optimized device at home and on the go.” 

“The vision for this new product is to store, play and back up in the cloud personal and professional content,” said Mike Dunn, president, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. “The device renders content up to 10 times faster than over-the-top internet. We see Project Phenix as a key component of the emerging digital ecosystem.”

The SCSA’s solutions will be designed to work with the industry-backed UltraViolet (UV) ecosystem and aimed to complement other next-generation high definition content protection technologies already in the market such as Intel Insider.  The SCSA expects to make its solutions widely available for license this year, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service