The slogan used by Apple Computer is anathema among cable companies that specify set-top boxes, according to Ken Morse, vice president of client architecture at Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (Lawrenceville, Ga).

At a Digital Hollywood panel here on Tuesday (March 30), Morse said cable companies want rewritable DVDs in future set-tops to archive video. However studios are lobbying the network providers to build a security mechanism into the DVD players.

The current scheme under discussion is preventing disks made on a set-top burner from being played on any other system by linking the content to the serial number of the set-top using triple DES encryption.

That's the approach current digital set-tops already use with content stored on their hard disk drives.

Morse said no one has made a formal proposal for a security mechanism yet, but he expects rewritable DVD players will appear in set tops in about a year.