Meet 'Facet,' the RealNetworks DVD Ripper Box

It's not every day that a court case drags a product roadmap out into the light of day. Yet that's what happened with "Facet," a set-top box that RealNetworks hopes will do for DVDs what MP3s did for the home stereo.
Somewhat ironically, Hollywood is positioning Facet and the RealDVD software as just another illegal DVD ripper.

The fate of Facet, of course, rests in the hands of Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who is expected to rule in a case this week pitting Real versus the top Hollywood studios and its content control association. The product in question is actually known as RealDVD, code-named "Vegas," which launched last year before the studios halted sales with a restraining order; Facet has been in development nearly as long, and uses the same technology.

A spokesman said Facet would be priced at less than $300. If Judge Patel rules for RealNetworks without conditions, then the device could be out by Christmas; if not, the company may have to redesign the box to factor in any additional restrictions, he said. A 500-Gbyte drive could hold between 70 and 75 DVDs, he said.

In court, Real chief executive Rob Glaser showed off what Facet actually is, at the moment: a box about the size of a DVD player, with a glowing blue status light. Real is working with Taiwan ODMs to build the first boxes, the Real spokesman said.

Court rules forbid pictures in Judge Patel's courtroom, and Real representatives declined to allow the box to be photographed.

The box displayed the RealNetworks logo while booting up, then displayed a simple overview screen with images of the front covers of DVDs. One key feature that Real hopes to hype is Facet's ability to load an entire boxed set of DVDs, and then remember on which disc and which episode to resume playback after a user returns.

When a user loads a disc to be copied, the screen displays one of Real's chief defenses against piracy: a nagware screen.

"RealDVD should only be used with discs you own," the screen said. "If you own the disc press play."

Glaser acknowledged that are several, if not tens, of illegal third-party ripper software available that can do more on a PC's hard drive, than either Facet or the RealDVD product. Glaser said that the one of the features that he would have liked to include was a feature to compress the video so that more movies could be stored, a feature that the Content Scrambling System contract governing the copy protections on DVDs prohibited.

But, Glaser said, the RealDVD and Facet technology was designed to appeal to families with small children who would scratch the DVDs, as well as consumers with large video collections. Business travelers hopefully would also gravitate toward the RealDVD product, ripping DVDs for use on a plane via a laptop, Glaser said.