Hacker’s Copyright Ploy Delays Roll-Out of New DVD Players

Japanese manufacturers are delaying the launch of a new DVD audio machine touted as the next generation of home music entertainment after a European hacker cracked codes that are supposed to prevent DVDs from being copied.

The hacker’s decision to post instructions on a Web site for breaking digital versatile disc copyright codes has alarmed the music industry, which had expected strong sales in coming years as consumers increasingly opt for better-sounding home systems capable of providing studio-quality videos and music.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will delay for at least six months sales of DVD audio/video players from its Panasonic and JVC subsidiaries, despite strong advance orders from consumers worldwide who were to receive the $1,000 systems later this month. Victor Co. of Japan reportedly plans to withhold the release of its new equipment for an unspecified period.

“The concerns came from the music industry, which expressed their need for a more robust encryption system than had originally been proposed,” said Bill Pritchard, a spokesman for Matsushita’s Panasonic Consumer Electronics subsidiary in America.

Manufacturers say that DVD players are to conventional compact discs what CDs were to albums years ago--far superior in sound and quality.

Since DVDs store far more information than conventional CDs, the new players would allow consumers with digital home theater systems with six speakers to separate sounds into six channels for clearer listening. The players also can be hooked into televisions so that as the disc played music it could simultaneously show a music video, lyrics or comments from the recording artist.

Pioneer Corp. also is reportedly considering delaying sales of competing equipment. A company spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The $40-billion recording industry has been striving to combat widespread music piracy as technology makes it easier to spread high-quality digital music files across the Internet in formats such as MP3.

The Norwegian hacker, whose name has not been released, broke software codes of only one company whose product allows computers to read DVDs, but the incident showed it is possible to download DVD data onto a computer hard drive. The worry was that the music, in turn, could then be distributed freely over the Internet and then downloaded into portable devices.