Last night while researching the current market perceptions of device DRM and its applications in the marketplace, I read Mark Cuban’s recent blog on the effectiveness of portable media devices as a delivery mechanism for HD content, the contents of which are found here.

For legal reasons I won't quote his specific text. Suffice to say at some point he puts forth the proposition that the explosive miniaturization efforts in play in the digital media device market today would preclude any reason for concern from the big movie companies since content is too big for anyone to steal using p2p and Internet technologies.

His main reason being that HD content is too big to be an effective commodity of illegal trading due to its enormous file size and the bandwidth necessary to move it from here to there. In Mark's world content owners and licensees are impervious to the threats of piracy.

Hard stop here.

The scary part about blogs is that someone sitting in the audience can say there isn't a fire in the theater and generally it's because they can't see it from where they are sitting.

Don't take that wrong. I know Mark. I have partied with him until the wee hours and in fact he was my first customer at a streaming media company founded in Austin, Texas the home of live music. He sold his streaming company to Yahoo for Billions. I sold mine to CMGi for Millions.

I heard Mark say in 1998 at SXSW that all digital media would be downloads in the next 4 years and streaming was dead on its knees as a platform. He was wrong then and he is wrong now.

Nonetheless he is a brilliant person and his new venture HDNet holds amazing promise in the new distribution of HD Content. But buyers beware. The HD Conversion and uptake in the consumer PC and device market has been slow. In fact it's been a non-existent contributor in the device media market for years and will be for another two at minimum.

The majority of consumer PCs today in homes and desktops across America cannot really provide a user experience using an HD quality movie file that is on par with current HDTV / DVD standards in the marketplace today. Yes there are some high-end PCs and MAC desktops and notebooks capable of HD playback with multi-channel surround audio capabilities but the overall market share of HD compatible PCs is not compelling enough yet to offer HD content as a primary mechanism in the digital media marketplace.

Will this change? Yes, assuredly.

As a pioneer in the HD digital media space, Microsoft has driven this adoption with their carrier grade offering WMVHD providing amazing definition and functionality that is IP and TV compatible. And yet HD capable PC's are still just beginning to ship this holiday season. Download a HDWMV clip from Microsoft’s website here to see what I am talking about. It might play for you most of the time. But it might not and for the majority of American’s it won’t.

That’s not to say that the device marketplace is not heating up. It is. But consumers are just now getting to see devices capable of providing clean video and audio playback in a portable mode form. A good example is the new Creative Labs Zen Portable Media Centers. We tested one for a good month and time after time viewers were amazed at the playback and quality of the video and audio. All of the content we showed was protected using device DRM whether the file was on the player or in a Kazaa share folder. This is a major step in the right direction and will surely catalyze the marketplace.

However, Mark’s proposition does not take into account the true disruptive effect of the p2p phenomenon on content owners and licensee’s revenue and the safety of distributing portable digital media files via the Internet. If you ask the guys at ZeroPaid.com, the world’s #1 file sharing news site, they will warn you that a new wave in p2p technologies promises to shatter your misconceptions about the capabilities of well written software using p2p as a core technology.

It’s no secret I am one of the world’s premiere authorities on deploying Digital Rights Management technologies. It doesn’t take an expert to see that every successful digital media distribution model in play today all have one thing in common, their use of DRM as a hardened barrier to piracy and global theft. CinemaNow, iTunes, MusicMatch and an overwhelming majority of adult internet players all rely on DRM to increase their level of safety and return consumers as well as the sanctity of their lifeblood, the content they own.

The good news is that with new innovations in device DRM technology Mark’s dreams of readily portable digital media will begin to unfold as Microsoft’s Janus, Real’s Harmony and the rumored Macrovision deal with Apple’s FairPlay begin to invade the PC near you with an enormous wave of mainstream and independent media. As Intel and IBM roll out their competitive offerings be sure to watch the hardware and software industries fight out the keys to your digital media future.

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