With video game consoles becoming more and more commonly found in households the world over, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now drafting plans to include game consoles in its Energy Star program. A quick look through the Energy Star 5.0 draft has revealed a few of the requirements needed for consoles to pass the Energy Star specs. Hit the jump for details.

These days, the recommendations of important companies and groups can carry a lot of weight in the technology industry. It should stand as good news, then, that the reference Blu-ray player of the Criterion Collection happens to be the PS3.

Modding consoles is quite the risky business. After all, whenever you take apart a console by yourself, you're voiding the warranty and it may not work after you put it back together. Ben Heckendorn (or Ben Heck, as he is more commonly known) is not that kind of modder. He is the modder that modders all aspire to be. Check out why and what he just did to a backwards-compatible Sony PS3 in the full article.

Gizmodo has brought some good news for those folks who like streaming content from their Mac onto the television. According to the folks at Connect360">NullRiver Software, they'll be porting the technology from Connect360 for use with the PS3.

More on this development after the jump!

The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority 'fesses up. As BBC has reported, the megagroup responsible for the walls of security on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs has just admitted that the encryption on HD-DVD discs has been bypassed, as claimed by muslix64b earlier. The AACS aren't too worried, though, as they note that "It does not represent an attack on the AACS system itself."

The spokesperson further commented that the large size of the files and the high cost of writable hi-def discs made widespread copying of the movies impractical. From that perspective, they might be looking at the early (and high-cost economics) of high-def movies to deter potential pirates - hence their complacent attitude towards the hack.

Here's an interesting bit, though: Why did muslix64b go as far as to break the walls of copy protection on HD-DVD, then, if the economics aren't suited for it right now? BBC gets the answer straight from the hacker himself: because he was so peeved at the fact that he couldn't play his HD-DVD movie, simply because he lacked the required compliant connector (HDMI cable or compliant DVI). According to him, "Not being able to play a movie that I have paid for, because some executive in Hollywood decided I cannot, made me mad."

So... for want of a cable, what got lost again?

Last year we posted an article that the PS3 would use the next-gen High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) to support HD video output. HDMI, for the uninitated, is an industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. HDMI interfaces between any compatible digital audio/video source (e.g. PS3) and a compatible digital audio and/or video monitor. HDMI, according to industry analysts, is set to replace the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) in consumer electronics products by 2008.

At last week's Computex 2006, new info on HDMI finally emerged with a "But" and a "However." The HDMI group, composed of several companies, announced that the HDMI 1.2 will be upgraded to a new version called HDMI 1.3. 

The HDMI 1.2 specifications are:

• Support for One Bit Audio format, such as SuperAudio CD's DSD (Direct Stream Digital)
• Changes to offer better support for current and future PCs with HDMI outputs, including:
• Availability of the widely-used HDMI Type A connector for PC sources and displays with full support for PC video formats
• Ability for PC sources to use their native RGB color-space while retaining the option to support the YCbCr CE color-space
• Requirement for HDMI 1.2 and later displays to support future low-voltage (i.e., AC-coupled) sources, such as those based on PCI Express I/O technology

Meanwhile HDMI 1.3 will support a feature called "deep color" that allows devices to process and display a great number of colors. In addition, its bandwidth will be upgraded from 165MHz to 225MHz (but can go up to 450MHz if necessary). The increased bandwidth enables displays to handle 1080i at 60Hz with 36-bit RGB color or 1080p with 90Hz refresh rate with 36-bit color. The new HDMI 1.3 will also support Dolby HD and DTS-HD audio standards (v1.2 only supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS standards). Nice, huh?

Here comes the "But..."

Unfortunately for early adopters of the HDMI 1.2 - including the PS3 (which already supports "deep color") - the new features of HDMI 1.3 cannot be enabled by either firmware or driver upgrades. While both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD specifications call for support of "deep color," they have yet to release any statement indicating support for it or any feature of HDMI 1.3.

Here comes the "However..."

The HDMI Group said ATI and NVIDIA can readily incorporate the new HDMI 1.3 standard into GPUs and cards.