DRM Kills Battery Life

When Apple first begain offering video content for download from the iTunes Music Store, I immediately bought an episode of Lost just to test things. My first reaction was that my processor (I use MenuMeters and a desktop display of the Unix Top command) was seriously taxed just by watching the video. Nothing else what-so-ever was happening on my system, and the DRM laden video was heating my CPU up around 40% of capacity. Hmmm.

Now there’s been some studies that are posting their findings about the effect that DRM can have on the life of a music player’s battery. Tests showed that Creative’s Zen Vision:M went from 16 hours of playback of normal MP3s, to 12 hours of playback when DRM music was played. 4 hours! That’s 25% of the battery life.

Apple’s FairPlay DRM was actually less of a battery hog at only about 8% battery drain, compared to plain MP3 playback. I guess it’s just one more thing to hold against DRM and the Recording Industry.
When Apple first begain offering video content for download from the iTunes Music Store, I immediately bought an episode of Lost just to test things. My first reaction was that my processor (I use MenuMeters and a desktop display of the Unix Top command) was seriously taxed just by watching the video. Nothing else what-so-ever was happening on my system, and the DRM laden video was heating my CPU up around 40% of capacity. Hmmm.

Now there’s been some studies that are posting their findings about the effect that DRM can have on the life of a music player’s battery. Tests showed that Creative’s Zen Vision:M went from 16 hours of playback of normal MP3s, to 12 hours of playback when DRM music was played. 4 hours! That’s 25% of the battery life.

Apple’s FairPlay DRM was actually less of a battery hog at only about 8% battery drain, compared to plain MP3 playback. I guess it’s just one more thing to hold against DRM and the Recording Industry.