by Daniel Ionescu, PCWorld  

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Today @ PC World blog at PCWorld.com.

UltraViolet won’t be a store, but a standard, like Blu-ray, DVD, or MP3. On board to deploy it sometime this year are Hollywood studios including Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Lionsgate; technology companies such as HP, LG, Intel, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, and Toshiba; and content distributors like Comcast and Netflix.

Basically, UltraViolet unifies the various Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions into one standard, which would theoretically give your more freedom to roam your content on a broader range of compatible devices.

How UltraViolet will work

At the beginning, UltraViolet will work only with movies and TV shows, with the hope to expand to music and e-books. When you buy a Blu-ray disc or a DVD with the UltraViolet logo on it, you will receive a token, or proof or purchase.

This token would allow you to register your purchase with the UltraViolet online digital locker. After that, you would be able to stream the movie over the Internet for free on a variety of devices—through a set-top box on your TV, or on your mobile phone, tablet, for example.

Many unanswered questions

Besides a general idea of how it would work, there are few other details about UltraViolet. It’s unknown who will host the movies so that you can stream them over the Internet to your devices.

There’s no mention whether you can bring your old DVDs and Blu-ray discs into UltraViolet’s library, or with how many members of your family you will be able to share your library.

There’s also very little detail on how the token system would work. Initially, retailers would send your purchase or rental information to your digital locker, but it’s unknown whether this process would be instantaneous, or if users will have to take any further steps.

Pricing is a mystery for UltraViolet-enabled discs as well, and we don’t know whether these discs will come at an extra cost, or how much an UltraViolet-compatible set-top box would cost.

The notable holdouts

There are two major players in the entertainment industry missing from UltraViolet: Apple and Disney. Apple already uses its own FairPlay DRM for movies and TV shows sold through the iTunes Store, which allows you to play the files on up to five computers and an unlimited number of iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. Disney is also working on KeyChest, its own digital vault solution.

What do you make of UltraViolet? Does it have a chance?