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Open Cable Standard Not So Open

Posted by Hemos on from the locking-down-your-settop dept.

Mike Hicks writes "A few days ago, I heard about the FCC approving new rules for standardizing digital cable in the US. This involved using a set top box or tuner integrated into a TV along with a smart card (much like digital satellite services). Unfortunately, it looks like the standard (believed to be OpenCable) is meant to tightly control the hardware and software that can be used, probably making any open-source implementation very difficult if not impossible. I seem to be having a case of deja vu"

8 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Well, duh... by jbellis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cable industry is already worried enough about piracy and you can't figure out why they don't want open source set top boxes? Wow.

    1. Re:Well, duh... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly.

      Open standard mean's that there is inter-operability. not ... "lookie! this is how you decode HBO and Skinemax!"

      The only thing that has somewhat stemmed the cable TV piracy problems is that it's illegal for you to own a Digital Cable box. if you bought one off ebay then you bought stolen goods.

      Otherwise the DCT 3000 and 5000 , the most standard of the cable digital boxes in america would have been cracked wide open for everyone. Just like the crappy Jerrold and older cable boxes that were analog with some really lame digital scrambling sending a code to turn on the descrambler. (IVSS... inverted video supressed sync with the sync wandering around a bit.)

      It's a great idea, EXCEPT I am sure it's a way to enforce the broadcast flag. if they can control your TV set then they can control what you can and cant watch. suddenly your DVHS copy of the 2007 Superbowl only play's audio with a black screen that says "UNAUTHORIZED"

      no thank you.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Well, duh... by mjh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't understand how the set top box being open source is supposed to have anything to do with piracy. Piracy is the theft of information. Every company in the world is worried about the theft of their information. The fact that they use open source software does not impact that. What impacts that is how well they secure that software and protect the information that they don't want stolen.

      For the case of the cable company the issue is this: get the encryption done correctly, and it won't matter if the software processing the encrypted stream is open source or proprietary. What will matter is if the end user has the right key. Which, presumably, will be distributed on a tamper-resistant smart card which is programmed not to release the key.

      Perhaps it's just an accident on your part, but you seem to be suggesting that there's some sort of implicit relationship between open source software and piracy. If it's an accident, then ok. But if you really believe such a relationship exists, you need to back it up because I don't seen any such relationship.

      --
      Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
    3. Re:Well, duh... by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think we're going to see a new versin of "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes", as in "never underestimate the bandwidth of a shopping cart full of cheap dvds".

      The studios are finally releasing cheap ($5-$10) dvds at your local supermarket, walmart, etc. At $5.00 a copy, nobody's going to bother downloading a screener, or a rip.

      Currently, they're doing this with older releases (Spaceballs, Last Action Hero, G.I. Jane) as a way to squeeze out more revenue from their libraries.Once they do the math and figure out that they can bypass the movie theatres and video stores and sell new releases direct to the public dirt cheap and still come out ahead, this is how they're going to go.

      DVDs cost less than a quarter to press. Sell them for under $10, and they become an impulse buy. Hell, you'd probably be able to dump 10 million copies of Giglie on the world market and at $5 a pop and get most of your production budget back - people would buy it just to see how bad it really was, at that price.

      This is where the war's going to be fought in the future. Cheap DVDs sold within 6-12 months of initial theatrical release, at dirt-cheap prices, through low-overhead retailers. People then won't need pay-per-view, video-on-demand, satellite dishes or video rental stores.

  2. No surprises here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...the standard (believed to be OpenCable) is meant to tightly control the hardware and software...

    Does this really come as a surprise? Like cable modems, cable companies will simply issue out cheap hardware for a monthly fee. I suspect that they made several attempts to ensure that they get their piece of the pie. Just follow the money trail.

  3. On most cable networks by BenFranske · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Analgo boxes weren't designed to be open either. For example you need a box provided by the cable providor to watch PPV or other scrabled channels. Also, most cable systems aren't using an open standard on their digital cable right now.

    While an open (but secure for the operators) standard for digital cable be nice and probably better? I think it would. It it going to happen? Probably not. Cable providors have never been very interested in having open systems.

  4. Enough Already by Superwraith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What next? Are they going to create proprietary sidewalks and force us to wear certain shoes to walk on it, yet call it an open standard?

    This is bullshit.. I have had a Hauppauge WinTV card in my computer for 7 years (okay in a few computers, but still the same card). Works great, saves me a lot of money and space, as my computer is my full entertainment center. If these people think I am going to have buy a device with a TV built into it to use the cable service, they are sadly mistaken. If i am forced to do this then I am going to do one of the following:

    1. Go to satellite
    2. Get the device required, hack it (oh and it will be hackable no matter how much they try to hackproof it, if it can be built, it can be hacked). Get shitloads of karma on slashdot, and maybe get myself on the front page.
    3. Say to hell with cable tv or satellite all together and just buy DVD's, and get DSL for internet access.

    I think the cable tv companies should learn a thing or two from the RIAA before they start their own major campagins, that is if they want to remain profitable...

    In this digital age, the consumer has more organized power, and you don't want to piss the ones giving you your bread and butter, and your dodge vipers off.

  5. it's always DRM by *weasel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    every content provider is looking to incorporate more and more DRM as the quality, cost, and ease of creation of copies improves.

    the music industry doesn't care about people copying songs off the radio. it didn't even really get its panties in a bunch when CD-Rs first hit the market. or when mp3s hit the ftp servers. It went ballistic when anyone could download a single application and instantly find a never ending stream of perceptibility loss-less perfect digital copies.

    likewise with the MPAA and DVD encryption, likewise with the new Cable Set-top standard.

    They want to cut out MythTV, Tivo, splitters, H-cards, and cable descramblers. It's becoming too easy to get at the current data, so they want a change.

    with the analog system working (fairly) well as is, why else would they create a new 'standard' for the digital system? It certainly isn't in the interest of the consumer.

    Why doesn't Sony support the Blu-Ray with its stock rewritable feature?
    Why did Disney/Circuit City/et al try to push (the bad) Divx onto the market in the first place?

    It isn't because consumers are clamoring for less control or cheaper movies.

    The time is coming when content producers are going to have to realize that their profits will no longer come from format-updates (repurchasing 8-tracks as CDs, VHS classics as DVDs, etc), and will -not- come from service-style access to data. Classic TV advertising may even have to give way to pure product-placement campaigns.

    Cable will realize that a move to pay-per-channel is the way to support content without advertising in our new time-shifted digital reality. Some people -will- pay $1/mo for TLC. Home Depot will still pay for product placements in Trading Spaces. Maybe the Super-station will go away - but the cable companies, and popular channels, need not.

    the film industry has already shown that the theatre experience is not losing out to cheap cam copies. they've learned that feature-rich dvds or dirt-cheap dvds are preferred to the customer over hacked-together recompressed copies on filesharing networks.

    The record companies will need to realize that to win with digital music requires providing the best quality, with the least hassle. They will need to realize that they must beat file-sharing on features. People will give up hunting around for a good (not mislabeled)256kbps rip of Britney's newest song - if they know they can just hit iTunes or its ilk and cough up $1.

    Fair Use needs to win out. These purported 'losses' from file-sharing need to be revealed to be grossly overestimated fabrications. (A PSA from a supposed union set painter claiming that file sharing is killing the movie industry, and threatening his job - airing during it's highest grossing year of all time is particularly tactless)

    DRM is the tool of the content dinosaur. If they concentrated on actual content piracy rings - where big money is being made off black-market copies, and abandoned their fruitless DRM research - their profits could be higher than ever.

    But such is not the reaction of anti-competitive cabals. Being forced to -compete- is not what they do. Suing, threatening, bullying, bribing - these are the blunt instruments they wield instead of the precise tools of innovation, imagination and competition.

    So in the meantime - expect every advance to carry DRM in the fine print.

    --
    // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"