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HighDef Content to Require New Monitors
QT writes "Ars Technica has an interesting article on how HDCP figures into Microsoft and Apple's future OS plans.
Not only will future HD content not play in pure HD on most existing monitors (it will be degraded, or not shown at all), but high-end monitors today don't support HDCP yet. HDCP
has been coming for 3+ years, but geek fantasy items such as Apple's $3,000 30" Cinema Display don't even have support for it yet! The end result is that when Windows Vista ships
(and Apple's next OS), most people won't be able to watch protected HD content on their computers."
There's a bit of info about all this over at DRMadness as well, though it's aimed specifically at Blu-ray and HD-DVD (but that's HighDef content as well, isn't it)...
You need the driver that authenticates to the display. I doubt very much that will be (legally) in any OSS drivers.
Yes, but those were implementation bugs, not full blown cracks - and one needed to have a license to some of the content to begin with. The holes were patched by MS very quickly and new content depends on a patched media player.
I managed to break WMAs however with a high success rate, but newer ones are again fixed against that patch.
Nonetheless, it will happen, there just isnt enough demand yet.
The idea is that Vista will determine whether or not your system has an HDCP monitor. If it does not, it will either play the video at non-HD quality (downsampling, I suppose) or not play it at all. Thus, the OS will force you to upgrade your monitor to an HDCP compliant one if you want to watch HD.
Microsoft could choose not to implement this, thus allowing HD to be viewed on Legacy monitors.
Such a dongle would be illegal under the DMCA.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Sorry, but I can get them out easily as the iPod simply mounts as a drive and I can copy what I like out. Yes the filenames are obscured but since the ID3 data lives in teh file it's a moot point. 3rd party tools just make it a little handier.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The popular Dell 20" wide screen (2005FPW) is already a victom of this. The monitor's native resolution is 1680x1050 and so it should be able to render 720p without a problem. However, you can't get HDTV content from either digital cable or directv receivers via DVI. Currently, going analog via Component In will get you HD, but unfortunately the monitor only offers DVI, VGA, S-Vid, & Composite. I use a Component to VGA transcoder, but the solution is neither cheap nor elegant.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
So, no hardware supports is officially yet, but with Vista you can watch it on you pc (under reduced resolution anyway)...
no hardware save almost all HDTVs made these days, as well as the HD-DVD and (rumored) BluRay. this is much bigger than just PCs - your TVs, cable boxes, cable cards, etc, will all include HDCP of some sort (and most TVs with HDMI input already do support it.)
of course, you could go shopping before the MPAA starts with the lawsuits...
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
Microsoft could choose not to implement this, thus allowing HD to be viewed on Legacy monitors.
No they couldn't. The DRM algorithms for HD content are patented and controlled by a media consortium. Furthermore the keys for the system are protected as trade-secrets. This consortium will refuse to license the algorithms or keys to anyone who does not sign a contract agreeing to play thier rules. It would be illegal for Microsoft to create an implementation that was not blessed by the patent/key holders.
So the choice that Microsoft and Apple have is to either play HDCP'd content the way they are told to play it (which is downgraded on non-HDCP monitors) or to not play it at all.
A quick calculation shows 1280x720 60fps at 24 bit color is 1.5Gbps. I don't know about you, but my computer cannot possibly capture that. I don't know of a single hard drive or RAID system that can write 190MB/s that does not cost as much as my Nissan 350z. To buy hardware to copy this stuff is just as dumb as buying a Toyota Hybrid to save money on Gas. (10 years at 15k miles per year to make up the cost difference from a civic).
AES-256 is "harder" than 3DES, and 3DES has yet to be cracked. The AES-256 is going on the chip.
Give cracking it a try.
Yes, Linux is used in the set-top boxes (Scientific Atlanta comes to mind). Try loading an alternate OS on these boxes. Done "properly" its impossible (or close to).
The easiest scheme is to have an MD-5 hash of the software load, and refuse to load anything else.
Now, you are thinking "the load will have the key". It may... or the key is in the box. Usually, the key will be wrapped by another AES-256 layer, that the loader knows NOTHING about. FIPS-140 stuff...
Now, the system WON'T be entirely secure -- you could always resort to chip-scraping, or thermals, etc. to break the key. As to the "Hardware to incorporate the technology to decrypt at 30 fps, full screen". Lets see -- using a Xilinx FPGA, I can decrypt AES-256 at a rate of ~500 Mbps. About 10x what is needed. Custom logic? why not. Costs less...
Note that the Linux NEVER KNOWS THE MEANING OF THE DATA. It just shoves it to the monitor. Which already has expensive glass parts, etc. The cost of an additional chip in the monitor is even more easily absorbed.
FOSS DRM? Sure, why not. The job of the FOSS DRM software will be to mediate keys, and establish a trust relationship. IT IS NOT GOING TO DECODE THE DATA.
Ratboy.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
I'm too lazy to dig for the link, but check recent /. stories for the one on the school that is ditching textbooks for electronic versions. Time limitied, DRM, electronic versions...
Then check out RMS' short story The Right to Read
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.