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HighDef Content to Require New Monitors

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the upgrade-fever dept.

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."

9 of 607 comments (clear)

  1. More info by SirJorgelOfBorgel · · Score: 4, Informative

    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)...

  2. Re:Circumvention by sqlrob · · Score: 5, Informative

    You need the driver that authenticates to the display. I doubt very much that will be (legally) in any OSS drivers.

  3. Re:Microsoft? by OG · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Mounts as drive by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Informative

    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
    1. Re:Mounts as drive by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 4, Informative
      Yes the filenames are obscured but since the ID3 data lives in teh file it's a moot point.

      True, and it's worth pointing out that the file names are not mangled to make it harder to copy them. They are mangled because they become unique identifiers. This is so that when you change the ID3 information, iTunes knows which files to replace, thus avoiding duplicates.

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  5. Dell 2005FPW Users Already Effected by SlashdotOgre · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:Dell 2005FPW Users Already Effected by PoderOmega · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have a Comcast Motorola box with HDTV and DVR and it is currently plugged into my TV via DVI. If you turn the power off on the box, then hit the "Menu" button on the remote you can have some more advanced output settings. I know some people have said that the DVI port is disabled on these boxes, but I have had 2 of these boxes in the city of Chicago (so I dont know if it is a regional comcast thing) and both had DVI out enabled.

  6. Re:Microsoft? by pavon · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. Re:Circumvention by ratboy666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061