Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Announces CableCARD Support
Thomas Hawk writes "Microsoft and CableLabs announced today that they have reached agreement that will allow digital cable ready CableCARD supported Media Center PCs to ship by the Holiday Season next year. Lack of premium HDTV cable or satellite support was frequently cited as one of the largest weaknesses of the Media Center platform. Central to this agreement is the DRM protection scheme developed by Microsoft to protect HDTV cable programming under the OpenCable process."
Anyone else see the irony in the "OpenCable" process being used to DRM TV content?
record the HD content to a PVR and stream it to a disc for archival and later viewing? 'Cause if not, then I'll stick with my Motorola 6412 PVR and JVC DVHS deck. Which, BTW, works perfectly well today and has the benefit of being pretty cheap too. --M
Must mean "Closed."
Typical American newspeak for the New Century. Rubbish. I'm building MediaPortal or MythTV, thanks.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
At the speed that DRM's are worked around, this is just going to make recording your favorite HDTV shows that much easier. Although, it would be nice to be able to watch high quality cable on my computer. This is just bringing the computer and television closer and closer.
I am so sick of all this DRM crap. It just makes things a pain in the butt for average customers who aren't trying to pirate anything. If the DRM makes the product a pain in the ass to use, I won't buy it.
I've been dying for DirecTV to make a PCI card that just plugs into the PC and pipes the video onto the PCI bus. (Or better yet PCIe) I don't seen why DRM should be handled by the OS if the PCI card still needs to use a smart card like the DirecTV boxes. Why wouldn't the cable folks use the same approach? They'd have their control of the content via an addressable smart card. And all they'd have to do is have the unlocked content stream from the card into the system. At that point the OS is just a "dumb" path for the signal to be displayed via a media player. Quite simple really. And then they don't need to trust MS to be their DRM provider...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Okaaay... Heartwrenching, but this has nothing to do with anything.
And i'm pretty sure porn has nothing to do with it either, that sort of thing happens in Ahmish communities too, and i doubt they have a very robust porn industry.
From TFA
"The specified OpenCable architecture allows for multiple DRM systems to be used in the device and ensures content providers of protected delivery of content to the PC. Microsoft(R) Windows Media Digital Rights Management is the first major DRM system to complete the due diligence necessary for approval by CableLabs."
We are just getting over the SONY fiasco, bringing on the call of the "SONY boycott." Micro$oft now tries to get in bed to implement some more DRM crap ( not like this is any kind of surprise). I wonder how many PS2P and XBOX 360's will be under the Xmas tree this year. My guess is way to fucking many.
DRM (just recently referred to as "Digital Restriction Management") is a continuing issue, it is reported a lot and harped on quite often, recently there was an article that I wish I could find where some honcho of the music media was referring to consumers need to get use to "renting" content and not purchasing it..
BTW I still play vinyl at home.
And all they'd have to do is have the unlocked content stream from the card into the system. At that point the OS is just a "dumb" path for the signal to be displayed via a media player.
No, at that point the OS is a dumb path for the signal to be recorded and BitTorrented. They don't want to allow this, thus there must be DRM at every point in the system.
DRM protections are ALREADY on DBS and cable and have been for a long while. This new step was needed or else the content providers vowed they'd stonewall digital cable content delivery to PCs for eternity.
Sadly, the same content providers who didn't care if you watched a VHS tape of the nightly news at one point now see the future of DRM as being pay per view everything. A time when they can arbitrarily at any time revoke your ability to watch anything. The cable companies are NOT happy about being in the middle and THEY have been the ones stonewalling the advance of DRM on your television more than anything else.
Marriage born in Hell, but aren't they all?
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
In the words of someone (I can't exactly name who it is) very wise, DRM "only blocks stupid pirates and legitimate users."
No, Microsoft has enough power that they could stop this DRM trainwreck from happening, if they wanted to. The fact that they don't just means that they're just as fucking much to blame as the cable and content companies!!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The only way we will ever be able to stop DRM is to create our own, free content. Via the same (r)evolutionary technology which threatens to kill our ability to share copy-protected media, the potential to create a world-class television production or film is no longer soley in the hands of corporate entities.
The media industry, from top to bottom, is about money. How can we create a production which can compete with the "big leagues" without being sucked into the same greed-pit that already exists? If content was distributed freely, could a small production company, with actors, producers, technicians, etc. survive on a tip system alone?
I'm guilty. I currently work for a massive player in the media industry, and I don't necessarily see a way out. Breaking something like CableCard would be huge problem to my company. Yet I'd still love to see it happen.
BTW, don't bother trying to hack CableCard. Just figure out a way to crack DigicipherII -- that's where the goods are.