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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."
You only hate it because youre angry
You were raped, thats why you hate men
You lived a hard life, thats the only reason you walk this path
Ive heard them all before, too many times to count.
Im not shy about my past. Im not ashamed of my past. Many painful, unfair things happened to me in my past. Unfortunately, oftentimes my past is what people attack me with. What has prompted this post?
I awoke this morning and wanted to share with everyone my feelings about an appointment yesterday. It was an appointment with OSU (Ohio State University). The single most important appointment I think I have ever had. I had half a post even created; its still in my draft folder. I wanted to talk about the fear I had, the terror that consumed me at the thought of this appointment. I wanted to share where that fear had come from, what had fed it, nurtured it. The injustices that I have had to overcome to get to where I am today. I wanted to share some of my past, some of the things that have made me who I am.
But I stopped.
Midway through the post I stopped, my fingers hovered over the keyboard and my mind froze in mid-sentence. I kept thinking to myself, If I tell this stuff, if I make it public, how many will then use it to destroy my credibility? How many people will point to this post as a reason they shouldnt believe my theories or my beliefs? If they knew what kind of life I had lived would they use it against me? Would they dismiss my arguments based upon my past?
Ive had this happen before. Some of my best friends have done it to me. I was engaged in a debate over pornography with a very close friend. I cited statistics, I cited harm, I quoted numbers and gave my sources. She looked at me after we had been arguing for some time and said, Well B.B. you have to admit that your past has an effect on your views. I understand that you wouldnt like Pornography because you havent gotten over what has been done to you
I froze. My face a mask of puzzlement, my jaw hanging lax as I stared in disbelief. What the hell had just happened? I mean, I had heard the argument from others, but it was in that day as I was sitting in her living room petting her cat and drinking a beer that it actually hit me. My entire belief system was invalid because of my past. My points were not made stronger by my past, they were made weaker. My past was the reason I was not to be taken seriously.
Did anyone discount the slaves arguments that what was happening was unjust based only upon the fact that they were slaves? I mean, would anyone tell a black man that, You just dont like slavery because of your past Would any of the above arguments work for slavery?
How about Jews? Would anyone tell Jews that, Youre just angry over the holocaust because of your past would they say it and actually believe that it was a valid argument?
Then why in the fuck is it that MY past is able to be used in that fashion? Why is it so easy to dismiss a woman who has been raped, who has been used and destroyed that her argument is not valid because of her past?
Some have told me that the life I lived was a hard life. I really have no objective knowledge of it because it was my life and well, I was living it at the time. For all I knew everyone had the kind of life I had, at times, I even told myself that MOST women had the kind of life I had. I have since realized that this is untrue, but it is a good example of what I thought normal was.
I was raped at 10 by an uncle. An uncle who used to show us the Pornography kept under the bathroom sink at my Aunts house. This same uncle went on to damage another of my cousins. Hes not in jail. Nothing was done to him and the young girls he violated try to live their lives knowing that he will never be brought to justice.
It was that solitary event that set up the events for the rest of my life. I fell apart, my life shattered, my world-view destroyed. I no longer felt safe, anywhere. The fear crept over me like a fog. I was put into a drug rehab for
Just sign me up for that DRM infested hardware!
Anyone else see the irony in the "OpenCable" process being used to DRM TV content?
I love my XPMCE network. I don't watch much TV, but I have nearly every movie ripped, 2 HD tuners and 2 SD tuners (had 4 as a test but it recorded too much).
I'm getting HD cable right now. I use timmmoore's Firewire mod and its perfect. I don't believe the firewire input transfers any broadcast flag, which I fear CableCard will.
This is the #1 requested MCE feature. MS came under a ton of angry rants because it was missing from RU2, yet it was the content provider's holdup.
Me? I'll stick to RU1 and Firewire. No DRM, no broadcast flag and gorgeous HD from cable. You can wait until Xmas 2006 if you need official industry support.
I'd love to see HD via an extender (other than the XBox360), or user-sorted Recorded TV.
something else to have to wait till it gets the DRM 'corrected' out, anyone know where to get the patched version, is it out yet? lol
It's the question on everyone's mind!
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
Of course, it's the CableCard 1.0 spec, not 2.0 it will support. No PPV, or VOD, but it's a good step.
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.
As much as I hate Microsoft...I hate Comcast MORE.
And just because I want to be predictable...
"I for one welcome our new cable TV overlords"
Cable cards already exist now. You can walk down to your local cable provider and pick one up. So whats the difference between sliding a cable card into a tv and sliding a cable card into a pci tv tuner with an empty cable card slot? What is the delay in making this happen sooner?
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
Why not just plug a firewire cable from your cable box to your PC? No Microsoft DRM to contend with. No need to turn your nice flexible DVR into a restricted cable-box. No need to pay for more junk.
Someone want to tell me why anyone should be interested in this?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Screw MS MCE - Use http://www.mythtv.org/
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
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$oft now tries to get in bed to implement some more DRM crap ( not like this is any kind of surprise). I wonder how many PS2P and XBOX 360's will be under the Xmas tree this year. My guess is way to fucking many.
DRM (just recently referred to as "Digital Restriction Management") is a continuing issue, it is reported a lot and harped on quite often, recently there was an article that I wish I could find where some honcho of the music media was referring to consumers need to get use to "renting" content and not purchasing it..
BTW I still play vinyl at home.
The subject says it all.
CableCard requires strong DRM -- much stronger than is possible in XP. I suspect it will require the "Protected Environment" feature in Windows Vista.
About the broadcast flag, it only applies to TV that is broadcast over the air, not cable. Cable has copy control information (CCI) embedded in it, and FireWire does obey CCI -- if the content is marked as "copy once" or "copy never" then the cable box will re-encrypt the data with DTCP before sending it over the FireWire port. Since computers do not support DTCP/FireWire (on purpose), premium cable content is generally not recordable by PCs. (However, in the short term many cable networks/boxes are "broken" and don't properly enforce this.)
Instead of putting in more channels, can they not put in some basic functionality? hardware and software wise they are way behind. Extenders are only avaible for ntsc so far which doesn't help you much in Europe. I invested in a MCE system, now browsing the net every day for alternative solutions. Afcourse M$ has more interest in making deals with networks then in keeping their users satisfied. Hope MCE can be deinstalled faster then it got installed.
It took two years to negotiate the DRM licensing to allow CableCard PCI tuners to exist.
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)
Everyone knows that OpenCable + DRM = Torture by way of porn!
There will be issues, as you can imagine!
[%] Cingular Ringtones
Reminds me of a song:
...Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Gates^H^H^H^HGrinch.
Just in time for Chistmas!
Most "nerds" seem to be overwhelmingly against technologies to prevent consumers from using legitimately obtained digital content. As such it might be appropriate if Slashdot ("News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.") reflected this by not falling into the trap of defending them as being "to protect HDTV cable programming". But what do I know.
I hope tivo get's their act together and get's their cablecard HD box out of vaporware soon and beats M$ to the punch.
It'll be interesting to see if 3rd party software applications will be able to interface with the cablecard so taht you won't be stuck with using MCE 200x as your PVR/HTPC.
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Perhaps this would work. A Hauppauge satellite receiver card with cabling?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
"Central to this agreement is the DRM protection scheme developed by Microsoft to protect HDTV cable programming under the OpenCable process."
And.... go.
Why not just plug a firewire cable from your cable box to your PC?
http://www.dtcp.com/
Note the announcement: "DTCP grants provisional approval to Windows Media DRM"
5C DTCP is a DRM scheme that can be used over Firewire to require that only compliant devices will receive "protected" data over the Firewire connection. Most cable boxes already have 5C support, even if they don't have it enabled yet.
This really is great news. It will allow for much higher caputres to be posted to BitTorrent. I mean really, how long will it take for this DRM to be cracked? 10 days? 10 hours?
CableCard compatability will make Media Center more viable. I tried hooking a media center up to a box...and I could not find a code, so it never got hooked up. CableCard will mean no cable box, no wiring, etc.-and expensive media centers will have-and
This is DRM that's been in your cable box for a long time now. It's called "5C" or "DTCP". It essentially prevents a cable box (or any other DTCP-compliant device) from transmitting "protected" data to noncompliant devices.
The problem here is that the CableCard licensing group (driven by the cable/satellite companies) got in bed with the content companies (RIAA/MPAA/etc., driving the DTLA, who manages DTCP licensing) and locked things up under patent protection so that you can't create a CableCard device that outputs a digital signal unless it also complies with DTCP. This doesn't really affect the cable companies at all. CableCard is already secure for managing the ability of a device to receive subscribed channels over cable. But it's a gold mine for the content companies, who now have complete control over your ability to record/rewatch/rewind/fast-forward content received over cable TV.
In other words, it's exactly like the broadcast flag, but for cable. No legislation required.
The reason that Microsoft is able to get a license for Vista to support CableCard+DTCP compliant hardware for the PC is because they are willing to put in the DRM required by the DTLA, a la "Trusted" Computing. No open-source solution will ever be able to get this license, because the content companies decree it to be so - after all, an enterprising young hacker could alter said open-source solution and then be able to skip those oh-so-precious commercials that we don't want to watch.
So don't blame Microsoft for doing what's required. Blame the content companies, and blame the cable companies for caving in. This has been locked up tight for years now, and barring public revolt or legislative prohibition, moving down this road was inevitable.
MythTV running on pcHDTV-3000 and are a killer combination for viewing and recording HDTV on Linux. Even unencrypted QAM is supported.
The pcHDTV forum is very informative if you want to set up your own PVR on Linux.
I guess I won't be buying any new TV equipment
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
I think we should take up a collection and buy one of these for DVDJon!
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
would choose to use this is consistent need your hel3p! Lube or we sell become like they bureaucratic and
I absolutely, *love* this DRM stuff. Being the pragmatic, unscrupulous pirtate I am I can almost always find a way to circumvent the nonsence - either w/ my own stuff or tools I download from others. What this means for me is that Joe Bloe, the guy who doesn't know any better, will pay for all this nice stuff that I get for free.
Unfortunatly, they get away with this because it isnt a pain in the arse for average customers. Most users are happy if it works, and it *does*. They can download music via itunes, play it and run off cds so are happy. They can (in a years time) use these MCE cable cards and aslong as it does record the shows as promised they will be happy, and they wont ever notice its wrapped in DRM. I mean, the most they will probably want is to watch it on other tvs (which ms will no doubt cater for with some extenders) and possibly on their pc (which if the posts about Vista MCE being the requirement for this drm, the desktop Vista will hopefully support). Of course this doesnt help people like you, the exception, who want to do things the DRM deems unacceptable, such as reencode for the PSP. And if this DRM is as good as they say, you could be stuck. But hey, at least you have the option. Here in the UK, there is no cablecard.
Paul
You're suprised that men who frequent hardcore strip clubs like fetish porn and sadomassochism and objectify or abuse women?
Not all men are like this. In fact very few are. Especially among the more educated you'll find on sites like slashdot.
caret H?
In the words of someone (I can't exactly name who it is) very wise, DRM "only blocks stupid pirates and legitimate users."
This was supposed to roll out by the 2005 holiday season.
Neat technology, HDTV support, all sorts of bells and whistles (including DRM)
however
thank the wonderful world of crappy 3rd party vendors for getting so far behind schedule that it won't be seen until 2006.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I have one. It works.
Reading Slashdot is ruining my spelling and grammar.
"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."
I wasn't aware that pirates wore name tags.
"Hi! I'm Bob, and I'll be your pirate this evening."
"If the DRM makes the product a pain in the ass to use, I won't buy it."
So why did it take DRM for people to say no to the content created? You all have had the opportunity all these decades to say no to all the content out there and you didn't. Even worse you all downloaded it and spread it via every means available. If you all had said NO to begin with and let the content creaters know. Then we all would presently have fair IP laws, and fair use rights. Content we would all be glad to purchase at reasonable prices, via means that would fit our lifestyles. But NO, the majority did for the commercial segment, as we did for the government, and simply took the lazy way out. Then to add insult to injury, we let pirates ruin what good remains, and then yell at those who do defend their hard work because they should have made it free to begin with.
DRM is like border patrol or a lock on a box - effective, but ultimately circumventable.
The big companies are spending more and more time trying to figure out how to build a higher fence around their border and build stronger locks.
Aside from the issue that all DRM is ultimately circumventable, I believe most nerds are upset by content companies forcing software non-diversity and screwing up advancement of opensource software.
Example: there is still no legal solution for playing DVDs on Linux.
REPEAT: There is still no legal solution for playing DVDs on Linux.
Chew on that and think of what that means about how important opensource environments are to the RIAA/MPAA.
So... when will Linux users be able to use CableCard? My guess is that within 2 years some group of enterprising hackers will have a decent reverse engineernig of it so that with great pains and probably hardware that will be rendered "illegal" in the US, someone would be able to receive HD content directly on Linux. So, maybe the content companies are buying themselves a few years by making a mechanism that locks out Linux.
If enough people switch to Linux on desktops and set top boxes, market forces will drive alternate solutions.
Until that day, I'll stick with SDTV and non-HD tvs, thank you.
Because of all the "copy-protection" schemes, DMCA, DRM and the outrageous fees I decided a while ago to ditch COX cable and not to sign up for an other similar service anymore. Instead I am reading books in the evening. It really makes a difference. Most of the books I get from half.com for a few bucks. Now I safe a lot of money, I am no longer annoyed about paying for religious propaganda shows, I care no longer about bogus "news", I can sleep much earlier because I am no longer exposed to the soundscape from stupid TV shows, and the best thing: I enjoy the books with someone else. So, I think I should be thankful to Cox, Microsoft, Sony, MPAA etc.. Thanks!
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.
So please, no more flames.
~Kotta.
(if you read this, sorry you had to ban me BB, i just wanted to debate. though you coulda asked me directly to go away)
And which "Fair Use" right allows one to mass-distribute content via eDonkey, Usenet, or burned DVD?
If the DRM makes the product a pain in the ass to use, I won't buy it.
There is no "if", DRM means less choice, less functionality, less value. Every copy prevention technology restricts fair use. DRM means that the technology isn't ours it is theirs, so that the technology is only worth as much as the existing content.
Computers and the Internet have meant that for the first time in many years many more individuals can have a parity with big institutions in our ability to create and distribute ideas and expression, DRM seeks to take that away.
So, how long before we can start copying HD content?
It might suck, but think of this: Uber-root! You can be sysadmin, but there is still a higher power than that! Isn't that awesome?
I have freaks! I did something right...
CableCard requires strong DRM -- much stronger than is possible in XP.
Is that to license or to operate? Seems to me that the cable card is mostly just hardware and someone else could write software that allowed it to work without restrictions. If it lets the video into the PC for viewing one should be able to record it whether there's any soft or broadcast flag or not.
Thank you, Microsoft, for doing your part helping to defeat DRM controls on HDTV content. I mean, what could be a better contribution to that goal than to make that content available under Windows?
So I work with an MSO and handle as one of my duties most of the engineering side of cable card deployment. And I've got to say, there was never a more broken bastard of a technology released upon the consumer. While I fully support the concept of a PCMCIA like card to handle authorization for copy protected items, it brings a whole crush of issues along with it in its current form. Here are a few of my favorites.
First, its unidirectional. The biggest thing the cable industry has done in the last 5 years is finally finally get to a two-way system. Its pretty crap, but at least its IP. CableCard 1.0 is a step backwards. All it does is hand off a decryption key to the host TV that it receives from the cable headend.
As a sub to the above, the lack of bidirectional communication means we can't do any remote diagnostics or QOS of these things in the field. Unless the customer is a techie troubleshooting these things is a nightmare. Add to that the fact that unlike the standardized cable box platform (OMG Monopoly) every set handles decoding, channel mapping, etc in a slightly different manner. While the OCAP standards provide for guidelines, the different TV makers take some considerable liberty with implementation. Some TV's may do a fantastic job of decoding HD content, while others do an absolutely horrid job of it. They also have serious issues with MPEG2 audio streams, which some of the broadcasters still ship to MSO's.
Second, and this is the killer here for the customer, any and all of the current CableCard TV's will have to be replaced or have a costly upgrade module added to allow them to do CableCard 2.0 (bidirectional). You have to have some mechanism for modulating QPSK traffic back up to the headend. I hear Panasonic got a spec approved for a 2.0 TV, but AFAIK it isn't near production yet. Odds seem to be that within a year to two most of the new TV's will be 2.0. So both the consumer and the MSO will be stuck with these 1.0 cards and sets floating around that can't do half of what the new sets will be able to do.
I could go on, but its stressing me out to think about it. Basically, Cable Boxes suck, Cable Cards swallow.