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The Dark Side of HDCP - Why is My PS3 Blinking?

FloatsomNJetsom writes "High Definition Content Protection is supposed to make sure you're not playing pirated content, but sometimes your devices screw up the HDCP 'handshake' (over an HDMI cable) and nothing works. This happens with some regularity with the PS3, and Popular Mechanics investigated and found a quick and dirty workaround. From the article: 'We then checked with Leslie Chard, president of HDMI Licensing, which owns the rights to the standard, who told us that HDCP is one component of HDMI that has been plagued with interoperability issues. HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) is designed to prevent the interception of data — specifically copyrighted Hollywood movies — between an output component and a display. As Steve Balough, the president of Digital Content Protection, the licensing company for HDCP explains, the two pieces of hardware must exchange a key, a sort of certificate of authenticity unique to each individual device, to verify a secure connection.' The problem isn't limited to the PS3 — many HDTV cable boxes and have the same problem. The fix there? Unplugging the power cable."

19 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. I refuse to believe this. by linkedlinked · · Score: 5, Funny

    No way. DRM is conflicting with fair use of digital content?
    *gasp* Who'd have guessed?

  2. You want to have your movies and play them too?! by TheWoozle · · Score: 4, Funny

    How unreasonable can you people be? I mean, after all, the companies are *entitled* to your money. You should just be lucky that they give you anything in return. Ungrateful, good-for-nothing consumers. Hmph!

    --
    Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
  3. dyslexia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Am I the only one who misread this as DHCP?

    1. Re:dyslexia by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 4, Funny

      I hear that's a very sexy learning disability...

    2. Re:dyslexia by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 2, Funny

      This time we're sure she's a woman, right?

  4. Re:why so onerous, technology? by mrchaotica · · Score: 3, Funny
    I say fork 'em.

    I think you misspelled "fuck." If you're going to curse, do it properly!

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  5. Summary correction by PingSpike · · Score: 5, Funny

    . As Steve Balough, the president of Digital Content Protection, the licensing company for HDCP explains, the two pieces of hardware must exchange a key, a sort of certificate of authenticity unique to each individual device, to verify a secure connection.' The problem isn't limited to the PS3 -- many HDTV cable boxes and have the same problem. The fix there? Unplugging the power cable..." The summary was cut off short. The last line should have read: "Unplugging the power cable, and component cables, boxing it up and returning the half working piece of shit to the store."

  6. NES, or "blinking toaster" by tepples · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article

    annoying little technological tic that caused the sound to cut out and the screen to blink on and off when we would launch certain games. Was it the PS3 or the Westinghouse TV? So Sony has finally caught up to where Nintendo was in 1985, right?
  7. Re:why so onerous, technology? by Carnildo · · Score: 4, Funny
    I say fork 'em.


    I think you misspelled "fuck." If you're going to curse, do it properly!


    No, "Fork them". As in, take a fork and repeatedly stab it into a sensitive portion of their anatomy.
    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  8. Next Week on "24" by rlp · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Jack, you realize what this means!!"

    "Yes, the terrorists have a mole in CTU. It can only be ..."

    WARNING YOUR HDTV IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH HDCP!!

    "... Paris Hilton. Tonight, on NEWS at 11"

    --
    [Insert pithy quote here]
  9. Re:The Dark Side? by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Funny
    "The Dark Side of HDCP? I wasn't aware there was a bright one..."

    There is no dark side of the HDCP really, matter of fact, it's all dark....

    *thump*thump.....*thump*thump.....*thump*thump.... .*thump*thump.....

    --with apologies to Old Pink

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  10. Re:why so onerous, technology? by Speed+Pour · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmm, the article plus your comment makes me realize that the number of features/functionality is actually going down (despite what is advertised)...the quality of the products has fallen dramatically...and the likelihood of them working is next to nothing.

    Isn't the logical and absurd conclusion of that going to be a smallish curvy box (with several hundred listed features that aren't yet enabled) with a single button on it, that when pressed will do nothing...and it might actually fail to do that right? The one greatest achievement however, is that it'll be really tough for pirates to duplicate the remarkable ability for the device to do absolutely nothing. As a real twist, once it is cracked by the pirates, it'll perform better than the consumer version by far...even though it still doesn't do anything.

    Hmm, add a couple another button, a video screen, and that somebody will put linux on it someday, and it's a Zune!

    --
    - Nobody would know what RTFA meant if it didn't need to be said all the time
  11. Re:why so onerous, technology? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Heh, I like the Informative mods. "Hey, that's a great idea! And I'll get so many fewer STDs that way!"

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  12. Re:why so onerous, technology? by alshithead · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Then don't use it. If you mean "fuck" writing "fork" or "f**k" or whatever doesn't change anything - you meant to swear and everyone who reads it knows you meant to swear."

    If everyone who reads it knows what was meant, what is the harm?

    Don't be a rectal orifice.

    --
    I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
  13. Re:why so onerous, technology? by tepp · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, "Fork them". As in, take a fork and repeatedly stab it into a sensitive portion of their anatomy. Or as in Fork their process and create a clone?

    I'd rather not Fork DRM. :) One process is enough.
    --
    Tepp
  14. Re:why so onerous, technology? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I paid, well, I won't say how much I played for player that could only play one CD at at time. I'm pretty sure that even the modern high-end models still only play one CD at a time - unless you buy the special Zaireeka version.
  15. Re:why so onerous, technology? by patmfitz · · Score: 2, Funny
    I won't say how much I played for player that could only play one CD at at time.

    I have a newer player that plays more than one CD at a time.

    Currently I'm listening to "Hell Yes" by Beck in my left ear, and "Come in out of the rain" by George Clinton in my right ear.

  16. Re:why so onerous, technology? by DragonWriter · · Score: 2, Funny
    I say fork 'em.
    Yeah, but they aren't open-source, so we can't.
  17. Re:why so onerous, technology? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Reminds me of a joke...

    It seems that a Frenchman, an Englishman and an American were captured by cannibals. The chief explained that they were going to be killed, skinned, eaten and that a canoe would be made from their tanned hides. BUT they could have one last wish.

    So the Frenchman wanted a last cigarette. As soon as he was done with it, they killed him, they skinned him, they cooked him and ate him and they made a canoe from his hide.

    The Englishman wanted a last cuppa tea. As soon as he was done with it, they killed him, they skinned him, they cooked him and ate him and they made a canoe from his hide.

    Then they camne to the American. "I want a fork," he said.

    Incredulous, they asked "A fork? Like you eat with?"

    "Yes, a fork," he insisted. So they brought him a fork.

    As soon as he received the fork, he started wildly stabbing himself all over his body.

    "Canoe?" he shouted, "Here's your fucking canoe!"