Slashdot Mirror


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."

6 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. 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."

  3. 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?
  4. 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.........
  5. 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
  6. 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!"