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Kickstarted Firefox OS HDMI Dongle Delayed, DRM Support Being Added
An anonymous reader writes: You may recall last September when Mozilla and a new company named Matchstick announced a Kickstarter project for a new device that would compete with Google's Chromecast. It was an HDMI dongle for streaming media that runs on Firefox OS. They easily quadrupled their $100,000 funding goal, and estimated a ship date of February, 2015. Well, they emailed backers today to say that the Matchstick's release is being pushed back to August. They list a few reasons for the delay. For one, they want to upgrade some of the hardware: they're swapping the dual-core CPU for a quad-core model, and they're working on the Wi-Fi antenna to boost reception. But on the software side, the biggest change they mention is that they're adding support for DRM. This is a bit of a surprise, since all they said on the Kickstarter about DRM was that they hoped it would be handled "either via the playback app itself or the OS." Apparently this wasn't possible, so they're implementing Microsoft PlayReady tech on the Matchstick.
Pfft can't do anything via HDMI without HDCP to keep movie studios happy.
"Pfft can't do anything via HDMI without HDCP to keep movie studios happy."
not true at all. my alienware laptop will only accept inbound HDCP codes from modern updating gaming consoles, as such trying to display a desktop on the laptops display doesn't work because HDCP is not fully implemented in windows linux etc. yes if you use powerdvd to play a bluray it will use HDCP but in truth the windows and linux devices don't use HDCP by default unless software with the current HDCP key is used. to protect that key it is not included with windows. and powerdvd uses encryption to protect its key. make a roll your own home theater pc based on an open source distribution and all your 'ripped' or 'downloaded' content will play to any hdmi device and it will play just fine
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Clearly the ignorant gits that want to perpetuate corporate friendly (and Microsoft friendly) urban legends have never actually tried any of this stuff before. A PC, a real PC, will just treat the HDMI port as yet another output. A TV is also nothing special. It will just treat your PC as just another set top box.
Encryption is NOT required. It's an available OPTION if you happen to be foolish enough to have something like a Sony BluRay player (which ironically happens to run Linux).
There is really nothing distinctive about a "television" any more.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.