[mythtv-users] HDCP Key out?

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Tue Sep 14 15:51:50 UTC 2010


On Tuesday, September 14, 2010 09:33:58 am Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-09-14 at 09:13 -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> > Thought this might be of interest to folks here:
> > 
> > http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/09/14/1211205/HDCP-Master-Key-
> > Revealed
> 
> Dunno what this really means to/for HTPC users though.  I already get an
> HDCP-handshaked (AFAIK and presume) connection between my Acer Revo and
> my television, which also passes the DD/DTS from Myth on the Revo to my
> receiver on the optical connection.
> 
> What I need now is the HTPC (i.e. Myth) to be able to _reliably_ read
> and play DVDs (even with all of the non-compliance going on lately as a
> copy protection mechanism) and B/R discs.  I know the latter is
> coming.  :-)  Although it's still limited to not-so-recent titles AFAIU.
> 

I posted that because I thought it would be of "interest" to people on this list, I don't think it has any immediate use 
for any of us. HDCP is not (yet) causing problems with Myth that I'm aware of.

Linux BR playing is here now, with a failure rate that's better than DVDs, probably because they haven't begun to mess 
with the standard as much as they have with DVDs. You can even watch HD-DVDs under Linux, though it's hard to imagine that 
much will be spent on "protecting" that dead format.

If you buy a BR drive, it usually comes with a licensed (Windows) player, just as DVD drives do (at least the consumer 
packaged ones, OEM drives might be different).

So if I have payed for a BR disk, and a licensed player, I think that morally I am not "stealing" anything if I choose to 
watch it under Linux, though the precise letter of the law makes just about anything, probably including reading the 
label, "illegal".

Forcing me to send Microsoft over $100, just to watch my paid-for content, is over the top in terms of legal extortion.






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