[mythtv] [PATCH] Enable recording of encrypted channels withoutdecrypting them first.

[MarcT]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-dev-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-dev-bounces at mythtv.org]
On Behalf Of Raymond Wagner
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 5:49 PM
To: Development of mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv] [PATCH] Enable recording of encrypted channels
withoutdecrypting them first.

On 7/15/2010 16:33, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> On 15 July 2010 21:24, Johan Heikkilä<johan.heikkila at gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
>> 2010/7/15<wf_myth_user at online.nl>:
>>      
>>> My parents PVR5020(Echostar) does exactly this.
>>> It can record up to 4 programs at the same time encrypted or not.
>>> Each night at 3:00 it decrypts all recordings.
>>> If you watch a recording before it is decrypted it decrypts the
recording
>>> while watching.
>>> All with original cam and smartcard from the provider.
>>> This is sold as a legal solution here in the Netherlands(Europe).
>>>
>>> If mythtv could work like this it would be a very very nice feature
because
>>> it would give the multirec options much more use.
>>>
>>> Next question is, if you have a DVB-card with a Common Interface.
>>> Will the common interface be directly available to mythtv to pass a file
>>> true it.
>>>
>>> Wim
>>>
>>>        
>> I agree that it would be very convenient. There are occasions when my
>> smartcard is not available, e.g. it is removed and used with another
>> TV. This causes 0 byte recordings by Mythtv.
>>
>> Johan
>>      
> It should be doable.
> There is a switch between the tuner and the CAM.
> Data can go
> 1) tuner ->  CAM ->  PCI ->  File ->  display.
> 2) File ->  PCI ->  CAM ->  PCI ->  File ->  display.
> We just need to modify myth to be able to use option (2).
> The DVB api already supports both (1) and (2), but it appears that
> both (1) and (2) are illegal in the USA because CAM are only
> authorised to be in STBs and not PCs.
>    

Not quite.  (1) would be perfectly fine in the states, were it 
available.  Instead, we have CableCard, which is a full fledged DRM 
scheme.  It requires that the video be stored in an encrypted format on 
the disk, and remain in a protected path all the way to the display.
_______________________________________________

I'm not a lawyer but from what I have read in this discussion I think 2
would be fine as well.
MythTV itself would not be circumventing any encryption methods but instead
pushing the file through an authorized device, the CAM, before displaying
the video. Here in the States we don’t use CAM so no one should care about
this at all. That is unless it is against the DMCA to even have a method to
save a transmission not encrypted by you in its original state on a device
not approved by the provider to be played later using licensed hardware.

MarcT