[mythtv-users] Was: 5C - DOH! Now: Set Top Box Passthrough/Converter Solution Device

[Joe Borne]

>A DVI connection can still require HDCP.  Just because your nice Comcast
>DCT6200 as a DVI port on it, does NOT mean that you can hook it up to
>your Dell monitor which doesn't support HDCP[1].  The PS3 also requires
>HDCP over the HDMI connection.  Such a device will not work with these
>connections which are becoming the majority of connections.

Actually, HDMI/DVI conenctions still represent less than 2% of the
connections in consumer level AV devices.

>According to the DVD-CCA, any upscaling DVD player cannot output the
>signal over unencrypted digital channels.  BluRay and HD-DVD are not
>supposed to output digital signals over channels that don't have HDCP.
>You can still get the analog output, but not digital.  So, if you wanted
>a capture device, you'd want to look at the YPbPr connections, and not
>the HDMI connections.

>To say that HDMI and DVI don't carry encryption or that the encryption
>is going anyway is just wrong.

>--Patrick

If you go back and read the thread carfeully, you'll see that the focus of
this device is to exactly that. I believe we should include the DVI/HDMI
inputs as well as a way to "hedge our bets" so to speak. I also very firmly
believe that the entire HDCP scheme will fail. NOT because of techology
circumvention though. If you look back at the past few years you can see a
very clear trend by the consumer AWAY from any DRM type technology. In
arguments such as this, people tend to miss the point. IT DOESN'T MATTER
what the DVD-CCA, RIAA, MPAA or <insert oppression acronym here> wants, or
does. What matters is what the consumer wants and does. The verdict is in on
that subject and it's past debate, the debate is over. Consumers HATE DRM in
all it's forms, on all media. The history of the past 100 years is littered
with the rotting corpses of technology that industries tried to foist on the
consumer that failed, no matter how hard they tried to tell us it was good
for us. It's also filled with technologies theat we love and use every day
that they tried to tell us were bad and force us to stop using. The only
reason we aren't seeing much debate on this yet is that the digital media
home hasn't arrived for the majority of households. Only 5-10% of households
that have cable or satellite use any sort of PVR solution. We are still a
tiny fraction, as were digital/mp3 audio users 10 years ago. In the next 5
years the technology will become cheap, easy to use and ubuquitous. It will
then spread like wildfire and the very pressures that broke the back of the
RIAA will break any attempt to violate the rights of the consumers to use
their media any way they want. When Soccer Mom can't copy her newly
downloaded Disney film from the home media center to the media player in the
mini van in order to entertain the troops on a long car trip - senators will
hear about it.

"But the law says they can't use it any way they want!" you say? Yes, but
laws change or are ignored when the consumers make it clear they won't
tolerate it. Encryption of media is going away. End of story. If you listen
closely you can hear the dying whimpers of the RIAA right now.....
shhhhhh.........listen.
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