[mythtv-users] Ceton drivers for kernel?

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 12:13 AM Steve Greene <sgreene820 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the insight, Gary. I recognize that cablecard is a rapidly diminishing market.

For most MSOs, CableCARDs are a dead end.
We are only trying to guess the date (for some
MSO the date(s) are clearly earlier than others).

> I'm curious how HDHomeRun (et al) structured their product licensing to effectively sandbox the CCI/DRM portion of the tuner's operations.

Both Ceton and SiliconDust use CableLabs approved
technology for the protected path required content
(CCI = copy_one or copy_never).  For content without
that requirement (CCI = copy_freely), they both have
chosen alternative paths (SiliconDust just use a
UDP transport stream, or an HTTP encapsulated
transport stream; Ceton uses RTSP).

> I remember hearing they actually used a linux kernel for basic os housekeeping within the device.

Ceton uses a linux kernel in their device, but,
just like the TiVo (which also uses linux), take
advantage of secure processes internally to
ensure that in their device the content is
protected.  As I recall, SiliconDust, with the
HDHR3-CC product, reportedly used a different
RTOS they licensed (maybe VxWorks?)

> Do developers every use legal researchers
> to figure out potential end runs around these
> IP-cluster-fucks?

As any active attempts to bypass IP requirements
is a CEE (Corporate Ending Event (minimal
costs are in the many millions, perhaps billions))
no real company would even consider thinking
along those lines as one of the early impacts
means having their entire CableCARD certificate
revoked, effectively bricking their devices, and
any device they have ever sold.  So such
companies would get it from both sides (their
customers, and the content owners).