[mythtv-users] cablecard

[Brad Templeton]

On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 03:25:02PM -0700, Joe Votour wrote:
> Myself, I see Microsoft as the defining factor here. 
> I figure that in order to integrate things as well as
> they currently do (i.e. an On Screen Display), they're
> going to need to decrypt that data somehow.  The PC
> architecture is too open to allow that to happen.  So,
> I think that based on Microsoft's lead is where things
> will go.  If they get full access to the data from the
> CableCard, then MythTV, with sufficient work can also
> do so (even if it means completely reverse engineering
> things).  Otherwise, I have to wonder if Microsoft
> will just promote another XBox-like device that
> performs the full Media Center functionality (by
> XBox-like device, I mean a device that is closed in
> nature, as opposed to a Media Center PC).

We can reverse engineer it but may not be able to legally use
that information.

After all, the DVD CCA licenced DVD decryptor keys to the various
makers of DVD playing software for PCs.   And yes, people were
able to instrument those players and get those decryptor keys.
But they can't legally make decoders using them.

(Of course, at the same time, people also found out how to break
the encryption, without posession of those keys.  Unfortunately
the software to do this is also illegal in the USA.)

The question is, will the cablecard folks be willing to accept
the fact that if MCE gets the keys to talk to a cablecard, that
people will be able to find them out?

One answer they have to that includes schemes to generate very
large numbers of different keys, and to publish "this key is compromised"
messages that disables the use of that key.

In the extreme, there could be a different key for every copy of
Windows MCE out there.  Once it was known to be compromised, signals would go 
out to cablecards saying, "Don't obey this key any more."

We'll learn more when the cablecard version of MCE and associated
hardware are released.