Brian's Brain

The introductory section of my recent cover story 'Connecting Systems to Displays: What We Got Here is a Failure to Communicate', which kicked off a lengthy and (as this post exemplifies) continuing series of online supplements, wrapped up with the following statement:

DRM flaws are at the root of the problems many end users have when they try to use modern consumer-electronics devices. When a digital-interconnect scheme not only results in restricted media access compared with its "fair-use" analog predecessor, but also spawns more usage glitches than this precursor, consumer backlash is inevitable.

When I wrote it, I was thinking specifically of the HDCP-inclusive variants of DVI and HDMI, which currently dominate the digital interface market, and I elaborated on my introductory comments later in the article. A two-part series of posts on Slashdot (with additional commentary from Ars Technica) exemplifies the issue I raised. Check out this video from Popular Mechanics:

The every-two-second HDCP renewal 'handshake' between the PS3 and the Westinghouse display is periodically failing, resulting in a stuttering LCD. Optimistically speaking, at least it's working sometimes; usually, after a HDCP handshake fails for the first time, the display goes permanently dark until the user takes more drastic measures like unplugging and replugging the cable, or power-cycling components. Initially, Westinghouse admitted fault and suggested that a firmware upgrade to the LCD would fix the problem, but the company has subsequently back-tracked.

Westinghouse and Sony are now engaged in a finger-pointing war of words with, to date, no resolution that I'm aware of. And Westinghouse tech support's suggested interim fix, to stick a HDMI-to-DVI translator dongle in-between the PS3 and LCD, is flat-out wrong, since HDCP is germane to both of these interface technologies. If anything, the additional signal propagation delay incurred due to the dongle would make the handshaking issue worse. Sigh.

In related news, cyberspace is up in arms about the DRM hooks built into Microsoft's recently-unveiled Vista O/S. I'm not sure why this is news to folks; I reported on it, for example, almost nine months ago. Nonetheless, Microsoft's response (along with this one; I appreciate and concur with Ryan Bemrose's pragmatism) hasn't satiated all of the knee-jerk, myopic critics. Perhaps it'll be a non-issue, though, if the reports of a zero-day, unrepairable hack of Vista's PMP (Protected Media Path) end up being accurate.

And speaking of hacks, many of you have likely been following my string of updates on the step-by-step circumvention of AACS on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, which began with 'HD DVD Encryption Cracked?' and progressed through a series of 'AACS 0wn3d?' posts. Ever wonder what muslix64's hacking motivation was? This interview spills the beans:

With the HD-DVD, I wasn't able to play my movie on my non-HDCP HD monitor. Not being able to play a movie that I have paid for, because some executive in Hollywood decided I cannot, made me mad...After the HD-DVD crack, I realized that things where "unbalanced" by having just one format cracked, so I did Blu-ray too.

Absolutely delicious irony. 'Nuff said.