“High Definition Content Protection (HDCP)—you can’t live with it, but you practically can’t buy an HD-capable device anymore without it. While HDCP is typically used in devices like Blu-ray players, HDTVs, HDMI-enabled notebooks, and even the Apple TV in order to keep DRMed content encrypted between points A and B, it appears that Apple’s new aluminum MacBook (and presumably the MacBook Pro) are using it to protect iTunes Store media as well,” David Chartier reports for Ars Technica.
Chartier reports, “When my friend John, a high school teacher, attempted to play Hellboy 2 on his classroom’s projector with a new aluminum MacBook over lunch, he was denied by the error: [This movie cannot be played because a display that is not authorized to play protected movies is connected. Try disconnecting any displays that are not HDCP authorized.]”
Chartier reports, “John’s using a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter, plugged into a Sanyo projector that is part of his room’s Promethean system. Strangely, only some iTunes Store movies appear to be HDCP-aware, as other purchased media like Stargate: Continuum and Heroes season 2 play through the projector just fine. Attempts to play Hellboy 2 or other HDCPed films through the projector via QuickTime also get denied.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Markim” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: DRM only inconveniences paying customers while the thieves just laugh, then strip it off and start copying. Don’t hurt yourself kowtowing to Hollywood, Steve.*
“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.” – Steve Jobs
*Of course, as Disney’s largest shareholder, Jobs is a major part of Hollywood, so he must do his kowtowing in the mirror.
@Michael:
“There is absolutely no reason to have all audio and video signals in one cable.”
Sure there is: you only have to deal with one cable, not three. Engineering arguments aside, that’s a superior solution for the average consumer –which makes it a valid reason.
One answer: Spatz-Tech’s DVIMAGIC
antmeeks:
…the story isn’t that you can’t play the movie on a projector.
That was clearly obvious to anyone reading the story that the point was, if your hardware doesn’t support HDCP, you can’t play copy-protected HD contend on that hardware. It is a known fact that Apple Studio Displays don’t have HDCP; thus, no playback.
And to Michael:
There is absolutely no valid reason why we would want the spaghetti of cables running between our HD playback devices and our HD displays. HDMI specification is responsible for transmitting each pixel of original image and each bit of digital audio. There is no intentional or accidental degradation of quality, since HDMI doesn’t process data in any way — it just moves it from one device to the other.
As for HDCP, all it does is encrypts the bits that represent pixels and audio during the transmission between the playback and display devices. Again, no data processing (encoding, decoding, transcoding) of any kind ever transpires during the process. If you are having problems with HDMI, the source of those problems should be in your equipment, not HDMI standard, or HDCP copy protection.
Let’s make it as clear as possible:
HDMI transmits EVERY pixel of EVERY frame of the original picture to the intended destination (ex. HDTV display). It also transmits EVERY bit of audio, in whichever format it originated (such as 192bit/24kHz, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc) to the destination, without losing one single bit in the process.
Again, there is NO transcoding, degrading, or any change of those bits in the process. HDMI simply doesn’t HAVE that functionality — it is a transmission protocol, much like TCP, or GSM, or AppleTalk…
disgusting. lame. when confusing standards and incompatible devices make it more convenient to download for free than it is to buy legally, is it surprising that people would do what’s convenient?
I already didn’t buy music from iTunes unless it was iTunes Plus. are they going to offer special, premium-priced DRM-free video next? Until they do, I’ll stick with bittorrent.
HAHAHAHAHA!!
I TOLD YOU SO MANY MONTHS AGO!!
Steve Jobs is deep in bed with DRM, why else use Intel chips and EFI? The industry basis for DRM!!
EFI is a operating system actually, it can read your hard drive, contact the internet and monitor you and YOUR CONTENT even without the operating system being loaded!!
EFI is EVIL. And the industry has crammed it down our throats and evaded our privacy!
Just like Apple is forcing glossy screens, Intel is forcing our computers to spy on us.
Welcome to paranoidaville.
It will be interesting to see if the new 24″ Display supports HDCP. I would think that it is likely to support it.
Seems like a lot of criminals post on MDN.
“As far as I know, there is no way to rip Blu-ray disc with DRM, nor capture HD stream from HDMI protected with HDCP”
10 seconds on google would clear you of that misconception
Criminals – you mean the majority of humans here on planet download? You got it.
But the GOOD NEWZ, is, that you now can connect your PS3 directly to an Apple Cinema Display (without an expensive converter box).
Biggest question is: why is a teacher playing Hell Boy 2 in the class room? Just another step in the dumbing down of the United States.