37 ms·

So the reason this person had to go through all of this trouble--the reason why it didn't "just work" to plug his laptop into his TV and watch movies in 4K, som

by saurik 7y ago

So the reason this person had to go through all of this trouble--the reason why it didn't "just work" to plug his laptop into his TV and watch movies in 4K, something that clearly should "just work"--is because if Netflix allowed arbitrary devices, like general purpose computers that work for the user (as opposed to being effectively owned by content studios and licensed to you), to have access to 4K video, then people could pirate movies and watch them in high quality, something we all know is currently impossible, which is why the hardware for pulling off this impossible feat wasn't something that he was able to just buy off of Amazon for $65 or anything... oh. (The logic of DRM pisses me off :/.)

ryall 7y ago
No the logic's easy, DRM exists to inconvenience honest consumers.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
zozbot234 7y ago
How many people would even care about pirating this sort of content? A 4K movie can easily take up 50-100GB in its native format - even the cost of storing this on durable media is quite non-trivial. I suspect that there's nothing of substance behind this renewed "protective" push besides content studios' artificial paranoia, the point of which is mostly to cling onto a delusion that their content is somehow uniquely valuable.
- justinsaccount 7y ago
  This is the same reasoning against why anyone would ever listen to music or watch a movie on a computer. Bandwidth will improve, storage will get cheaper, and compression will get better.
  - zuppy 7y ago
    I have cheap gigabit internet. Bandwidth already is not a problem. What matters the most for me is convenience. This is the proper way to stop pirating.
- Thorrez 7y ago
  A 2 hour movie at Netflix's 4K bitrate (17Mbps) would be 15GB. >>> 2.0*60*60*(17*1000*1000)/8/1000/1000/1000 15.3
  - sytelus 7y ago
    HEVC can compress it to about 4GB. At 10Mbps cable internet (typical in urban Comcast), it would take ~1hr to download 4K 2hr movie at this compression. This is what makes realtime 4K streaming possible.
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      HEVC isn't 4x better. 4-5Mbps 4k HEVC is going to look bad under a whole lot of conditions. And 17Mbps 4k h.264 wasn't a great place to start in.
    - jml7c5 7y ago
      Doesn't Netflix already stream 4K content using HEVC?
- FooHentai 7y ago
  The cost and hassle of storing 1080p back when it first became common is about on-part with the cost of handling 4K content today. Lots of folks have 100-1000Mbit connections, and storage capacities have increased to keep pace. Although, anecdotally, after setting everything up for 4K I've been underwhelmed by the content - Modern film CGI at 4k looks garbage, the kind of fidelity leap we saw with HD isn't nearly as ubiquitous. On tbat basis, 4k's not 'must have'.
  - Godel_unicode 7y ago
    For me the point of 4k isn't actually 4k, it's HDR.
bb88 7y ago
So technically it sounds like he was getting 2k screenshots, which apparently was fine for what he was going for. There have been in the past devices that have removed HDCP on 1080p content, that could be picked up off Amazon/Aliexpress for like US$20-$30. Sure the bitrate for raw HDMI content isn't something you'd want to store raw, but if you're willing to recompress it, you can have something manageable, while still getting 99% of the quality of the original. I haven't seen anything yet that will strip 4k HDCP yet. (Maybe the HDFury? But that seems like a lot of money when you could just have a netflix subscription)
- tyingq 7y ago
  "I haven't seen anything yet that will strip 4k HDCP yet." It sounds like they exist. https://torrentfreak.com/4k-content-protection-stripper-beats-warner-bros-in-court-1605xx/ https://torrentfreak.com/4k-content-protection-stripper-beat...
  - bb88 7y ago
    Yeah, that's the HDFury. They're about $300 though. Many of the HDMI 1080p switchers/strippers left out a chip or circuitry to re-enable HDCP on the output.
Mindwipe 7y ago
Given the devices he uses to try and bypass the DRM don't result in any 4K captures and appear to repeatedly break his ability to watch in the right dynamic range and colour space, it seems like the DRM works perfectly at doing what it's supposed to do.
balls187 7y ago
> So the reason this person had to go through all of this trouble Was because he didn't want to use his built in netflix app
nvarsj 7y ago
DRM is old news and will never make any logical sense :). I’m pretty sure Netflix has no choice as DRM is likely required as part of licensing deals. Although Apple managed to famously drop DRM...

by saurik 7y ago

ryall 7y ago

No the logic's easy, DRM exists to inconvenience honest consumers.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

zozbot234 7y ago

How many people would even care about pirating this sort of content? A 4K movie can easily take up 50-100GB in its native format - even the cost of storing this on durable media is quite non-trivial. I suspect that there's nothing of substance behind this renewed "protective" push besides content studios' artificial paranoia, the point of which is mostly to cling onto a delusion that their content is somehow uniquely valuable.

justinsaccount 7y ago
This is the same reasoning against why anyone would ever listen to music or watch a movie on a computer. Bandwidth will improve, storage will get cheaper, and compression will get better.
- zuppy 7y ago
  I have cheap gigabit internet. Bandwidth already is not a problem. What matters the most for me is convenience. This is the proper way to stop pirating.
Thorrez 7y ago
A 2 hour movie at Netflix's 4K bitrate (17Mbps) would be 15GB. >>> 2.0*60*60*(17*1000*1000)/8/1000/1000/1000 15.3
- sytelus 7y ago
  HEVC can compress it to about 4GB. At 10Mbps cable internet (typical in urban Comcast), it would take ~1hr to download 4K 2hr movie at this compression. This is what makes realtime 4K streaming possible.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    HEVC isn't 4x better. 4-5Mbps 4k HEVC is going to look bad under a whole lot of conditions. And 17Mbps 4k h.264 wasn't a great place to start in.
  - jml7c5 7y ago
    Doesn't Netflix already stream 4K content using HEVC?
FooHentai 7y ago
The cost and hassle of storing 1080p back when it first became common is about on-part with the cost of handling 4K content today. Lots of folks have 100-1000Mbit connections, and storage capacities have increased to keep pace. Although, anecdotally, after setting everything up for 4K I've been underwhelmed by the content - Modern film CGI at 4k looks garbage, the kind of fidelity leap we saw with HD isn't nearly as ubiquitous. On tbat basis, 4k's not 'must have'.
- Godel_unicode 7y ago
  For me the point of 4k isn't actually 4k, it's HDR.

bb88 7y ago

So technically it sounds like he was getting 2k screenshots, which apparently was fine for what he was going for. There have been in the past devices that have removed HDCP on 1080p content, that could be picked up off Amazon/Aliexpress for like US$20-$30. Sure the bitrate for raw HDMI content isn't something you'd want to store raw, but if you're willing to recompress it, you can have something manageable, while still getting 99% of the quality of the original. I haven't seen anything yet that will strip 4k HDCP yet. (Maybe the HDFury? But that seems like a lot of money when you could just have a netflix subscription)

tyingq 7y ago
"I haven't seen anything yet that will strip 4k HDCP yet." It sounds like they exist. https://torrentfreak.com/4k-content-protection-stripper-beats-warner-bros-in-court-1605xx/ https://torrentfreak.com/4k-content-protection-stripper-beat...
- bb88 7y ago
  Yeah, that's the HDFury. They're about $300 though. Many of the HDMI 1080p switchers/strippers left out a chip or circuitry to re-enable HDCP on the output.

Mindwipe 7y ago

Given the devices he uses to try and bypass the DRM don't result in any 4K captures and appear to repeatedly break his ability to watch in the right dynamic range and colour space, it seems like the DRM works perfectly at doing what it's supposed to do.

balls187 7y ago

> So the reason this person had to go through all of this trouble Was because he didn't want to use his built in netflix app

nvarsj 7y ago

DRM is old news and will never make any logical sense :). I’m pretty sure Netflix has no choice as DRM is likely required as part of licensing deals. Although Apple managed to famously drop DRM...