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Open any LCD monitor. The ribbon cable which connects the VGA/DVI/HDMI decoder board to the LCD panel itself (a separate product, of which there are only a few
by asciilifeform 18y ago
Open any LCD monitor. The ribbon cable which connects the VGA/DVI/HDMI decoder board to the LCD panel itself (a separate product, of which there are only a few manufacturers) carries an entirely unencrypted and fairly well-documented signal. With an <$100 FPGA, any HDMI monitor can be turned into a decryptor.
- bestes 18y agoIs it really this easy? Has anyone done it? Are these for sale anywhere?
- wmf 18y agoNobody has done it because that's not the weakest link in the chain. It's easier to just decrypt the file in software.
- asciilifeform 18y agoThe purpose of doing this would be to create a proof-of-concept, a piece of "hacktivism" if you will: showing that the analog hole is forever un-pluggable. In this case, "analog hole" would be a misnomer - a fully decrypted digital signal must exist in order to drive the LCD glass.
- wmf 18y agoI suspect that would just motivate the MPAA to bog us down with more DRM.
- stcredzero 18y agoActually, they could just take legal action through the DMCA.
- asciilifeform 18y agoPost the schematics anonymously. Host in a neutral country. It's been done.
- potatolicious 18y agoYou're right that it's unencrypted, but I don't think it's well-documented. Every single panel manufacturer seems to have their own spec for carrying data to the LCD panel proper, and this is all proprietary and not-published. Short of someone reverse-engineering the data it's not quite SO easy to get your data.
- asciilifeform 18y agoAll you need is an oscilloscope. (My 1979 HP 300Mhz scope would do fine, had I more free time.)
- jwilliams 18y agoSimilarly - what happens if you play the same movie in a Virtual Machine? Could you fire up the movie in a Windows VM on your Mac? Presumably it would play, and the output at the Mac end is unencrypted?