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> I think Windows still offers easy screenshotting of frames from DRM video not because the streaming services somehow don’t care about what Windows users do (w
by jsheard 2y ago
> I think Windows still offers easy screenshotting of frames from DRM video not because the streaming services somehow don’t care about what Windows users do (which, when you think about it, would be a weird thing not to care about, given Windows’s market share), but because Windows uses a less sophisticated imaging pipeline.
That anti-screenshot mechanism does also exist on Windows, but it's only enforced by stronger forms of DRM like Widevine L1. Typically streaming services mandate L1 or equivalent to watch HD/4K streams, so you can't easily screenshot those, only the lower resolution versions with weaker protection. Workarounds like disabling hardware acceleration are really just disabling strong DRM support so you get served a weakly protected low res stream instead.
I guess Apple applies the same restrictions to all DRM protected content, even if the service only demands a weak form of DRM.
- ack_complete 2y agoIt's simple to enable on Windows, any surface with DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_FLAG_DISPLAY_ONLY set will get excluded from screen capture APIs. No DRM is required. DRM isn't always the reason for video not being capturable, though. Efficiency optimizations can also get in the way, such as hardware video overlays. Back when overlays were first introduced, attempting to capture the screen would often omit the video because it would only capture the chroma key in the primary surface. Even today, the DWM has to undo multi-plane optimizations and specifically composite the screen when screen capture is requested.