The current design prevents users from accessing the actual 1080p video stream from the device, too. The cynic in me says this is an end-run around any DRM iss

The current design prevents users from accessing the actual 1080p video stream from the device, too. The cynic in me says this is an end-run around any DRM issues giving access to that 1080p bitstream could introduce: instead let's just output a degraded, upscaled stream and call it HD.