I got my hands on a Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro HDCP 2.2 to 1.4 Converter. According to the marketing copy it “is the definitive solution for playback of new 4K HDCP 2.2 encoded content on 4K displays with the old HDCP 1.4 standard.”
Stuffed after a delicious Thanksgiving meal, I decided to take it apart after the guests had left. It’s a simple single-function device, so I didn’t expect much, but maybe there’s some things to be learned?
Turns out there’s a lot to learn, and it’s also incredibly interesting. The note at the end about the legality of this device is also interesting.
I find articles like this very interesting!
DRM sucks. It’s never going to be effective against dedicated individuals wanting to circumvent it and its limitations are mostly imposed on normal users who end up with greater incompatibility and a worse experience.
Did anyone else click the monoprice link chuckle over the absolutely huge exclamation point around the california p65 cancer warning? Normally that’s just part of the fine print, but here it’s nearly a full page alert, haha.
Alfman,
The niceties of CSS, and possible mixing of old content and new templates…
YES! YES! YES!
This means that WEBRip and UHD BRRips will keep being available forever. Just attach the HDMI output of a player to one of those HDCP down converters and you get the easily trackable old HDCP. Of course, lossless decryption of the source is better than a rip, but decryption of the source is not guaranteed. For example, UHD Blu-Ray has been cracked for most discs, but no public tool exists for streaming services for 4K resolutions and HDR. There are private tools in the hands of release groups using Content Decryption Modules (CDMs) extracted from authorized (but vulnerable) devices, which is how we get WEB/WEB-DL, but no public tools. So, it’s good that at least the new HDCP is cracked to allow for rips from HDMI.
However keep in mind most streaming devices will watermark the HDMI output. This means that if your ripped video ends up on the internet somehow, it can be traced back to you, also your device’s CDM (and associated device ID) will be banned. Release groups used streaming boxes with throwaway emails loaded with prepaid cards behind VPNs, and would sacrifice a streaming box per release back in the days when they couldn’t crack the source. This is why back then some release groups would dump multiple episodes to make the most of each streaming box. tl;dr Just make sure you don’t upload stuff captured from HDMI if you aren’t OK with the caveats.
kurkosdr,
The article mentions HDFury, and their devices have been around for much longer than others. So, the digital recording thing has been “solved” for a long while.
And yes, this has been a legitimate concern for legal users. When I had my older Samsung TV, with similar limitations (HDCP 1.x, but 4K UHD with HDR), it would not work with the recent gaming consoles. The signal, would just not be stable. And only after using a very similar device (can’t recall, it might even be this particular monoprice one), I was able to use the legally purchased content, on the legitimate TV.
Anyway, I would not recommend uploading / piracy. My motto is either it is worth my time, and I pay for it, or it is not, and I don’t watch it. However being locked out of paid content is a problem (hence, keeping personal backups).
HDFury and other HDCP-strippers can strip HDCP 1.x because HDCP 1.x is easily crackable. HDCP 2.x was designed to not be easily crackable (and has not in-fact been cracked). This is why a piece of equipment that 1) contains a licensed HDCP 2.x decrypter (the Silicon Image chip mentioned in the article is licensed) and 2) can convert HDCP 2.x to HDCP 1.x is a crucial piece of the puzzle if you want to be able to convert HDCP 2.x to cleartext.
Now that we have this piece of the puzzle, all 4K HDR content is always rippable (recordable), even if the source isn’t decryptable. As I said above: YES! YES! YES!
kurkosrdr,
How sure are you? My understanding is that HDCP 2.0 & 2.1 are cracked, only 2.2 remains uncracked without leaky hardware. Also, HDCP may not be the weakest link for 4k content in general.
https://www.techhive.com/article/599554/4k-content-protection-will-frustrate-consumers-more-than-pirates-meet-hdcp-22.html
https://torrentfreak.com/pirates-can-now-rip-4k-content-from-netflix-and-amazon-151127/
I really don’t have any experience with 4k (our TV is only SD).
kurkosdr,
I looked my order up. It was the same exact model, and I got that in 2018. So ability to bypass 2.2 has been around at least since then (and if I recall correctly earlier, since Monoprice was definitely not the first to market this).
Alfman,
Yes, streaming rips has been around for a long time. Only paying, honest customers suffer these things, as most services will not even play 4K, some even not full HD, on a PC or a Mac, but require you to use a dedicated device only. And even then, your older TV might not work (as it was in my case, though I have a newer TV now).
Pirates? They always found a way.
This makes you wonder if Hollywood will try and push people towards 8K HDR so they can try another approach: No HDMI this time, all content comes from TV apps. I mean, whatever little 8K HDR content exists out there is exclusively distributed by apps embedded in the TV, there are no streaming boxes of Blu-Ray discs for 8K HDR. Coincidence?
no streaming boxes of Blu-Ray discs = no streaming boxes or Blu-Ray discs (sorry)