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Intel Posts "GSC" Linux Driver To Enable HDCP Media Protection For Discrete GPUs

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  • Intel Posts "GSC" Linux Driver To Enable HDCP Media Protection For Discrete GPUs

    Phoronix: Intel Posts "GSC" Linux Driver To Enable HDCP Media Protection For Discrete GPUs

    Intel Linux engineers have posted a new set of patches enabling the Graphics Security Controller "GSC" support under Linux as a chassis controller for discrete graphics cards...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    The stupid thing about HDCP is that it doesn't actually stop pirates, they just get a splitter or some other such device and get on with their day; whereas the average consumer can actually be inconvenienced by it.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by microcode View Post
      The stupid thing about HDCP is that it doesn't actually stop pirates, they just get a splitter or some other such device and get on with their day; whereas the average consumer can actually be inconvenienced by it.
      Even worse, pirates actually manage to decrypt the original compressed data, no reencoding needed. Then they redistribute the content DRM-free to "consumer pirates" via torrent.

      But as you said, in the end the only people bothered by DRMs are legit consumers who don't have a fully HDCP compliant system. It's nuts.

      DRMs are flawed on a conceptual level: if the end users can access the data on a device to which they have physical access, then there will always be a way of making a copy of it. Sure in the worst case you will have to capture a raw bitstream from a video interface or something, and then need to reencode it. But it only needs to be done once.

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      • #4
        MEI? so we're going to get gpu firmware exploits soon?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by microcode View Post
          The stupid thing about HDCP is that it doesn't actually stop pirates, they just get a splitter or some other such device and get on with their day; whereas the average consumer can actually be inconvenienced by it.
          About 8 or so years ago my Mom's TV started throwing HDCP errors with her Roku and my fix was going to Amazon and reading HDMI splitter reviews until I found one talking about how the splitter stripped HDCP. Problem solved.

          Her fix was unplugging and replugging in the HDMI cable and power cable until the error quit happening.

          My Mom would have never figured that out on her own while someone like you or me has an internal checklist with "remove HDCP from the equation" somewhere near the top. You know HDCP is some BS when a regular person using paid-for services gets errors when they're using their products as intended.

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          • #6
            I say no to DRM and these anti-consumer "protection" measures!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Nout View Post
              Even worse, pirates actually manage to decrypt the original compressed data, no reencoding needed. Then they redistribute the content DRM-free to "consumer pirates" via torrent.

              But as you said, in the end the only people bothered by DRMs are legit consumers who don't have a fully HDCP compliant system. It's nuts.

              DRMs are flawed on a conceptual level: if the end users can access the data on a device to which they have physical access, then there will always be a way of making a copy of it. Sure in the worst case you will have to capture a raw bitstream from a video interface or something, and then need to reencode it. But it only needs to be done once.
              The situation is hilarious with anime; if you go on a pirate site like AnimeFrenzy, you get excellent video quality, fast reliable streaming in every region and on every ISP, and configurable subtitling that remembers your preferences at least in a session. If you pay CrunchyRoll, you get unreliable, slow streaming on half of ISPs, even if you have gigabit with 0% packet loss, and even when it is reliable the encode quality is poor (even relative to the bitrate); the player forgets your subtitle preferences between sessions; and CrunchyRoll can't be bothered to even have a "dubs or subs" feature in their library, they instead put different language tracks in the library as "Seasons", so Season 1 of a series is sometimes "Season 7" when subbed in English with Japanese audio. The degree of incompetence at CrunchyRoll is astounding; and I haven't even mentioned their other foibles.. like "CrunchyRoll originals", some of which inhabit the bottom 2% of all produced anime by audience rating, ever.

              What does CrunchyRoll offer to anime publishers that AnimeFrenzy doesn't? A small cut, and widevine DRM (that gets worked around instantly by sub groups) lol.

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              • #8
                Point taken in the article. Nobody is forcing people to use the content protection system. Hell, nobody forces me to continue to support Disney. I haven't watched one of their movies in any form in years.

                What I'm more concerned about is whether it's truly "unused" if one decided not to watch such content. A management engine on the GPU is still a management engine. Maybe it's inert in this generation if you don't load it with firmware? But who knows, without further investigation. The FSF's RYF may give a free pass on "ROM" blobs but that doesn't mean that any baked-in boot roms don't contain exploitable flaws. It also certainly doesn't exonerate future cards when intel bake all the fun, fruity firmware into the card itself as a FSF-agreeable "ROM."

                I'm going to wait for security research into what these management cores actually have access too, and how much really can be stripped away due to ROMs on the card/chip itself. If there's any reasonable expectation that these things have non-trivial functionality without anything extra loaded, I won't be buying them. If they start baking everything into the card as a rom later, same response.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Nout View Post

                  Even worse, pirates actually manage to decrypt the original compressed data, no reencoding needed. Then they redistribute the content DRM-free to "consumer pirates" via torrent.

                  But as you said, in the end the only people bothered by DRMs are legit consumers who don't have a fully HDCP compliant system. It's nuts.

                  DRMs are flawed on a conceptual level: if the end users can access the data on a device to which they have physical access, then there will always be a way of making a copy of it. Sure in the worst case you will have to capture a raw bitstream from a video interface or something, and then need to reencode it. But it only needs to be done once.
                  You forgot commercial free. The number of times I have fallen asleep waiting for all the trailers and "Your a thief" messages to play through on a bought disk is crazy.

                  Plan:
                  A - Don't put it on there
                  B - Put it all at the end
                  C - Give me a button to just jump past it. Don't force me to watch it with a "This shit ain't authorized by the disk" message.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Since the last firmware update on my Samsung RU7100 UHD TV I've had to regularly play the HDMI re-plug dance to get it working with PS5 and a DVB Cable box. It always works fine with my PC. Replaced the cables, and used the supplied short ones. No luck.

                    Turns out to bt HDCP! Turn it off on the PS5 and no problems at all. Can't turn it off with the Cable TV, good job I rarely watch it!

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