Google Continues Working On More Linux HDCP Bits

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Google Continues Working On More Linux HDCP Bits

Google engineers continue working on enhancing the Linux infrastructure around supporting High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) for Chrome OS...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Google-HDCP-Content-Connect

[s_j_newbury]

The problem with having this in mainstream Linux, is availability will result in it becoming a requirement for example in media delivery for web browsers. HDCP just doesn't work in my experience. For example, my PS5 won't reliably connect to my Samsung TV with HDCP2 enabled, I've tried many HDMI cables, and that's with consumer hardware where it's expected to just work.

[Luke]

The problem with having this in mainstream Linux, is availability will result in it becoming a requirement for example in media delivery for web browsers. HDCP just doesn't work in my experience. For example, my PS5 won't reliably connect to my Samsung TV with HDCP2 enabled, I've tried many HDMI cables, and that's with consumer hardware where it's expected to just work.

That probably would require reliability as well as availability. The smaller video platforms like archive.org that don't handle paid works certainly will never do this, and video uploaders not looking to monetize content will migrate away from any platform that refuses to serve video to a non-HDCP machine. There has to be a good reason Youtube as not (so far as I know) attempted this: loss of some userbase far larger than the less than 5% of desktop/laptop users on Linux. I have not used Windows in nearly 15 years but I haven't seen any reports of Youtube going hardware DRM-only on Windows, where it is always available unless the user has an older computer or an unsupported monitor.

If someone other than Youtube goes hardware DRM only, they will lose their users to Youtube. The only people who've gotten away with this are the primarily monetized content Netflix/Hulu sorts of sites. Personally, I've never even seen the front page of one of these, but it seems that hardware DRM (which is broken anyway) has failed to migrate beyond "legal" purchased movies and TV shows. Don't buy content and you will never see this.

It has one other, very interesting potential use: a way of leveraging HDCP to encrypt all of the video sent to your monitor would defeat TEMPEST-type attacks that attempt to clone your screen remotely by sniffing RF emissions from the monitor cable. This would matter when a high security computer is run very close to but not in space not controlled by its user, say in a rowhouse. A spy, a movie studio exec, a revolutionary all could be vulnerable to this attack if their location is known. Encrypt everything on the monitor cable and the "take" is gibberish. Better yet, defeating HDCP without possession of any of the devices "talking" to oneanother may be more difficult than normal HDCP defeat tactics. Yes, HDCP devices can be cloned, but first you have to figure out what you are cloning.

[whitor]

The problem with having this in mainstream Linux, is availability will result in it becoming a requirement for example in media delivery for web browsers.

That's already the status quo. Most streaming services restrict the resolution to 480p or 720p if HDCP cannot be verified. Linux's market share is not sufficient to move the needle on that.

Regardless, this work doesn't change anything for mainstream Linux as it requires userspace support. X11 doesn't support HDCP and none of the mainstream Wayland compositors like mutter, KWin or wlroots-based compositors support it either.

[stormcrow]

That's already the status quo. Most streaming services restrict the resolution to 480p or 720p if HDCP cannot be verified. Linux's market share is not sufficient to move the needle on that.

Regardless, this work doesn't change anything for mainstream Linux as it requires userspace support. X11 doesn't support HDCP and none of the mainstream Wayland compositors like mutter, KWin or wlroots-based compositors support it either.

And hopefully never will. Which I think is likely considering the lack of interest in supporting DRM encryption schemes in the general hacker community. Breaking it on the other hand...

[holunder]

And hopefully never will. Which I think is likely considering the lack of interest in supporting DRM encryption schemes in the general hacker community. Breaking it on the other hand...

I bet Redhat will implement it. 🙃 They are serving movie studios and could probably frame it as an important security feature like Secure Boot is framed.

[Quackdoc]

while I do really like the security benefits of HDCP. I don't like how it winds up always just being more then a nuisance.

[stormcrow]

I bet Redhat will implement it. 🙃 They are serving movie studios and could probably frame it as an important security feature like Secure Boot is framed.

HDCP is a publisher misfeature. It's neither for media creation nor for servers.

[Danniello]

That's already the status quo. Most streaming services restrict the resolution to 480p or 720p if HDCP cannot be verified. Linux's market share is not sufficient to move the needle on that.

Not entirely true. This limitation is artificial in many cases. For example Netflix 1080p is working fine in Windows guest VM started on Linux host (so no support of hardware HDCP at all).

Even SkyShowtime - one of the most Linux unfriendly VOD (they block playback on Linux by purpose) - is working fine in Windows VM!

[kn00tcn]

Not entirely true. This limitation is artificial in many cases. For example Netflix 1080p is working fine in Windows guest VM started on Linux host (so no support of hardware HDCP at all).

netflix app or in browser? in the past when i've tried in browser on windows, i needed an addon to enable 1080, widevine would be used so hdcp might not be necessary or even hooked up back then (win7 firefox over dvi with mobo 3.5 audio)

radeon relive would refuse to record the screen while netflix in browser plays, but OBS could record it no problem, standard screenshots also worked

spotify in browser also uses widevine and radeon relive also refuses to record as long as spotify is playing audio, hdcp cant be a thing because i'm not using hdmi for audio

i'm still mad that ps3 used hdcp for games, ruining most people's footage due to them resorting to analog capture (there was hope once chinese hdmi splitters 'coincidentally' happened to strip hdcp)

my PS5 won't reliably connect to my Samsung TV with HDCP2 enabled

quite the korea vs japan situation, you tried each hdmi port on both? are those different cables from different years/specs/brands? is a game mode enabled on the tv? is the ps5 set to 120hz or variable refresh? what about additional options llike rgb vs ycbr, deep color, limited vs full, etc? how old is the tv or what is the model? is the tv on before the ps5 is on? which end do you hotplug if any? anyone else with this tv mention console/bluray issues?

that said, pretty sure i remember seeing amd or nvidia windows driver release notes that mention unusually specific monitor fixes so either device needing a fw update would be plausible

but wait, hdcp2 implying you can choose hdcp1? ps5 still needs hdcp for games?