Sky enabling HDCP

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skewt

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#255918 6-Sep-2019 11:49

Sky are currently planning to roll out HDCP to all Sports channels by the 1st of October

While this wont affect most people, I'm sure there is some gear out there you may need to throw a cheap chinese splitter in between

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Awrrr
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#2311696 6-Sep-2019 11:58

Is this another example of Sky being 20 years behind the technology?

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

fe31nz

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#2312021 6-Sep-2019 23:15

There will still be plenty of people like me who have older TVs that do not do HDCP, so I imagine this will cause endless problems - their helpline will be overloaded. Fortunately for me, I do not have Sky Sport. But they are very stupid if they think all the old TVs are gone by now - they will be upsetting a lot of long term customers. And as HDCP has no legislative backing in NZ as it does in the USA, they may very well be in trouble legally - I imagine the Fair Trading Act or CGA could apply here. You are not allowed to sell a product to a customer and then stop it from working for that customer.

richms

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#2312027 6-Sep-2019 23:51

There is always the analog outputs for the dinosaur TVs.

Places I can see having issues are sports bar type venues that have splitters that dont do hdcp and multiple screens. Will just need an aliexpress HDMI splitter to remove that trash from the signal and let it go wherever.

Richard rich.ms

rugrat

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#2312046 7-Sep-2019 01:36

What are they trying to protect? Sports has it's most value when live not recorded.

Or are they trying to stop people that are using more then one TV with an HDMI splitter? One that doesn't take out the HDCP.

For people that don't have an HDCP TV how do you watch the other HD channels? To my knowledge up to now sports are the only ones that were not HDCP.

fe31nz

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#2312049 7-Sep-2019 03:38

When the HDCP capable new decoders were being installed, I asked Sky about how their HDCP worked as I did not want a decoder that required HDCP. What I was told was that if your TV does HDCP, then the decoder will do HDCP, but if the TV does not respond to HDCP signals, the decoder disables its HDCP. That does seem to be correct, as with my HDCP incapable TV, all the channels I pay for worked just fine. And since most channels have been changed to what Sky calls HD (1440x1080, not 1920x1080), they all still work. So even if the channel is tagged as HDCP, at present if your TV does not do HDCP at all, the decoder will not enforce HDCP. If they are changing that, it is likely they will lose me as a customer.

sbiddle

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#2312057 7-Sep-2019 07:28

What TV do you have that is so old it has HDMI but no HDCP?

There were really only a handful of early model flat screens from maybe 2004ish that suffered this limitation. Considering your TV won't even be full HD from that era the 1440*1080 will still exceed your panel resolution. 😀

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tdgeek

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#2312062 7-Sep-2019 08:17

Wow, its a problem when a business puts a measure in place to protect its business? I'm car hunting today, I'll complain about the padlocks on their gates as I cant steal it easily

sbiddle

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#2312065 7-Sep-2019 08:39

It's worth noting HDCP is nothing new. Most Sky HD channels have had HDCP enabled for years - this change is simply for the new Sport channels.

networkn

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#2312073 7-Sep-2019 08:59

What legal reason do you have for needing your Sky content without HDCP?

If you are using it for non-legal reasons, then Sky won't miss you as a customer and the number of customers who they will lose as a result of this is likely single/double-digit.

It's worth noting that every other streaming service (your alternative to Sky) has HDCP since inception or shortly afterwards. For most content providers, it's part of the rights agreement they sign with original rights holders.

Nothing to see here, move along.

networkn

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#2312075 7-Sep-2019 09:01

Rikkitic:

Is this another example of Sky being 20 years behind the technology?

Sigh.

No, it's another example of people being 20 years behind the technology.

old3eyes

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#2312090 7-Sep-2019 09:08

networkn:

Rikkitic:

Is this another example of Sky being 20 years behind the technology?

Sigh.

No, it's another example of people being 20 years behind the technology.

Why should a person have to change out their TV set because Sky does a change?? If it effects me Sky will go.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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networkn

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#2312091 7-Sep-2019 09:12

They will be making this change to comply with requirements of the rights holder. The same requirements that lightbox or Netflix or pretty much every streaming provider complies with already.
If you can use those services then this change is very unlikely to affect you in the slightest.

You are going to have extremely limited viewing options if your setup isn't hdcp compliant.

sbiddle

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#2312108 7-Sep-2019 09:46

old3eyes:

networkn:

Rikkitic:

Is this another example of Sky being 20 years behind the technology?

Sigh.

No, it's another example of people being 20 years behind the technology.

Why should a person have to change out their TV set because Sky does a change?? If it effects me Sky will go.

But Sky aren't making any fundamental changes. They've used HDCP since they introduced the MySky HDi in 2008. They're now simply introducing HDCP on additional channels.

HDCP support has been a requirement of TV's since around 2005 and I'd suggest the number of people who still have a flat screen TV prior to 2005/2006 era with no HDCP still in use in NZ with a Sky box hooked up via HDMI would be non existent - because you would not have been able to watch any HD channels for the past 10 years on it.

Anybody with a TV that old isn't going to be able to hook up virtually any 3rd party device via HDMI as HDCP has been a basic requirement for DRM material for around 10 years.

If you are somebody who still has 15 yr old TV the good news is that HDCP strippers aren't expensive.

Lias

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#2312135 7-Sep-2019 10:26

It never ceases to amaze me that companies keep doing this. Copy Protection / DRM technology simply screws over and inconvenience the people willing to pay for content, yet never seems to do much to stop those not willing to pay.

You won't find HDCP (or Macrovision, VideoGuard, AACS etc) on the content at that place with the pirate ship logo, the place where it's time for a popped corn snack, or any of hundreds of such places. Yet you'll still find the same content (and much more!), usually days weeks or months before it appears on local pay TV.

GOG.com is a a great example that you can in fact sell DRM free content on the internet and they sky won't fall.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Scott3

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#2312236 7-Sep-2019 12:46

tdgeek:

Wow, its a problem when a business puts a measure in place to protect its business? I'm car hunting today, I'll complain about the padlocks on their gates as I cant steal it easily

With HDCP it's kinda like locking the gate on the main driveway, on a caryard that is otherwise not fenced. Add inconvenience for your genuine customer's, while be ineffectual at preventing any cars from getting stolen (can simply drive them off the lot, and over the footpath).

Given HDCP is thawed by a $20 slitter, I don't get why they bother. People who are looking to run illegal stream's with capture cards won't be put off.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure sky has had HDCP turned on you years, so I don't think many people will even notice the change... Those without HDCP complaint setups will either have brought splitters long ago, or be running of the analog SD output ports.

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