It has come to pass that HDCP – High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (or, in this case, DisplayPort Content Protection) – is now built into the new MacBooks to protect iTunes Store media. Most of the content is not protected but it seems some newer videos are, which means you can’t play them over a non-HDCP compliant TV or monitor.
While many of us just use the screen or iPods to watch the potentially protected films, this could have ramifications for those wanting to connect their laptops up to TVs without HDMI or DVI ports – namely TVs with only VGA or component/composite ports. It could also have ramifications on the Apple TV in situations where users have odd TV set-ups.
What is HDCP? It’s essentially a digital standard that tells your OS what you can display content on. If you connect your device to a project, as one high school teacher discovered while trying to play an iTunes video, the HDCP system will stop video from streaming to that device. If you connect it to an HDCP-compliant monitor then you’re in luck.
As someone who often and with great gusto downloads from the iTunes store – I have to pay for something sometime, right? – HDCP is just one more thing that will make me rethink this plan. As a Mactard, I’ve found that iTunes is the easiest way to grab goodies but with Amazon coming up behind I might be swayed. Oh, and the video in question? Hellboy 2? Do a quick search on ThePirateBay. I’m sure you’ll find it in non-HDCP encrypted format.
Yet another draconian copy protection measure from people who just don’t get it.
This will fail, only after much bitching and moaning from the public.
Hilarious that everyone considers MS the “evil empire”, yet Apple does similar things that don’t get that much press. Thanks for blogging about this.
Apple, you fail. I’ll go to Amazon for my mp3 and video downloads.
Well said. Furthermore, not only is OS X crawling with DRM, but it’s crawling with DRM and it STILL doesn’t support Blu-Ray.
So, when Steve Jobs called Blu-Ray a “bag of hurt”, I guess he meant to say that he just didn’t want physical media to slow iTunes sales?
So that everyone understands: it’s not MS or Apple’s fault, but Hollywood forcing them to use such mechanisms, or they will not provide the premium content people are interested in. I work in this industry and deal with the same issues every day. Don’t blame the people at the end of the chain, blame Hollywood for this particular case. And trust me, this is not the worst. Example: if you want to record or provide premium content on external hard drives, people like Fox force vendors to uniquely encrypt movies for that particular device. Want to take your content everywhere? Good luck.
welcome
A trusted platform like in Windows Vista… Apple switched to Intel because PowerPC chips couldn’t provide that. So, it’s an old planned schedule…
go piratebay!
Man I love Apple.. lol
I used to LOVE Macs. But this basically pushes it over the line. I am looking to buy a new laptop in the near future. This sort of them insures that it WON’T be a Mac.
Wow. I think this is lame. I love my Apple TV and I hope future versions/updates don’t use HDCP.
Part of this really seems like a ploy to boost the bottom line by requiring select compatible equipment (e.g., monitors & tvs), which Apple is pretty good at doing.
Wasn’t there a rumor floating around about an LCD Apple Display with built-in AppleTV?
I hate Apple as much as the next guy — don’t or will ever own an Apple product, but this is not one reason. HDCP is required by the HDMI standard to protect content (if the content owner so chooses) from being intercepted and copied while being transmitted from the source to the display. It’s not optional and every hardware manufacturer has to support it, be it Apple, Dell or SONY. Apple is not doing anything wrong here.
Business is business …
It means that we have to change our OS, our display, pay for more updates, change our movies collection ?
Happy big bro’ing apple! You suck!
Like Tom said, this really isn’t an Apple only issue. HDCP is part of HDMI. It’s not like Apple are saying you can only output video to their own brand of monitor, or even a partner’s brand, but any monitor or TV that supports the standard. That really is the operative word here: *standard*
For comparison, the Sony Playstation 3 also requires monitors to support HDCP. Of course, they’re a big evil corporation too…
If it wasn’t for the DMCA, lapdog government, and our lame anti-trust enforcement, some *customer* focused company would have simply come out with a dongle to bypass all this nonsense.
As for me I discovered, that there were a lot of interesting things to do that did not involve being in front of a TV.
No cable (or TV) + no comcast = more life + less bills
Well, it’s Apple. Someone is going to find an excuse that works in their favor and not MS’s.
well this sucks.
i plug my appleTV into a standard def projector. i also rent HD content sometimes from the apple store because the quality is as good if not better than DVD. can’t tell you how pissed i’ll be after going thru the rental process only to be told i can’t watch it because my projector isn’t ’standard’. errrrr!!
it’s practically unconstitutional!!!
boxee here i come.
You should became familiar with Linux soon, apple fanboys!
So then, we have yet another TC anti-DRM post and legions of choir to preach to.
God forbid you should actually have to pay for anything and follow the copyright owner rules. If you want a teacher to be able to exhibit this in a classroom, tell the studios that, not apple and MS et al.
While you’re at it, start complaining about other relevant copyright controls like what pharma uses to protect their investments.
If your argument is that they’re only shooting themselves in the foot by making digital distribution more cumbersome for customers, well then that will impact them won’t it. But to seriously suggest that protecting a copyright holders rights is reason for you to go to PirateBay is the same old selfish TC entitlement run amok.
The point isn’t about paying for something, the point is that after you’ve paid for it, the file has specific protections against watching it on the TV or monitor of your choice. This is a protection that doesn’t make any logical sense, even for copyright holders.
The problem with the whole business model impact is that they have to care about the market to respond to it. As it is, most places just blame pirates and enforce even more controls thinking that will solve the problem. It’s a lose / lose for everyone involved.
It’s one thing to protect your rights as a copyright holder, it’s quite another to be an ***hole to your customers and claim that they made you do it.
Totally agree with your point here. Personally i think that media (yes including copyrighted material) should be a LOT freer,I think an important point her is *IF* you can cheaply buy a high-quality (legal) copy of a song or movie then there would be no need to go and download the high-quality (and yes i know the adverts claim they are bad quality but it is possible to get just as good a quality) totally free to use copy off a p2p network?
For instance if they halved the price of ALL music and video, i would bet a hell of alot of downloaders would go an buy the real copy instead of downloading it.
But then again whats the chances people buy something find they cant play it on a moniter they like think o thats stupid and then go and download a copy they can use any way they like.
Oh Apple, the Microsoft of the next century.
Oh Apple, the Microsoft of the next century.
It’s just this sort of thing that makes it important to join the EFF, FSF, DefectiveByDesign, BadVista or do what you can to protect your freedoms in this digital age. Many technologies are well suited to applying near-absolute control by vendors and media companies and we’ve got to work to keep the power evenly distributed.
What happens when you play the same movie on the last generation of hardware (macbook/pro) with a non-HDMI projector/monitor? Does the movie play, is it lower quality? It is hard to tell if this is strictly a hardware issue or software control and part of the frequent iTunes/ Quicktime updates.
Shame on Apple, they might not be at fault here but it’s still their responsibility to fight for the consumers.
Wow, what extents people will go too, either way people will try to find a loophole for this.
I just don’t care … why do we need Apple Store ?
I’m not a big fun of Apple, I mean, i do have an iPod, and i think it’s a good product. You may say it could be better, yes it could, even so it is years ahead the competition, but that’s all. I don’t think Apple is the best, smartest, coolest company in the world, and i’m not planning to purchase any Apple gear in the near future (unless my iPod breaks).
If you all feel bad about Apple’s strategy, stop giving them all the attention, why bothering about every single step this company takes ?
Instead of spending time hating Apple, goo to Amazon, PirateBay, wherever you wanna go, and grab your stuff, they aren’t the only place you can get multimedia content, smartphones or expensive laptops.
Apple is certainly messing this up. Buy apple for the well crafted hardware and cool gadgets and buy the media else where. I was buying my music on Itunes but nothing is compatible with other MP3 players (like my google phone). I have recently moved to Amazon for music and Vudu for movies and mac pro for my computer. Poor Apple, screwing up a great opportunity.
I was pretty annoyed that the new direct tv PC software will only let you stream if your card and monitor are HDCP (on dvi). What does this sort of thing do to legitimate customers? It maks us say ‘FUCK YOU’ and off to a not authorized download site we go. Brilliant.
The movie / music distributors are demanding that Apple apply the DRM to the files distributed through iTunes, then selling unlocked rights to Amazon to create competition to iTunes and regain their power over their content so they can jack up the prices… This all started after Steve Jobs publicly told the record monopolies (to their chagrin) that he wasn’t going to raise iTunes prices (ie. ‘get stuffed’).
So stop blaming Apple, Apple is a hardware company that’s doing the best they can.
Sony forced manufacturers to accept HDMI and spent billions killing off HD DVD. Now any HD content you buy has HDMI built in so you can’t watch it in > SD format without a completely HDMI compliant system (that Sony gets a cut of). Since just about the whole world sat on the fence while Sony rampantly bribed everyone to kill HD DVD, eat the dogfood you’ve cooked or stick to SD.
Either way, right now there’s little Apple can do for you. Next time, do something for yourself BEFORE it’s too late … or stick to SD, it really is GOOD ENOUGH (!!!).
It never ceases to amaze the lengths iBoi’s go to see no evil from Cupertino.
Honestly, if you’re dumb enough to have all your media walled away in iTunes then this really shouldn’t bother you. If it does then maybe you’re lucky and the iLobotmy is reversing.
Btw, I feel bad for the new MB owners owning something that so on the “forefront on technology”.