HD Monitor Causes DRM Issues with Netflix 540
Jeremiah Cornelius points us to Davis Freeberg's blog, where he discusses his "nightmare scenario" of losing access to his DRM-protected purchases by upgrading his PC monitor.
"When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue. Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup."
vista only (Score:4, Informative)
DRM sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, using a script I wrote, I parse the HTML saved from Firefox (pretending to be IE7) and download the highest bandwidth version of a movie. I then cringe and for the only time each month boot Windows and using Mirakagi, FreeUse4Win, WMP and unDRM the file. Then I can play in perpetuity in Linux/MythTV.
The size of the files is normally 1-2GB. Yes, that's less than DVD quality, but pretty acceptable in most cases. You can fetch the keys for 9 hours of movies per month (for the basic subscription), but they round up, so if you do it carefully and get keys for 8.5 hours of movies, you can make the last one a 3 hour epic - about 5-7 movies total.
This is all based upon information I got from here: http://forum.rorta.net/showthread.php?t=1134&page=6 [rorta.net] (link to last page)
Kaffeine didn't play the resulting WMVs very well. mplayer and VLC do a better job.
Re:Owned (Score:5, Informative)
"We work hard, so you don't have to"
mfilemon (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I call bullshit... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There are sample videos in the "My Videos" fold (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I call bullshit... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:5, Informative)
When he's done being Slashdotted, look at the screen captures of his dialogue boxes.
I watched this technology being demonstrated - as an insider during development. Sheer suckage.
article text (Score:4, Informative)
After doing a little bit of research, I decided to pick up a SyncMasterTM 226BW from Samsung. Between the new monitor and my ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT video card, the resolution looks absolutely stunning. Even my home movies look fantastic in HDTV. I really couldn't have been happier with the upgrade.
Unfortunately, Hollywood isn't quite as thrilled about my new HD Media Dream Machine and they've decided to punish me by revoking my Watch Now privileges from Netflix.
I first found out about the problem on New Year's Eve, when I went to log into my account. When I tried to launch a streaming movie, I was greeted with an error message asking me to "reset" my DRM. Luckily, Netflix's help page on the topic included a link to a DRM reset utility, but when I went to install the program, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this warning.
[img]
The minute I saw"this will potentially remove playback licenses from your computer, including those from companies other than Netflix or Microsoft" I knew better than to hit continue. Before nuking my entire digital library, I decided to call Netflix's technical support, to see if I could get to the bottom of my C00D11B1 error message.
When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue.
Technically, there is a way to back up the licenses before doing a DRM reset, but it's a pretty complex process, even by my standards. When I asked Netflix for more details, they referred me to Amazon for assistance.
Perhaps even worse than having to choose between having access to Netflix or giving up my Unbox movies was the realization that my real problems were actually tied to the shiny new monitor that I've already grown fond of.
Netflix's software allows them to look at the video card, cables and the monitor that you are using and when they checked mine out, it was apparently a little too high def to pass their DRM filters.
Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup.
As part of their agreement with Hollywood, Netflix uses a program called COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocal). COPP is made by Microsoft and the protocol restricts how you are able to transfer digital files off of your PC. When I ran COPP to identify the error on my machine, it gave me an ominous warning that "the exclusive semaphere is owned by another process."
My Netflix technician told me that he had never heard of this particular error and thought that it was unique to my setup. When I consulted Microsoft, they suggested that I consult the creator of the program. Since Microsoft wrote the COPP software, I wasn't sure who to turn to after that.
The irony in all of this, is that the DRM that Hollywood is so much in love with, is really only harming their paying customers. When you do a DRM reset, it's not your pirated files that get revoked, it's the ones that you already paid for that are at risk. I'm not allowed to watch low res Netflix files, even though I have the capability to download high def torrents? How does this even make sense? It's as if the studios want their digital strategies to fail.
While I understand the need for the studios to protect their content, I believe that these measures g
Re:Hmmm. What is the problem here? (Score:3, Informative)
The service works fine on Vista too (I use it all the time). This issue seems to lie HD display with an HDCP [wikipedia.org] interface that requires DRM. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that XP/Linux/OSX has support for this so you wouldn't even be able to stream HD content via an HDCP protected interface to an HDCP capable display, as these types of displays require a "secure" video source for streaming digital HD content.
Sorry Server Down - Link To Article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:5, Informative)
Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by Davis
Movie Viewer Message [zooomr.com]
When In Doubt Blame Microsoft
Even though I'm an HDTV fanatic, it wasn't until this past weekend, that I finally made the jump to an HD monitor. While I don't have HDTV tuners on my Media Center, I do have an HD camcorder and it was important for me to be able to edit my high resolution videos.
After doing a little bit of research, I decided to pick up a SyncMasterTM 226BW from Samsung. Between the new monitor and my ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT video card, the resolution looks absolutely stunning. Even my home movies look fantastic in HDTV. I really couldn't have been happier with the upgrade.
Unfortunately, Hollywood isn't quite as thrilled about my new HD Media Dream Machine and they've decided to punish me by revoking my Watch Now privileges from Netflix.
I first found out about the problem on New Year's Eve, when I went to log into my account. When I tried to launch a streaming movie, I was greeted with an error message asking me to "reset" my DRM. Luckily, Netflix's help page on the topic included a link to a DRM reset utility, but when I went to install the program, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this warning.
Netflix Reset Microsoft DRM Utility [zooomr.com]
Netflix DRM
The minute I saw"this will potentially remove playback licenses from your computer, including those from companies other than Netflix or Microsoft" I knew better than to hit continue. Before nuking my entire digital library, I decided to call Netflix's technical support, to see if I could get to the bottom of my C00D11B1 error message.
When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue.
Technically, there is a way to back up the licenses before doing a DRM reset, but it's a pretty complex process, even by my standards. When I asked Netflix for more details, they referred me to Amazon for assistance.
Perhaps even worse than having to choose between having access to Netflix or giving up my Unbox movies was the realization that my real problems were actually tied to the shiny new monitor that I've already grown fond of.
Netflix's software allows them to look at the video card, cables and the monitor that you are using and when they checked mine out, it was apparently a little too high def to pass their DRM filters.
Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup.
As part of their agreement with Hollywood, Netflix uses a program called COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocal). COPP is made by Microsoft and the protocol restricts how you are able to transfer digital files off of your PC. When I ran COPP to identify the error on my machine, it gave me an ominous warning that "the exclusive semaphere is owned by another process."
My Netflix technician told me that he had never heard of this particular error and thought that it was unique to my setup. When I consulted Microsoft, they suggested that I consult the creator of the program. Since Microsoft wrote the COPP software, I wasn't sure who to turn to after that.
The irony in all of this, is that the DRM that Hollywood is so much in love with, is really only harming their paying customers. When you do a DRM reset, it's not your pirated files that get revoked, it's the ones that you already paid for that are at risk. I
Re:Owned (Score:5, Informative)
Handbrake is an open-source DVD-to-MPEG4 converter. (http://handbrake.fr/)
VideoLAN is a media player that can play back the MPEG4 files created with Handbrake. In addition to local plaback, it has the ability to unicast/multicast video & audio across a network. (http://www.videolan.org)
So basically, the idea is, rip the video to make it DRM-free, convert it to a smaller, more efficient format for storage, stream across a network.
Re:Owned (Score:0, Informative)
However, I make sure to remove the DRM once I have purchased it, if there is no DRM free version of the music, as I've been burnt with losing access to content before, due to often upgrading my hardware and occasionally reinstalling operating system, also bumping up into the limit of resetting "authorizations" with iTunes.
But this NetFlix shit? Is just fucking crazy. I swear, I will pirate every single fucking movie releases by every single fucking movie studio, and give it to any of my friends who are interested, until they stop this shit. No way in HELL I'm supporting these kinds of bullshit and illegal activities (what right does Microsoft/Hollywood have to DELETE OTHER CONTENT NOT PRODUCED BY THEM THAT I HAVE PAID FOR??!?). FUCK YOU CUNTS SUCK A BAG OF DICKS I'LL PIRATE ALL YOUR SHIT AND DISTRIBUTE IT.
Excuse the profanity.
Re:Simple solution (Score:2, Informative)
Onto the next media provider please...
Rent desired DVD. Download HandBrake. Encode into H264.
Legal? AFAIK it is in countries that don't have the wonderful copyright laws the US does... but I'm not a lawyer.
As bad as downloading it from a torrent? I think not.
To quote bash.org: "I saw 2 men in black suits knocking on my door so I microwaved my hard drive :\"
Re:article text (Score:3, Informative)
Yet I had no trouble with Netflix service before or after upgrading.
The reason I brought the Samsung monitor is because it supports HDCP and I wanted no trouble playing Blu-ray disks. Its a great monitor but for front-on viewing.
Unfortunately angular view is very better. I wish I had brought some other IPS-based monitor.
I suspect he is getting some bad support from Netflix.
Re:Owned (Score:2, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:2, Informative)
he also changed his video card (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'll bite back. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Owned (Score:4, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:1, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:4, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:5, Informative)
I can't see anywhere where he states what version of Windows Media Player he's using but, given his setup, it's reasonable to assume it's pretty recent. Are you aware that, with Windows Media Player11 and according to Microsoft [microsoft.com], `This version of the Player does not permit you to back up your media usage rights.'
So with WMP11, once you lose your licence data or upgrade enough hardware, you need to go around and contact every vendor you bought DRM files from and ask nicely if they'll re-license your content. Ask yourself what your chances are of being able to play your DRMed files in five or ten years.
Re:vista only (Score:5, Informative)
My friend got one for his PS3. Works great, he uses his PS3 with a CRT monitor, full 1080p BluRay with no issues. Pretty wicked little device.
Good (Score:4, Informative)
Re:vista only (Score:2, Informative)
Configure PC to 1366x768. This would be the right resolution, but the TV won't actually accept that resolution.
Set the PC NOT to scale to output panel size. This gives a 1366x768 patch in the middle of a theoretically 1080p res screen.
Configure the TV's scaling to stretch that patch to full screen (Zoom 2 if you're using a panasonic viera TV)
Re:Why use HDMI? (Score:4, Informative)
The problem is that some things require HDCP on high quality video signals, thus needing HDCP-enabled DVI or HDMI devices. The same goes for high quality sound, but since there's no protection on SPDIF, you're just out of luck. I believe that Vista will destroy your sound quality if DRM-infested media is played with an SPDIF output.