MCE/CableCard Labs Announcement

[salsbst]

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...bleLabsPR.mspx

What do you think this means for SageTV? Will SageTV clients be able to qualify as trusted devices?

[gplasky]

I think here is the key:

Microsoft is working closely with CableLabs to document final approval of Windows Media® Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a content protection technology for OpenCable5 products that receive one-way cable content under the terms of this agreement.


Since Sage isn't using Windows Media DRM then I don't see Sage being able to take advantage of this anytime soon. (Unless there's that top secret hush-hush project we don't know about.) It would probably take them longer to submit their own DRM to CableLabs. (If Sage had one to submit.)

Gerry

[stanger89]

“The cable industry is very interested in having the PC serve as another means to allow consumers to enjoy cable programming,”

Translation, they were drug kicking and screaming but unfortunately couldn't find a loophole to block MS/PCs out.

to market digital-cable-ready Windows® Media Center-based PCs in the holiday 2006 time frame.

Sounds like Vista time...

What does it mean for SageTV:

• Microsoft will provide APIs when Windows Vista is released that will let third party software developers tap into protected PC hardware A/V paths. (That's good to hear.)
• Microsoft also intends to provide APIs for its DRM on non-Windows devices. Could this mean that Windows Media protected content will soon be playable on Linux machines?

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/1632/the_media_center

I think it means that it will require Vista, but that SageTV will be able to tap into the integrated Vista CP "engine" as it were. Will be interesting....

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Since Sage isn't using Windows Media DRM then I don't see Sage being able to take advantage of this anytime soon.

In addtion to what I posted above, take a look at Zoomplayer Pro WMV and Theatertek, prime examples of 3rd party apps that support WM-RM.

[waynedunham]

Sounds like something in the works for a long time. Wasn't/isn't CableCard 2 supposed to support 2 way operations (i.e. On Demand/PPV)?

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Sounds like something in the works for a long time. Wasn't/isn't CableCard 2 supposed to support 2 way operations (i.e. On Demand/PPV)?

Yes

This spells bad news for DirecTV and my account status with them!

[dagar]

The only bad part about CableCard is that (for me) my incumbent is Cox and it sux which is why I canned it for D* (better PQ across the board for SDTV IMO vice Cox).

[briands]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Yes

This spells bad news for DirecTV and my account status with them!

If they would get off of their a$$ and offer a client/server PVR device with media file capability, they could probably make a good run with Joe 6pack before the MS/Cablecard thing ever gets off the ground.

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Translation, they were drug kicking and screaming but unfortunately couldn't find a loophole to block MS/PCs out.



Sounds like Vista time...

What does it mean for SageTV:

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/1632/the_media_center

I think it means that it will require Vista, but that SageTV will be able to tap into the integrated Vista CP "engine" as it were. Will be interesting....

Yep. It wont be until Vista. they have allready hinted that although a large part of the work is allready there in the current media center its still is not enough for the content providers. One of the biggest security changes in Vista allegedly is that the OS will have the capability to prevent the stream from being captured ala man in the middle techniques.

As for linux, Its likely that Microsoft just realizes that theres a fair amount of hardware out that runs on linux and its not logical or necessary for those companies to go to CE or XP embedded. If they dont then these companies would just use plain Mpeg-4 AVC instead. As far as being in a consumer distro? no way in hell since its begging for reverse engineering.

As for Zoomplayer and a few other players, wasn't there an issue a few months ago about security levels of windows media. Basically you pay a pretty high fee, they have to look at your code to see if it has any holes and so forth basically putting it out of reach to most small developers? I think in the end Blight got it working but it was a major pain for him to do it.

[Bohica]

**edit** -- oops -- didnt see the other thread...

Microsoft has announce media center will support cablecards in the near future that will allow digital ready media center PCs that support HDTV from the cable company. See this link for more info.

Looks like the agreement relies on MS DRM for content protection. Where does SageTV stand on this? Is Sage looking into DRM and looking to work with this group to support this standard as well?

http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/hot-do...d-hdtv-in.html

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

As for linux, Its likely that Microsoft just realizes that theres a fair amount of hardware out that runs on linux and its not logical or necessary for those companies to go to CE or XP embedded. If they dont then these companies would just use plain Mpeg-4 AVC instead. As far as being in a consumer distro? no way in hell since its begging for reverse engineering.

Actually, I'd guess the biggest reason there won't be a WM-RM thingy for Linux (eg Fedora) is because Linux users are horribly caught up in the "it's got to be free" thought pattern, and would never pay for it. Think about it, there's really no Linux software in the consumer market that's free. The only people who pay for software on linux are corporations.

As for Zoomplayer and a few other players, wasn't there an issue a few months ago about security levels of windows media. Basically you pay a pretty high fee, they have to look at your code to see if it has any holes and so forth basically putting it out of reach to most small developers? I think in the end Blight got it working but it was a major pain for him to do it.

Blight is definitely one of the smallest of the small developers, I doubt getting WM-RM certified is easy for anyone and certainly more painful the smaller you are, but if Blight can do it, anyone can.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

Yep. It wont be until Vista. they have allready hinted that although a large part of the work is allready there in the current media center its still is not enough for the content providers. One of the biggest security changes in Vista allegedly is that the OS will have the capability to prevent the stream from being captured ala man in the middle techniques.

I know Vista will require a new, protected path video card and monitor. Will Vista also require a new mb ?

Ken C

[phenixdragon]

Originally Posted by briands

If they would get off of their a$$ and offer a client/server PVR device with media file capability, they could probably make a good run with Joe 6pack before the MS/Cablecard thing ever gets off the ground.

Well DirecTV was supposed to have their own media center out this year with a client serevr setup but I haven't heard anything since I think it was CES 2004. One of News Corp.'s companies in the UK was supposed to have this new setup ready to roll out in 2005 but as you can see it never happened and no word of it since CES 2004. If it was CES 2004 they annouced it.




But at least CableCard is coming next year for sure. Sadly I will say SageTV will not be in my home once it happens since I am srue it won't support it but also I want the Xbox 360 to read live TV and everything from SageTV and that isn't going to happen.

[dougrob]

http://www.audioholics.com/news/pres...ARDXbox360.php

Is this just a Vista statement or is this a Vista and Media Center statement? In other words, will this agreement give Sage the right to tap into the cable card support on the Vista OS, or will this agreement exclude Sage? What about Linux?

--dougrob

[dbfresh23]

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14170 (Edit: threads merged - Opus4)

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dougrob

http://www.audioholics.com/news/pres...ARDXbox360.php

Is this just a Vista statement or is this a Vista and Media Center statement? In other words, will this agreement give Sage the right to tap into the cable card support on the Vista OS, or will this agreement exclude Sage? What about Linux?

--dougrob

See above:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...72&postcount=3

Linux is screwed unless somebody impliments DRM on it.

[dbfresh23]

We'll have to wait and see when Tivo comes out with cablecard. Their custom distro is open source, I'd imagine that would have to change otherwise we'd probably just be able to grab that and modify it...

[stanger89]

The Tivo Distro may be OS, but I don't think the Tivo software is. Similarly I would expect the CableCard/security portions of the CC Tivo to be "closed source" as well.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by stanger89

See above:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...72&postcount=3

Linux is screwed unless somebody impliments DRM on it.

So isn't this the company that does the MediaReady 5000 which is really Sage on linux?

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/17...out_boundaries

Video Without Boundaries, Inc., a leading provider of interactive, media-convergent home entertainment devices, today announced its plans to make interactive two-way digital cable products a retail certainty by entering into agreements with CableLabs® that enable VWB to implement OpenCable™ Application Platform (OCAP™) - compliant middleware on its next generation MediaREADY™ media centers.

Gerry

[stanger89]

Like I said, unless somebody impliments DRM on it, sounds like VWB is going to do that. However don't expect to see their mods out "in the wild". Very cool news assuming they stick with SageTV as the engine though