Orlando ATSC 3.0 - WESH TV 102.1 - GONE? - FLEX 4K Encryption?

[ronj]

Anyone notice that the WESH ATSC 3.0 signal in Orlando has been down for about a day? If so, what's going on? All the other channels on that lighthouse station seem just fine.

How does the Flex 4K handle encrypted channels when it doesn't have the key? I wonder if they turned on encryption. I did a rescan and the channel is no longer available in my list.

[ronj]

I just got the official word from the station...

As of yesterday Hearst corporate in conjuction with the ATSC 3.0 Pearl group requested that we turn on DRM encryption. Some atsc 3.0 receivers do no work with this function. -- WESH Engineering

[ronj]

Is there an update I can get for the Flex 4K that will download the appropriate encryption key?

[signcarver]

Currently the Flex (or original "4K" unit) does not support encrypted content. Since SD is an A3SA adopter, eventually it should but such will require a firmware update. Encryption doesn't always involve DRM protection (around here usually when one refers to DRM or DRM Protection, it is understood to be some form of restrictive protection, not "copy freely" protection which really offer "no" protection), but all the pieces must be put together. One thing that may make it a bit harder is that there are more restrictions placed on "boxes" when it comes to the A3SA rules compared to a TV but SD's dealing with the prime and cablelabs has pretty much made them build "all" units since with certain things expected needed to support protection so SD "supposedly" has what is required to build a solution (uniquely) baked into every 4K unit that should make a simple firmware update all that is needed, provided they can get such certified (I don't have much doubt they will get this eventually but these things take time and they need to make sure to get it right so it won't come before its time). Tablo took another route and decided not to ship anything yet as they weren't aware of what may be required on the hardware level in their original design/manufacturing as tablo has never supported protected content. What is expected from zapperbox is an exchange of boxes (and fee of at least shipping) to get the "hardware" installed that can support DRM, but there is no guarantee they can accomplish such. Since WMC won't support ATSC3, it wouldn't surprise me if when encrypted content support first comes out, it may be just for live within SD's app utilizing the DTCP-IP methods on anything that is encrypted ATSC3, then there may be a period that if it is merely encrypted but not "protected" it will allow recording, but until SD gets the engine certified for DRM, protected content won't be recorded.

[ronj]

This post states that they’re working on it….

viewtopic.php?t=77618&sid=c9caa041480f3 ... 16442a1b2d

[ronj]

I just got the official word from the station...

As of yesterday Hearst corporate in conjuction with the ATSC 3.0 Pearl group requested that we turn on DRM encryption. Some atsc 3.0 receivers do no work with this function. -- WESH Engineering

Got a call from the WESH Director of Engineering. He has a personal ZapperBox that was affected the same way. So it looks like the TVs are covered well for DRM encryption, although a few of them aren’t yet, but the boxes aren’t - Flex 4K HDHR and ZapperBox….thus the race is on to get those boxes fixed.

[NedS]

We will be supporting encryption for our own app (should even work on more platforms than CableCARD protected channels currently do, yay), but encryption threatens most of our third party partners, third party apps, the greater open source community, offline users, and more. ATSC 3.0 encryption/DRM on the normal broadcast channels (that are still transmitting in unencrypted ATSC 1.0, making it even more pointless) is absurd, anti-consumer, and honestly confusing (it really doesn't even help the broadcasters protect their content in the big picture. OOOOH I want to rant about this sooo bad).

Silicondust will have a more formal statement coming out soon, but I just wanted to say something real quick, so people knew that we are aware of the situation, and are not happy about it.

[MikeBear]

We will be supporting encryption for our own app (should even work on more platforms than CableCARD protected channels currently do, yay), but encryption threatens most of our third party partners, third party apps, the greater open source community, offline users, and more. ATSC 3.0 encryption/DRM on the normal broadcast channels (that are still transmitting in unencrypted ATSC 1.0, making it even more pointless) is absurd, anti-consumer, and honestly confusing (it really doesn't even help the broadcasters protect their content in the big picture. OOOOH I want to rant about this sooo bad).

Silicondust will have a more formal statement coming out soon, but I just wanted to say something real quick, so people knew that we are aware of the situation, and are not happy about it.

You have that all 100% correct. IF encryption becomes standard SOP, ATSC 3.0 roll-out will be DOA. They couldn't have found a better way to shoot themselves in the foot, and raise the ire of everybody out there, than to pull this bogus stunt.

[NedS]

If broadcasters want ATSC 3.0 to succeed then they need to remove barriers, not add them.

[ronj]

We will be supporting encryption for our own app (should even work on more platforms than CableCARD protected channels currently do, yay), but encryption threatens most of our third party partners, third party apps, the greater open source community, offline users, and more. ATSC 3.0 encryption/DRM on the normal broadcast channels (that are still transmitting in unencrypted ATSC 1.0, making it even more pointless) is absurd, anti-consumer, and honestly confusing (it really doesn't even help the broadcasters protect their content in the big picture. OOOOH I want to rant about this sooo bad).

Silicondust will have a more formal statement coming out soon, but I just wanted to say something real quick, so people knew that we are aware of the situation, and are not happy about it.

I want to hear more NedS. I’d love to read that statement. Why is this happening? What is SiliconDust’s position? What’s the plan for handling stations like this? What’s the eta for support?

Also, could you possibly add an error message that states this recording (or channel) is encrypted when it can’t be viewed? That would have helped me in this situation.

[jeff.a.ray@gmail.com]

This appears to have also happened to WMOR in Tampa which is owned by Hearst and shares studios with WESH. It disappeared from my channel list. WMOR is the lighthouse broadcasting atsc 3.0 for Tampa. WTSP/WFTS/WTVT are working fine.

[chris_in_texas]

If broadcasters want ATSC 3.0 to succeed then they need to remove barriers, not add them.

I am sure its for "security" however in real terms its for licensing. If you can make money on it why not?

So silly to encrypt over the air broadcast stations! So I guess when the weather turns bad, and nobody can watch TV for emergencies, there's that!

[nickk]

The latest beta firmware detects protected channels:
viewtopic.php?t=20613

For the moment attempting to play an encrypted channel will result in a "Content protection required" error message.

Nick

[DougHo]

A recording from this NBC channel says Unable to play channel: No video data. Is there a reason that it did not record the ATSC 1.0 channel when the ATSC 3.0 channel was encrypted?
I thought that was happening earlier this month, but it didn't happen last night. It seems inconsistent. Last night there were no other recordings at the same time but earlier this month there might have been others at same time, so maybe those earlier ended up recording the ATSC 1.0 version because ATSC 3.0 tuner was in use for CBS and/or ABC and/or PBS?

[signcarver]

That should vary by recording rule, what channels does the rule list list to record from?

Also make sure everything is updated to new beta which you might have done which explains the most recent.

Personally I try not to record from atsc3 channels as you never know when things change at the station that may require a new scan. Unfortunately for me my preferred channels are often from the prime (locals here have really good h.264 conversion on cable) but if the flex is what is recording it would prefer its own tuners.