Encryption

[diplexer]

Congress is oblivious to encryption as much as they are to everything. They don't even understand TV from Radio. I wrote my congressman about the DRM encryption problem on atsc 3.0 and their reply was "rest assured we are working hard to keep AM radio alive." WTF, they have no idea about anything and don't even no the question at hand. I believe most congressmen and their staff are incompetant. No wonder we have so many problems.

[DrSmith]

Also, (at risk of beating a dead horse) we gateway DVR users are a small fraction of a small fraction that are even interested in OTA anymore. Congress might have a hearing but the A3SA will wheel in a S*ny TV with full DRM support and say "see, nothing to see here, OTA works as it always has". Nobody's going to get into the weeds of our issue.

[freway01]

But how will they answer the question, "if I can't be at home when a show originally airs, how can I record the program and watch it on any TV in my home like I do today?"

[Frank Hagan]

I don't think the networks themselves are forcing encryption on local affiliates based on the signals I can receive.

Here in Los Angeles, the Fox affiliate KTTV is not encrypting the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, while CBS and NBC are encrypting. All three of these stations are the respective west coast flagship stations for their networks and owned by the networks. (The ABC affiliate isn't yet broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 in Los Angeles.)

But in nearby Santa Barbara a station that is an affiliate for the ABC, CBS and MyTV networks, KEYT, is not encrypting. It is owned by News Press and Gazatte, an independent media company with TV and newspaper outlets in several states.

I don't think there is a mandate for ATSC 3.0 broadcasters to encrypt their signals from the networks, at least not ABC and CBS.

[NedS]

I think it's more that all of the major broadcasters/studios are interested in DRM and see it as the future, as an eventuality. As for who is pushing for ATSC 3.0 DRM to happen today, look at the Pearl Group: https://pearltv.com/about/

Pearl is their vanguard, and if nothing changes then this will eventually spread beyond Pearl-owned stations.

[Frank Hagan]

I think it's more that all of the major broadcasters/studios are interested in DRM and see it as the future, as an eventuality. As for who is pushing for ATSC 3.0 DRM to happen today, look at the Pearl Group: https://pearltv.com/about/

Pearl is their vanguard, and if nothing changes then this will eventually spread beyond Pearl-owned stations.

They represent a huge majority of the affiliates according to that page (66 to 78%)! They are likely to win and destroy free OTA as we know it today. Unless some
Senator's kid gets upset about it, though, I don't see anything stopping them from their goal.

[gore]

I agree, but I do not see where we, the consumers, have any leverage with the broadcasters or anyone else. It would be nice if some powerful congressman on the Oversight Committee could pickup this issue and hammer the FCC. They have the power to regulate this stuff. I addressed the issue to my congressman's staff and it seems to be too complicated for them to even consider...
Larry

We have PLENTY of leverage as long as it's NOT mandated. Just don't buy any ATSC 3.0 tuner, AND continue to get the word out to everybody you know, that neither should they, because they are encrypting everything. Dissuade everybody you can from even considering anything to do with 3.0.

Contact your congressmen, and tell them you are unhappy about them encrypting, etc. I've contacted mine and had replies. That might not do anything, but it lets them KNOW we won't have anything to do with ATSC 3.0, as long as they keep drm/encryption.

If you don't buy an ATSC 3.0 tuner, you are hurting Silicon Dust, not the broadcasters. The broadcasters could not care less about Silicon Dust and their products. The broadcasters are not concerned with making their product easier to consume, they are concerned with how to get revenue from that product. As was said in another post, the broadcasters no longer care about over-the-air broadcasting because they don't make money from it. Not yet, anyway. Encryption is their path to making more billions. They hope encryption will make you pay for the privilege of watching something that has always been free because in some way this 3.0 picture/signal is "better". Well, it is not. Not better enough to make me want to pay for it.

The broadcasters make billions off of retransmission fee revenue from cable and satellite and streaming, so they are not about to make it any easier for us to watch free over-the-air TV using our HD HomeRuns.

[hancox]

Will DRM encrypted ATSC 3.0 channels play on my Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, Mac?
No. ATSC 3.0 uses Google Widevine DRM encryption which is a competitor to Apple FairPlay DRM encryption. This issue is not specific to the HDHomeRun product. A3SA is aware of the problem. There is no solution at this time. Any solution is outside our control and our guess is that a solution is unlikely anytime soon.

Excellent! I can stop paying attention to this entire thing now. I'm not buying another box just to decrypt ATSC 3.0 DRM channels someday.

Good luck to everyone at SiliconDust. As far as I'm concerned, you all rock and you (and plenty of your customers) are being screwed over for no good reason.

Over and out.

Getting dangerously close to this, after trying to hold out. I may buy a competing product, mainly to hack and work around the DRM, to my satisfaction. Screw the crooks who are using OUR airwaves to bring out this junk.

[mva5580]

Hello, I just picked up an HDHomerun Flex 4k, aware of all the zaniness that's going on with 3.0, encryption and all that. I just want to make sure I'm understanding what I'm seeing correclty when I use it.

After I go through tuning, I have the 4 ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox stations at the bottom in the 100's, which apparently are the 3.0 channels. When I tune these I get the "Unable to play channel...restrictions" message on ABC/NBC, but CBS/Fox tune and work fine. From some of the things I've read it sounds like these may just be the 1.0 versions of the channel and not the actual 3.0 version, is that right? If it matters, I'm in Indy. Thank you.

[wlm12]

Hello, I just picked up an HDHomerun Flex 4k, aware of all the zaniness that's going on with 3.0, encryption and all that. I just want to make sure I'm understanding what I'm seeing correclty when I use it.

After I go through tuning, I have the 4 ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox stations at the bottom in the 100's, which apparently are the 3.0 channels. When I tune these I get the "Unable to play channel...restrictions" message on ABC/NBC, but CBS/Fox tune and work fine. From some of the things I've read it sounds like these may just be the 1.0 versions of the channel and not the actual 3.0 version, is that right? If it matters, I'm in Indy. Thank you.

No, those are DRM encrypted. The 1.0 versions of those channels will have a channel that is 100 less. For example, I live in Houston and 3.0 version of FOX is 126.1 while the 1.0 version is 26.1.

[anonymouse]

From some of the things I've read it sounds like these may just be the 1.0 versions of the channel and not the actual 3.0 version, is that right?

You can use web interface to your HDHomeRun to see if it's ATSC 3.0 or not by turning a 1xx.x channel that has content, then going to the web interface, select Tuner Status, then click on the Tuner (mostly likely Tuner 0 if you're not watching anything else but the one channel) and looking at the Modulcation Lock:

Tuner 0 Status
Virtual Channel 132.1 KRCW
Frequency 587.000 MHz
Program Number 5
Modulation Lock atsc3
Signal Strength 97%
Signal Quality 81%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 6.011 Mbps

[mva5580]

Thank you, looks like they are indeed 3.0. So I guess maybe I’ll get some 4k sports on Fox when those games roll around.

[MikeBear]

There aren't any 4k broadcasts as of yet, on OTA Atsc 3.0 stations.

[NatHillIV]

To my eyes, the ATSC 3.0 version, while NOT 4K, is a better picture than the 1.0 version.
Probably many variables are involved, but in the Indianapolis market, that appears to be the case.

[HoTst2]

To my eyes, the ATSC 3.0 version, while NOT 4K, is a better picture than the 1.0 version.
Probably many variables are involved, but in the Indianapolis market, that appears to be the case.

Haven't looked at your specific market, but the 3.0 signals probably are better looking due to the increased compression needed by the greater spectrum sharing on some of the 1.0 signals to free up a station to be the 3.0 Lighthouse one. .

Why broadcasters don't simply ditch the now long obsolete and inefficient MPEG-2 compression on the 1.0 signals and switch to MPEG-4 AVC to help alleviate the effects of the increased spectrum crunch caused by the creation of the 3.0 Lighthouse stations is beyond me.