Encryption

[raypenj]

Reminder to all:

Public comment on DRM encryption is open with FCC.

See Lon TV video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQGH08rams8

• Express Form: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express Enter: 16-142 for the Proceeding

• Standard Form (for longer comments via attachments) : https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/standard Enter: 16-142 for the Proceeding

I pushed for the FCC to:

• Talk directly with Gateway device manufacturers to get their experiences with A3SA and DRM encryption demands

• Prevent broadcasters from using DRM until a standardized gateway decryption solution is made available

I so badly want this DRM ATSC 3.0 nightmare to end, it's BS I can only watch 50% of my ATSC 3.0 local channels.

[spatula]

Reminder to all:

Public comment on DRM encryption is open with FCC.

Thanks for the reminder! Remember, the deadline to submit comments is coming up quickly, midnight Eastern Time on May 7 (it's unclear if this means that you actually need your comments submitted by 23:59:59 PM on May 6, but there's no better time than the present anyway).

I just took 20 minutes and submitted mine; the gist of what I submitted was that the NAB and A3SA are not only trying to use technology to reverse 4 decades of legal precedent in which time-shifting for personal viewing is considered "fair use", they've also rendered live viewing impossible with the equipment that I own. Moreover, requiring an Internet connection to receive an encryption key is all of a privacy, reliability, and emergency hazard concern. (ie, it could mean providers could effectively tell what you're trying to view based on which encryption key you're trying to download, in the event of an Internet outage it could mean you can't watch TV, and in the event of a dire emergency where there might be major disruptions to communication or power, it could mean that broadcast TV is no longer a means of informing the public). I also briefly touched on the weird choice of ISOBMFF fMP4 over MPEG-TS for the container format, which makes it take 2 seconds to change the channel or to recover from even transient interference.

The above-mentioned Lon TV video is a great primer. It's worth taking some time out of your day to watch it and to submit your comments. Just go do it!

[bobchase]

Nexgen Certified TV's have the requisite keys embedded into their firmware. Broadcasters publish their video so that it will respond to either type of DRM keys (embedded or internet). Your comments simply do not apply to the majority of OTA viewers who choose to view 3.0. For the tiny group of experimenters that choose to watch via something other than a TV, yes, it is a shame that it turned out that way.

[NatHillIV]

Nexgen Certified TV's have the requisite keys embedded into their firmware. Broadcasters publish their video so that it will respond to either type of DRM keys (embedded or internet). Your comments simply do not apply to the majority of OTA viewers who choose to view 3.0. For the tiny group of experimenters that choose to watch via something other than a TV, yes, it is a shame that it turned out that way.

You are correct. People who have purchased televisions with ATSC 3.0 tuners built in can see their programs. I live in Bloomington Indiana, and have access to 4 main networks broadcasting from Indianapolis. I now get only ONE of the ATSC 3.0 channels on my HDHome Run. My one ATSC 3.0 TV works, but my other 5 TVs scattered around my house are out of luck. They worked fine until the geniuses in charge of ATSC 3.0 decided I was just going to have to buy all new TVs. How's that working for the broadcasters? I guess I didn't know I was an "experimenter" when I purchased a "NextGen TV Certified Device."
I now hope the broadcast industry shenanigans cause ATSC 3.0 to suffer the same fate as HDRadio and Stereo AM. At one time I was a strong proponent.
My HdHomeRun works just fine on ATSC 1.0.

[spatula]

Nexgen Certified TV's have the requisite keys embedded into their firmware. Broadcasters publish their video so that it will respond to either type of DRM keys (embedded or internet). Your comments simply do not apply to the majority of OTA viewers who choose to view 3.0. For the tiny group of experimenters that choose to watch via something other than a TV, yes, it is a shame that it turned out that way.

That's as may be, but it's my time to spend how I choose, my right to submit a public comment if I feel like it, and neither require your approval nor consultation, random heckling stranger on the Internet.

[Flyoffacliff]

Nexgen Certified TV's have the requisite keys embedded into their firmware. Broadcasters publish their video so that it will respond to either type of DRM keys (embedded or internet). Your comments simply do not apply to the majority of OTA viewers who choose to view 3.0. For the tiny group of experimenters that choose to watch via something other than a TV, yes, it is a shame that it turned out that way.

Regardless of what happens with ATSC 3.0, we still desperately need a replacement for ATSC 1.0. The DVD-era encoding used is obsolete and inefficient

You are correct. People who have purchased televisions with ATSC 3.0 tuners built in can see their programs. I live in Bloomington Indiana, and have access to 4 main networks broadcasting from Indianapolis. I now get only ONE of the ATSC 3.0 channels on my HDHome Run. My one ATSC 3.0 TV works, but my other 5 TVs scattered around my house are out of luck. They worked fine until the geniuses in charge of ATSC 3.0 decided I was just going to have to buy all new TVs. How's that working for the broadcasters? I guess I didn't know I was an "experimenter" when I purchased a "NextGen TV Certified Device."
I now hope the broadcast industry shenanigans cause ATSC 3.0 to suffer the same fate as HDRadio and Stereo AM. At one time I was a strong proponent.
My HdHomeRun works just fine on ATSC 1.0.

Regardless of what happens with ATSC 3, we still desperately need a replacement for 1.0. The DVD-era encoding used as obsolete and inefficient, which means a waste of radio spectrum and everything that is recorded taking up much more space than it needs to. Unless of course you choose to re-encode it.

[nickk]

Regardless of what happens with ATSC 3, we still desperately need a replacement for 1.0. The DVD-era encoding used as obsolete and inefficient, which means a waste of radio spectrum and everything that is recorded taking up much more space than it needs to. Unless of course you choose to re-encode it.

AVC / h.264 has been part of the ATSC 1.0 standard since 2008.
HEVC / h.265 over ATSC 1.0 works on modern 4K TVs (many other countries use HEVC over broadcast)

[DrSmith]

Regardless of what happens with ATSC 3, we still desperately need a replacement for 1.0. The DVD-era encoding used as obsolete and inefficient, which means a waste of radio spectrum and everything that is recorded taking up much more space than it needs to. Unless of course you choose to re-encode it.

I'm pretty sure that > 2/3 of my OTA video spectrum is already being wasted on infomercials and very old reruns. Obsolete encoding is not the problem, IMHO. We desperately need new content to keep any ATSC version relevant.

[Freekick123]

I'm pretty sure that > 2/3 of my OTA video spectrum is already being wasted on infomercials and very old reruns. Obsolete encoding is not the problem, IMHO. We desperately need new content to keep any ATSC version relevant.

I've watched an industry I spent 50 years working in rapidly move to paid streaming. OTA is becoming the main source for unscripted programming and sports, and even sports is moving in that direction. New decent content on OTA is becoming scarce.

[Flyoffacliff]

I personally just use it for local and international news, but that's besides the point. I bet some of the spectrum could be reallocated for more useful things like 5G if we had better encoding.

[Flyoffacliff]

Regardless of what happens with ATSC 3, we still desperately need a replacement for 1.0. The DVD-era encoding used as obsolete and inefficient, which means a waste of radio spectrum and everything that is recorded taking up much more space than it needs to. Unless of course you choose to re-encode it.

AVC / h.264 has been part of the ATSC 1.0 standard since 2008.
HEVC / h.265 over ATSC 1.0 works on modern 4K TVs (many other countries use HEVC over broadcast)

Yeah that may be true, but hardly anyone broadcasts in it because it's not a mandatory part of the spec, which means some devices with ATSC 1.0 tuners, even if it's a relatively small number, would have issues if they did.

If they came out with, say ATSC 1.1 instead of 3.0, with the only difference being that h.265 is now a mandatory for hardware and broadcasting, I would be on board with that.