Encryption

[DrSmith]

Should we regard this as coincidence or is this competition "rigged"?

It seems to be the broadcasters' plan to eliminate all DVR features under ATSC 3.0. But they are doing this via highly technical "death by 1000 cuts" rather than outright banning. Clearly they only want ATSC 3.0 to be viewed by people with 1970's style OTA TV expectations. And they are achieving this through very esoteric DRM rules and subtle feature control. We lose.

[nickk]

On the subject of DRM - A3SA can revoke or deny DRM content viewing on/via a product at any time. This essentially means that every new idea for a consumer product and every new feature an innovator wants to add to a consumer product needs to be approved by the broadcasters that are on the A3SA voting committee.

[LarrySB]

I wrote my congressman and signed on to the FCC petition...a lot of good that will do! I am old enough to remember when VCR's came out and there was freedom of the airwaves; none of the broadcasters complained about viewers skipping commercials..or whatever the complaint is today. I just have a hard time accepting that this is just one more freedom lost to some convoluted artifact. Makes me wonder why I served my country.
Larry

[kyl416]

I am old enough to remember when VCR's came out and there was freedom of the airwaves; none of the broadcasters complained about viewers skipping commercials...

I take it you weren't paying attention to Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. where Sony (Betamax) only won by a 1 vote majority, timeshifting was very much at the heart of that case. If it went the other way and they upheld the ninth circuit ruling it would be a much different world where both Betamax and VHS would have been restricted to pre-recorded tapes after 1984.

Nearly every major city also had at least one encrypted OTA service during this era like Wometco, SelecTV, Z Channel, PRISM, etc. The only obligation their stations had was to drop the scrambling for their mandated public affairs show.

[joblo]

every new feature an innovator wants to add to a consumer product needs to be approved by the broadcasters that are on the A3SA voting committee.

Which broadcasters are on the A3SA voting committee?

[LarrySB]

Ha! Back in the good old days where I lived there were 4 channels, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, 3 VHF and one UHF. Network shows were scripted and we only used the VCR because we couldn't stay up late enough to watch all of the network shows.

[RMNB]

This whole encryption effort is such an exercise in futility. WebDL and Bluray rips of movies and TV shows are available of everything on the internet already. The idea that there's a need to prevent people from redistributing OTA tv content (with station station logos and commercials) is silly. Like anyone is going to do that instead of just using a better quality 4K resolution WebDL.

[life_speed@yahoo.com]

Well we've heard nothing from SD (Nick) so customers like me are wondering if the existing Flex 4K tuners most of us have will be able to be updated with only firmware and software, or will it require some hardware following the release of the A3SA's specs and guidelines.

We've answered this already. The existing HDHomeRun ATSC 3.0 hardware is fine, the issue is with the software side, and as of right now the A3SA has only provided a path forward for Android based devices. Don't hold your breath on anything else, because they've jerked us around about other platforms, even with their recent "announcement". I don't know if it's malice or incompetence on A3SA's part, it could honestly be either.

Thanks for the clarification on the uselessness of the A3SA "announcement". Once could have been mislead to believe they are addressing the DRM problem, while it appears it is anything but a path forward to a solution to the problem.

[Frank Hagan]

I don't think there's really anything in the A3SA's press release that tells us anything new. To me, it looks more like a PR response to criticism about their rank incompetence in moving ATSC 3.0 forward. They are attempting to shift the focus from their slug-like movement to the streaming device manufacturers.

It looks like I was right back when the A3SA issued their press release.

Told you so, neener neener.

[wvdearbeck]

So the bottom line for me is that my HDhomerun Flex is useless as a ATSC 3.0 tuner. Can't receive any Nexgen channels and still no APP for Samsung tv's All this discussion has led us nowhere. I will accept my purchase as a loss as there is not much I can do about it. But why does silicondust continue to market and sell this device as a 3.0 nexgen tuner without being up front that it does not receive Nexgen DRM channels, cannot process the AC4 audio and there is no app available for Samsung tv.

[MikeBear]

[removed by moderator]

[Cabal]

So the bottom line for me is that my HDhomerun Flex is useless as a ATSC 3.0 tuner. Can't receive any Nexgen channels and still no APP for Samsung tv's All this discussion has led us nowhere. I will accept my purchase as a loss as there is not much I can do about it. But why does silicondust continue to market and sell this device as a 3.0 nexgen tuner without being up front that it does not receive Nexgen DRM channels, cannot process the AC4 audio and there is no app available for Samsung tv.

That depends on your market. I have one DRM-encumbered channel and 7 ATSC 3.0 channels without. DRM is not a good situation, for sure, but useless also isn't right.

As for TV-specific apps, you're never going to have first-class support. They're too esoteric. HDHomeRun is widely supported on Android TV, Apple TV, iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. My Android TV box does AC-4 audio beautifully in 5.1 with local decoding. And that's only first-party support, not including things like Plex, Channels, Emby, etc.

There's a lot of room to improve, sure. A paperweight, though? I think that's disingenuous.

[nickk]

But why does silicondust continue to market and sell this device as a 3.0 nexgen tuner

The HDHomeRun FLEX 4K is a NextGen TV (logo) tuner, fully certified by the CTA.

without being up front that it does not receive Nexgen DRM channels

DRM is an optional feature for NextGen tuners. We clearly state that DRM is not supported at this time on our product pages.

cannot process the AC4 audio

AC4 is supported. This was part of NextGen TV certification.

and there is no app available for Samsung tv.

Samsung limitations mean apps are not as capable and won't provide the full experience we are going for. For Samsung TVs we recommend using the ONN AndroidTV box ($19.88 from Walmart) if you don't already have a Android/FireTV/Roku box on the TV.

As per our product pages we support Windows, Mac, Roku, Android, Android TV, FireTV, AppleTV, LG, and XBox.

[nickk]

As for TV-specific apps, you're never going to have first-class support. They're too esoteric. HDHomeRun is widely supported on Android TV, Apple TV, iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. My Android TV box does AC-4 audio beautifully in 5.1 with local decoding. And that's only first-party support, not including things like Plex, Channels, Emby, etc.

There's a lot of room to improve, sure. A paperweight, though? I think that's disingenuous.

Open to feedback - what features/areas do you think there is room to improve on?

AppleTV - we are adding 1080i 60fps support and the ability to disable slice guide for people who are watching by themselves and want to go straight into the grid guide.

Roku - we are adding episode sorting support in the next release.

[Cabal]

I was actually referring to the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem as a whole.

The only client change I would like to see is the return of elapsed time with remaining time.