More on: PC HDTV Tuners and "Broadcast Flag"

(Forwarded from DMCA Discussion list)

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Blunk <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 11:12:59 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [DMCA_Discuss] PC HDTV tuners and FCC broadcast flag 
issues



   Looks like I misread the FCC ruling.  It does not permit
sending unencrypted video over "user accessible" buses, such
as the PCI bus.  So it appears that all the cards below, with
the exception of the accessDTV card, would be illegal as of
July 1, 2005 (at least in their present state).  Buy 'em up now
before it's too late.

   On another note, it appears that accessDTV dropped the price
of their card to $249 today.


--- Larry Blunk <[email protected]> wrote:
> In light of the FCC's ruling today, I've compiled a list of currently
> available PC HDTV tuner cards.  I've come up with a total of 5 of
them,
> with the cheapest going for $159.
> 
> DViCO FusionHDTVII - $159
> http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/fusion2.asp
> 
> pcHDTV HD-2000 - $189.89  -- note: Linux driver only
> http://www.pchdtv.com/hd_2000.html
> 
> MyHD MDP-120 - $289
>
https://www.dcpuraty.com/store/Product_Details.asp?ProductCode=MDP120PB
> 
> Hauppauge WinTV-HD  -  $299.99
> http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware.asp#wintv_hd
> 
> accessDTV - $379.99??
> http://www.accessdtv.com/accessdtv/prod_tuner.htm
> 
> 
>    Note that all of the drivers for these cards support PVR
> functionality.  However, only the accessDTV encrypts the video
> stream when storing it on your disk.  The accessDTV uses a
> video loopback connector to overlay the video into your video
> card's output.  Note that each card is uniquely keyed and
> the unencrypted video data never crosses your PCI, memory, or CPU
> busses.  This means video can only be played back on the
> accessDTV card that recorded it.
> 
>     The remaining cards have no built-in crypto and are thus
> entirely dependent on their software drivers to implement
> "content protection".   As far as I can discern, all of the
> drivers for these cards currently save the video streams
> unencrypted on your disk.   Amazingly, the FCC mandate
> would apparently allow these cards to continue to be manufactured,
> but outlaw the current drivers which save video data in an
> unencrypted format.
> 
>     This opens up many questions.  How will the FCC force users
> to update their drivers to the new Broadcast flag compliant ones? 
How
> will they eradicate the old drivers from the Internet?   Will it
> be possible to write FCC compliant open-source drivers for the
HD-2000
> card?  I believe a couple of the cards don't provide access to
> the ATSC stream, thus making it impossible to detect the flag.
> 

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