News
Report: Apple firmware stopped DVI-out in HDCP iTunes video
A post-release video card firmware update issued by Apple has left some Mac Pro users unable to play back HDCP-encrypted, iTunes-purchased content, notes iLounge reader Joshua Murphy. Following an article published recently about HDCP content protection on new high-definition iTunes movie releases, Murphy notes that late 2008 MacBook users aren’t the only ones affected by the lockdown. Equipped with an nVidia GeForce 7300GT card and Samsung T240 monitor, both of which initially supported HDCP over a DVI connection, Murphy’s Mac Pro now refuses to play HDCP-encoded content following installation of iTunes 8.1, an issue traced to an Apple-supplied firmware update that apparently disabled the HDCP feature of the video card without warning. Consequently, though all of his machine’s components are HDCP-compliant, he is unable to watch HD videos at all.
Murphy has since contacted Apple, which told him that the problem with HDCP on the original Mac Pro is an active issue being worked on, and there should be an update soon to correct the problem. In the meantime, Apple recommended he revert to iTunes 8.0.2, which will allow him to play HD-formatted TV shows but unfortunately not HD movies. Given that the firmware update was released in early 2007, well before the appearance of HD-formatted TV shows and movies on iTunes, it is possible that Apple was not immediately aware of the problems disabling HDCP support could cause its users; however, no known fix is currently available.
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1
Remember boys & girls.. The moral of the story is that DRM doesn’t hurt anyone.. Right?
Posted by Phoenixfury on April 3, 2009 at 9:08 AM (PDT)
2
This sounds definitely unintentional by Apple. Still, it’s a prime example of why DRM makes things messy and needlessly complex. In the end it’s the honest user who gets punished, while the people pirating movies have no restrictions. Hopefully the movie studios will come around and give up DRM the same way record labels did with iTunes.
Also, didn’t something similar to this happen with some Macbooks?
Posted by Ned Scott on April 3, 2009 at 9:28 AM (PDT)
3
HDCP is the real “bag of hurt”!
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on April 3, 2009 at 9:35 AM (PDT)
4
I just have never understood these “protections”. Their justification is that it stops the casual “pirate” by preventing them from hooking up their computer to some sort of recorder. How very 1980s of them. Even then, people just purchased VCRs that didn’t output the Macromedia scrambling.
It’s even easier today, software just rips the video content without the encryption or, in the case of something like iTunes DRM video just, creates a virtual driver with all the proper “paperwork” and and records from that.
It’s bizarre because, in their zeal to prevent alleged piracy, they just wind up educating millions who would have never bothered if they could just get their DVDs or Blu-Ray onto their DAP easily, or play their iTunes purchased and rented content as they see fit, on how to be pirates.
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on April 3, 2009 at 4:58 PM (PDT)