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Comment by varenc | Hacker News Reader

DRM isn't perfect of course, but it largely works.

Unlike with Youtube videos, you can't just freely pull something off GitHub and crack Widevine level 1 DRM. The tools and extracted secret keys that release groups use to pirate 4K content are protected and not generally available.

This doesn't matter if you want to find something popular enough for a release group to drop in a torrent, but if you have personal access to some bespoke or very obscure content the DRM largely prevents you from downloading it. (especially at level 1, used for 4K, which requires that only a separate hardware video decoder can access the keys)

tl;dr; DRM works in the sense it changes it from 1/100 people can download something (YouTube) to ~1/100000.

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No, it really is not that complicated at all.

You can just go online and grab software to bypass any and all DRM.

It's called OBS.

All DRM content must be rendered into meatspace at some point and there is literally no possible way to prevent this. Record your screen, record your system audio. It's pretty trivial

you mean screen recording? Or using a virtual display you can record? pretty sure this is false for the level 1 DRM used for 4k content. Still certainly will work for some things but never for 4K. Sites downgrade you to 720p if you're in a lower security context. Would love to be proven wrong.

Use OBS to capture the 4K version of this test pattern[0] off Netflix and I'll buy you lunch!

You can point a camera at your monitor of course, but with level 1 DRM the video decoding happens in a hardware video decoder that's not accessible by the operating system. If you try to screen record or use OBS on 4K content on macOS/Windows, you just get black. Same with phones. It's not "just use OBS". If it works for you it's probably because you're getting 720p content. (which admittedly provides the majority of the value)

[0] https://www.netflix.com/title/80018499 # <-- this test pattern is the most reliable way to actually know what resolution video Netflix is sending you.

Netflix only serves 720p (or below) video to any platform that does not encrypt the video path that prevents OBS or anything else from screen recording.

Not anything else, eventually the signal needs to be unencrypted so your eyeballs can see it. You don't want to see static.

So between the LCD and the connection, the signal is passing in cleartext. You can intercept that.

There's HDCP converters available for cheap.

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