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The closure of SlySoft is having a chilling effect on another commercial provider of copy protection circumvention software:
The company behind the popular DVDFab software has announced it will not be supporting decryption of the enhanced Advanced Access Content System (AACS) that will be used to protect new Ultra HD (4K UHD) Blu-ray discs. The announcement comes just a day after rival copying software company SlySoft confirmed its closure.
[...] Under pressure from AACS LA, a decryption licensing outfit founded by a group of powerful Hollywood movie studios and various technology partners, SlySoft first went dark and then announced its closure this week. And now, in the space of just a couple of days, another DVD/Blu-ray copying software company also appears to be feeling the heat.
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Like SlySoft, China-based Fengtao Software has also been involved in a dispute with AACS LA and in 2014 was the subject of a preliminary injunction after a court found that DVDFab violates the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. In 2015 a federal court in New York extended the injunction, further pressuring the company. Then yesterday, just a day after the closure of SlySoft, Fengtao dropped a bombshell of its own. In a press release sent to Myce the company announced that DVDFab will not be updated to crack the Advanced Access Content System encryption that will be present in the next generation of 4K UHD Blu-ray discs.
"The next version of AACS Copy Protection accompanying those newly released Ultra HD Blu-ray titles is the version 2.0 of Advanced Access Content System. According to a document called AACS 2.0 Draft, the new copy protection requires the Ultra HD Blu-ray players to support two AACS 2.0 functionalities, one named 'basic' and the other referred as 'enhanced'," the company said in a statement. "Fengtao Software Inc. makes it clear that the company will not decrypt or circumvent AACS 2.0 in the days to come. This is in accordance with AACS-LA, (which has not made public the specifications for AACS 2.0), the BDA and the movie studios."
Noting that the debate over copying commercial movie discs for home use has "raged on for decades", Fengtao says that the practice of decrypting copy protection technology has done so too and is not likely to stop in the foreseeable future. Even the fact that AACS 2.0 requires an Internet connection for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs to be played back for the first time is unlikely to stop the problem. "Now here comes the question: will there be a solution to crack AACS 2.0? Likely, there will be, publicly or secretly," the company says. Nevertheless, Fengtao insists that it won't be behind the effort.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mmcmonster on Sunday February 28 2016, @09:25PM
There are some benefits in the 4K format. Resolution really isn't it, however. The wider color gamut noted in 4K can be very useful for TVs and movies. That being said, adoption is going to take a long time.
The economy is not doing as well as it was 15 years ago, and people have already bought their 1080p TVs. Asking them to buy a newer TV just a decade or so later is a bit much. I don't know about others, but the only reason I buy a new TV is either for a new room or the old one just died. And I'm still waiting patiently for my 50" 1080p DLP TV to die so I can get something a bit more sleek.
Not to mention if the Bluray player or HDMI cables need to be changed out for 4K to work properly.
Right now I would expect the trickle of 4K TVs to continue and hope that people like youtube in 4K a lot.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Sunday February 28 2016, @11:58PM
True, but color doesn't need 4k pixels. They could have chosen a like outlandish size.4k is great for theaters and production, but makes no sense for in people's homes.
Wider gamut and better frame rate wouldn't have been easy to market without the penis extender I suppose.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday February 29 2016, @12:48AM
I've got an i5 with an nvidia 9800gt and 15mbs down 1mbs up. YouTube stutters and shits itself at 1080. 720 is all it can do. I saw something on Netflix about higher rez only working on chrome with the silver light plugin... I wonder if it would help my 1080 YouTube experience? Anyone got 1080 working on youtube? Any hints appreciated.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0x663EB663D1E7F223
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @01:47AM
1080 on youtube works fine on both my Intel J2900 w/integrated graphics and my i7 w/Nvidia GTX759ti. I have 100mbs/15mbs cable. I think you need a faster internet service, 15mbs down isn't going to cut it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @02:15AM
Just use youtube-dl. Watching Youtube videos in the browser is asking for trouble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @03:03AM
I've got an i5 with an nvidia 9800gt and up to 15mbs down 1mbs up. YouTube stutters and shits itself at 1080.
I believe you're not getting the top of your advertised speed. Even still, 1080p@60fps needs something between 5 and 10 Mbps for most videos, but can require more if there is a lot of action or something else lowers the compression level.
Helpful hint for figuring out YouTube problems is to right click the video and select "stats for nerds." That will show you the bandwidth you are using, dropped frames, and frames per second, among other things. The basic rules are: 1. dropped frames == hardware too weak and 2. an uneven or flat bandwidth graph == not downloading fast enough.
(Score: 2, Informative) by slap on Monday February 29 2016, @04:24AM
I've got a AMD Llano w/ integrated graphics and 3mbs DSL. 720 is usually ok. I'd guess you are only getting 2-3mbs between you and youtube.