DRM, HDMI, HDCP, COPP, Retardedness

So I just got a good deal on a new monitor.  Let me say, the size of a 24″ widescreen feels extravagant and luxurious.  The blacks get a little smashed on it, but that can be adjusted and the colors in general are great.  My last monitor was a TN panel so this is a real step up.

Sadly, it only took me a week to run into DRM stupidity with it on Vista.

First, a little background and terms definition.  I honestly don’t have the patience to dig endlessly into this, so you get summed up wikipedia entries.

• DRM – Digital Rights Management.  The term that encompasses all attempts at content access control technologies.
• HDCP – High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection.  Content providers want a “protected path” between the source and output.  HDCP gives them an encrypted digital connection between the computer and the display device.
• HDMI – High-Definition Multimedia Interface.  As wikiepedia says, it represents the DRM alternative to consumer analog (VGA, etc) … and digital (DVI) standards.
• COPP – The Vista protocol that supports HDCP.

Second, the play by play.  The Westinghouse monitor does not have DVI, for some reason.  It has HDMI, VGA, and Component inputs.  Best Buy charges $60 for a DVI-to-HDMI cable, so I opted to save $50 and order a cable from monoprice.  This means that for the first few days I was on a VGA connection (which looked just fine, honestly).

I recently signed up with Netflix for the first time, mostly because of their new WatchNow feature which is pretty slick.  I have been watching through Dexter at Iver’s recommendation.  I’ve enjoyed it a lot, and I highly recommend it.

After switching to the HDMI cable on my monitor Netflix suddenly refused to let me use WatchNow, claiming that my DRM software needed to be reset.  As linked earlier, my experience mimics this person.  Resetting means that you are generating a new hardware signature that is used to identify you and your setup.  Netflix has a nice big warning saying that resetting your DRM will invalidate all current licenses, not just Netflix’s.  This is a HUGE DEAL, and means that if you have content that uses this DRM system you would then need to go to each provider (Amazon, ect) individually where they will hopefully let you redownload the stuff you purchased, now with your new hardware signature.

Luckily I don’t have any DRM’d content from other locations, so I figured eh, lets try their reset.  Lo-and-behold it crashes a couple times, reports failure, and then success.  Even after futzing with it for 45 minutes and sitting on hold with customer-support the whole time, if it worked now I would be happy.

It didn’t.  Well it kind of does, and that is the bizarre part.

I have two monitors.  The new one connected via HDMI, and a second one connected via DVI.  I watch shows on the second one while I play games or code or whatever on my main screen.  It turns out that this is what the DRM has an issue with.  It will let me watch Netflix shows on my HDMI screen, but not on my DVI screen.  I could watch on either monitor before the switch.

Let me repeat that, with some emphasis.

The DRM cares which monitor I play my content on, and locks me out of one but not the other.

It boggles my mind.  Why?  WHY?

Now, the wrap up.  From a consumer perspective HDMI offers no advantages beyond it being a single thing to plug in that also carries an audio signal.  HDMI is being pushed because it allows the “protected path”, not because it provides any tangible consumer benefit. It might be fine on your TV, where all you hook up is a game console and a dvd/blu-ray player, but I cannot recommend using HDMI to connect your PC to anything.  If you don’t run into this problem you will run into another one.  This is a consumer minefield, and will only hurt adoption of the technology.  Can you imagine your parents trying to sort through DRM issues?  HD is already too complicated with its resomolutions and whatsits and doodads.  People just want to plug something in and have it work.

I feel the need to clarify my stance a bit.  I am not anti-DRM.  I am anti-DRMthatcausesissuesforpayingcustomers.  Trying to curtail piracy isn’t morally wrong, and I believe content creators deserve a return for their effort.  From a practical standpoint though, DRM that gets in the way of paying customers will only hurt in the long run.  If you can’t make DRM that curtails piracy and doesn’t impact the regular user, then I don’t think you should make it at all.  Put it back in the oven and work on the problem until you can come up with a tractable solution.  And don’t hide behind your lawyers to defend our outdated business practices.  I’m looking at you RIAA.

I’m sure their suggestion would be for me to buy a second HDMI monitor, then I can have nothing but “protected paths”.  Thanks, but I’ll switch back to VGA for now and have it just work.