Microsoft, for instance, just enabled PlayReady 3.0 with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Moving partsĪ lot of these moving parts are only now starting to come together.
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“If they can’t be sure that there’s a protected hardware path, or they can’t be sure that X-Y-Z will happen, typically they’re allowed to send SD content or 720p HD, but not 1080p HD, and certainly not 4K,” Rambhia says. The service provider is ultimately responsible for upholding the studios’ security requirements when offering 4K playback failure to do so can result in fines and other penalties. Streaming services like Netflix just won’t bother sending down 4K content without that go-ahead, according to Rambhia. This system looks at the hardware to make sure all the necessary measures are in place, and it then gives the thumbs-up to the streaming app. In Windows, for instance, Microsoft has a system called PlayReady 3.0 that meets all of the studios’ requirements for 4K UHD playback. This is accomplished through a DRM license, which tends to be offered by the device or operating system.
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But setting up a secure environment requires a lot of pieces to fall into place.Įven with the right hardware support, the operating system must know how to manage those resources, and it must convey to the streaming service that the environment is secure. That’s not to say the PC is inherently less secure than other devices.
(His day job is principal engineering manager of the Media Platform for Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group.) And so the security expectations around those devices are naturally different,” says Gabe Frost, the executive director of Alliance for Open Media, a group that’s working on new royalty-free video formats.
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“General purpose computing devices can have all kinds of software running on them, and these other devices can’t run all kinds of software on them. Here’s another story you might want to read: 4K content protection will frustrate consumers more than pirates In essence, the hardware must create a secure environment for the entire video pipeline-from decryption to decoding to screen composition-to protect the content from software ripping. To play 4K content on a TV or an external monitor, for instance, both the playback device and the display must support HDCP 2.2, a form of copy protection for HDMI video output.Ĭompared to game consoles and other streaming boxes, general computing devices (such as Windows PCs) have even more stringent requirements, including hardware-based decryption for protected content. In an attempt to keep their 4K content locked down, the studios demand all sorts of security measures that didn’t apply to lower-resolution formats. Streaming services such as Netflix aren’t supporting 4K on PCs just yet. “What you don’t want is for 4K to become an easy source of leaked content.” “If you were able to analog-capture the 4K content, you could very easily create very high quality HD streams, and now the Internet bandwidth is high enough is that you could abundantly stream that stuff,” says Avni Rambhia, an analyst with Frost and Sullivan. The fear is that pirates could simply hook up the playback source to a video capture device, and help themselves to DRM-free copies of high-resolution content.
Hollywood studios have always worried about digital piracy, but they’re especially skittish about 4K. And while premium 4K content is coming to the PC soon, you’ll probably need new hardware to see it. The reasons why streaming services like Netflix and Amazon support 4K (and the emerging HDR format) on PC are complicated but in large part, they trace back to copy protection and Hollywood’s desire to keep 4K locked down at all costs.
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