Just trying to make sure I understand the arguments here. ASTC 3.0 is a US broadcast standard, and all my local stations use it. It has no DRM here. Other DVR applications have it and there are multiple references to patches that allow stock FFMPEG to work with the AC4 stream. But even without transcoding, PLEX will not allow me to DVR the raw show and send it in raw form to my TVos platform? I see a lot of back and forth over DRM, but I’m not faced with that and am not sure if anyone else is, so I’m not sure how central that is to the request that plex support basic DVR recording and playback of the basic ATSC3.0 channels. I don’t think the request so far is for PLEX to do something with DRM content, but just to be able to DVR the show as it comes in from the HDHomeRun and use DirectPlay to play it back… right?
Seems like Plex doesn’t add support for anything the server can’t decode, I could be wrong.
Plex wants to do it legally which means paying for licensing. “Other DVR applications” may or may not have concerned themselves. “Ask forgiveness, not permission.” It has been said, in this thread by a Plex employee that they won’t add support without licensing it first.
What I have posited in this thread is that DRM will continue to roll out to the pilot stations, but that might be pessimistic. Considering that and that nobody seems to use AC-4 for anything outside of ATSC3.0, I have doubts that Plex will dump time into decoding (legally) it until the future is more certain.
Is there any precedent of supporting direct play for a codec that Plex can’t transcode? I’m certainly not arguing against support for ATSC3.0, all I’m saying is that a letter to congress might be better directed than a post here. 
I have a hard time believing that anyone would need a license to capture the raw broadcast stream and save it to disk. I suppose I could be mistaken on that.
Plex wanting to avoid anything the server can’t decode might be the primary reason. Just recording the raw stream would probably be useless for 99% of their customers.
That does make me wonder though, if players like Roku and Apple had system players that could decode AC-4, shouldn’t Plex be able to make use of that and send the raw data to the system player without needing a license?
Plex users expect that what is sitting in the library can be viewed on a client device… any client device… over any network connection. Not just your FireTV stick, not just your home wifi, but a modestly powered tablet on crappy connection. So the ability to recode for clients is essential to the Plex “theology”. Just copying the bits of the AC4 encoded audio stream isn’t okay when most end devices can’t parse AC4 because they haven’t licensed it, either.
18 months and counting since this post about working through the legal issues. I’m so eager to move to ATSC 3.0 for the better reception. Sigh.
Sadly it seems like the ATSC and NAB seems hellbent on torpedoing this before it even gets started and stupid pointless, DRM is being applied on many channels all across the country.
I give Plex a hard time for a lot of deserved things, but at this point I don’t blame them for not putting any further effort into ATSC 3.0 until 1.0 starts getting a shut down timeframe, since it does now seem like its Dolby being the problem, and now DRM being thrown into the mix.
A good recent video from the antenna man on the current state of affairs regarding ATSC 3 and encryption. It really sounds like the standard got hijacked by the big corporates and will be much less consumer friendly than ATSC 1.
DRM Encryption on ATSC 3.0 - Tuners Can’t Decode, DVR Restrictions - YouTube
I think it would take an act of congress to save ATSC from this.
Seems like I read somewhere that ATSC 3.0 was designed to be expanded with new encoding formats in the future.
Can we just go ahead and demand that all broadcasts have a base AAC channel as the main audio and only use the patent encumbered Dolby AC-4 as a secondary enhanced audio channel?
Yeah Antenna Man in one of the comments of his recent video thinks the DRM involved with this will be the death of Plex. 
It won’t just be the death of Plex but it will be and SHOULD BE the DEATH of ATSC 3.0 altogether because once manufacturers start implementing more 3.0 tuners, the more the public will return them and opt for a regular 1.0 dumb TV yet again, not because of the smart tv aspect but now because of the DRM restrictions involved with ATSC 3.0 - honestly ATSC 3.0 is automatically DOA at this point. Everyone involved from the FCC to DOLBY to the television networks and manufacturers…. They all deserve what they get for turning ATSC 3.0 into the most complex and restrictive tv protocol in the last 100 years.
Act of congress? We can’t even rely on SCOTUS to do their job! Congress is just as stupid at making these decisions and claim they also know what’s best for the general public but yet allow slaps on the wrist to those involved
Give these fine Americans down below your support! Get ahold of your state senators and let’s change this mess!
We need an organized lobby of some sort. I know nothing about it but I’m willing to donate or sign.
Anyone have any experience with this? We’d be up against Citizen Kane’s grandson (William Randolf Hurst III).
Unfortunately the ATSC and its members hold all the cards. The 3.0 spec represents the wants/needs of ATSC member organizations.
As viewers we are powerless to weigh in on any of their decisions. Saying “I’ll never adopt ATSC 3.0! It’ll die a sad death!” is all well and good until those member organizations turn off their 1.0 broadcasts.
I’m trying to stay optimistic until I see Plex and Silicon Dust’s eventual solution for 3.0. However, from everything I’ve seen, I think those of us who love and advocate for free, antenna-based television that we can record and use on our own terms…I think our days our numbered.
Are they not using public spectrum for the broadcasts? Seems like we could have some say if we organized. If they actually bid on the frequencies like cellular companies, I agree, we have no say. I don’t think that’s the case though, I think ATSC is meant to serve the public and encryption doesn’t fit the model IMO.
Otherwise they need to buy the bandwidth like everyone else.
The FCC announced a new “public-private partnership” at NAB this year “to identify a roadmap
to orderly transition ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0-based services as smoothly as possible for
consumers.”
This might be the only chance we have - as viewers - to get a seat at the table.
Here’s the press release. Maybe we each need to contact the FCC to see how we can volunteer to be on this committee or whatever it is?
Unfortunately the methods of ATSC 3.0 DRM are most diabolical. If you are someone who just turns on OTA and watches you won’t notice encryption, since TV sets will work the way they always did. This new scheme only disenfranchises the (tiny?) percentage of people who still DVR OTA TV. Which in turn means the number of complaints is a small fraction of a small fraction.,
Which by the way, those are the kinds of people that have made it possible to find rare shows on Youtube that never made it to retail stores. Like Hard Time on Planet Earth, P.S.I. Luv U, The Highway Man, Something is Out There, or later seasons of Five Mile Creek.
Any update on this (besides the talk of DRM)? FFmpeg has now implemented AC-4 audio ( #8349 (Dolby AC-4 Support) – FFmpeg. At least for the channels that don’t have DRM we can still maybe get audio added? I have a lot of ATSC 3.0 channels in my area and only one is DRM protected at this time.
