In the open source community, unless AC-4 is reverse engineered this won’t happen. ATS3 is slowly dying because of choices to use proprietary software. Plex has shown no interest in a solution for this. If you are satisfied with your solution use it.
I’m not implying a work around, rather a buy in for the patented software. You can’t tell me this isn’t possible and the most simple solution
That is assuming Dolby is willing to settle for pay as you go. For all we know they might be demanding $100,000 up front for the development kit or some nonsense.
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They certainly didn’t work so hard and bribe so many people to get their licensing in the standard just to not grift it back from us. If the standard were VP9 or AV1 with Opus, I think we’d have it in Plex.
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Licensing negotiations between Plex and Dolby have been ongoing for over three years based on the info in this thread.
Is that normal? It seems like there should have been some progress or at least an update by now.
Just pass the cost onto those of us that want it. I’d rather pay a $50 one time licesing fee to have it on plex than buy a seperate tuner for $120. This negotiation should be easy.
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A negotiation would require both parties to agree and that might be a good path for Plex, but we don’t know if Dolby is wanting something like $100,000 up front or something.
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The elephant in the room is DRM. Every major broadcaster (except PBS) is forcing their affiliates to turn on DRM encryption on ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. And so far ATSC 3.0 DRM solutions do not allow off-set-top-box recording rendering Plex mostly useless. But sure, Dolby permission would be great for PBS.
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Yes, DRM’ed channels are useless. It shouldn’t have been in the standard at all.
Of the major broadcasters in the SF Bay area, only ABC (KGO) has an unencrypted signal. PBS (KQED) does not broadcast in ATSC 3.0 yet.
The DRM is not the only issue, IMO. Will the broadcasters use the reduced bandwidth to expand their channel lineup, and sell more ads along with them ? Or will they use it to provide higher resolution and better audio content ? I hope it is the later.
Either way, the benefits wouldn’t be fully realized until ATSC 1.0 broadcasts end to free the airwaves, as I understand. That could take a long while, or may never happen, given what’s been going on with the DRM.
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Is this a rumor or what? Source?
This reminds me of when they put copy protection on DVDs and it caused those to not play in DVD players that really weren’t very old at all. So for regular consumers it became, not only cheaper, but also easier and more reliable to learn to pirate the content instead of buying a DVD that won’t play. This is already backfiring, nobody I know IRL has even heard of ATSC3 or that a new TV OTA standard is coming. Everyone knew when ATSC1 launched, they all had converter boxes ready to go for months before the switchover finalized.
This thread on SD’s site is a good indication of where things are headed:
https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78888
40+ pages of folks bemoaning the onset of DRM in their markets. Recent posts suggest 80% or more of local broadcasters implementing DRM. I’m lucky; only my FOX and NBC affiliates have turned it on so far (40%).
If SD is eventually allowed to show DRM content via their apps it isn’t transitive. Plex would have to work out separate agreements with the A3SA if they want to do the same. The only viable path forward for Plex’s Live TV & DVR feature is for ATSC 3.0 DRM to die, or for ATSC 1.0 to continue.
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Is this a rumor or what? Source?
To date, no station that has turned on DRM encryption has turned it off. To date, no PBS station has turned on encryption. It is no rumor and rabbitears.info has up to date FCC information. Major broadcasters are turning on DRM encryption in every major US market.
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I have actually been following the situation so I was aware.
“Every major broadcaster (except PBS) is forcing their affiliates to turn on DRM encryption on ATSC 3.0 broadcasts.” I just wanted to make sure this particular statement was an actual announcement or at least a leak before I repeated it. I think I will just stick to the facts which, I agree, the expansion of DRM speaks for itself. People can draw their own conclusions about who is behind it, it could be Hearst and Sinclair just as easily as it could be ABC and NBC… Ya know?
And if Plex is large enough or has the financial incentive to implement this, imagine an open source project like Jellyfin. It will likely never happen if there is a fee to get certified.
I don’t know how the DRM is designed, but if they are smart they’ll build it like the SSL encryption that websites use so any app can interact with any other app. Currently I’m recording TV shows with Channels DVR because it is more reliable but playing back through Plex because the UI for browsing and playback is better.
It would be a shame for interoperability to go away or for projects like Jellyfin to be kicked out of the Live TV and DVR space entirely.
Sure, but don’t you consider Hearst to be a “major broadcaster” just as much as NBC/Comcast? I do. The affiliates that have been contacted privately say “the network made us do it”. That could be a smoke-screen. Maybe all the affiliates have decided on their own, individually to turn on DRM encryption. It’s just coincidence.
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Your video briefing on this topic is excellent. Thank you.
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With the upcoming Plex price increase, will further development be moving forward on this? Im still optimistic for this to be ironed out.
I can’t speak for Plex, but i’d say it’s doubtful they would make any movement to work on this till a big player like Silicone Dust figures out the DRM factor. The docker container converter worked well for me up until 1/1/25 when all but 1 of my locals turned DRM on.
Over on the Silicone Dust forum the “encryption,” thread is 44 pages long with no resolution or answers from AS3A.
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It all hinges on the standard, not Plex. If we (the public) could get the FCC to make the standards for public broadcasting have no codecs with royalties, and no DRM, Plex will have support. Beyond Plex support, it would be the ethical for the FCC to do since royalty-free codecs like AV1 and Opus exist and by all accounts are very good when compared to HEVC and AC4.
The whole purpose of the DRM in ATSC3 is to prevent use cases like Plex + HDHR DVR functionality from being viable. Given that, it’s silly to expect an “official” resolution or solution to be “worked out”. The only real solution is to convince the FCC that use of encryption should be disallowed with these broadcast licenses (which seems reasonable if you consider the encryption/DRM as incompatible with the intent of the broadcast licenses being made available to broadcasters for the benefit of the public).
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