Exactly.
I think the broadcasters would argue that the DRM is to protect their broadcast from being restreamed.
They could argue that HEVC is supported by so many more devices than AV1 that the royalties are justified… But the inclusion of AC4 would nullify that argument since it still is supported by no devices at all, practically. The inclusion of AC4 was a wild overstep that makes the corruption and backdoor dealing between Dolby and the FCC obvious. I can’t think of a single justification for AC4 outside of corruption and bribing. I really think that is enough for another agency to launch an investigation.
I’d appreciate if anyone could come up with a technical reason for AC4 to be in the ATSC3 standard.
Mainly posting to keep thread active.
I’m now current on the 3.0 topic. I had read about the future of this many moons ago and after recently fixing my current Plex DVR I had forgotten about the ATSC progress and was surprised to see 3.0 is here, the. Saddening to see the DRM component.
Gotta keep the thread alive.
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Yeah, I’m not sure it matters. I think Plex has gone MIA. I can’t even get a response for a bug that I posted weeks ago. Who knows what the problem is.. legal, money, don’t give a crap anymore, etc… but what was once a great platform seems to be heading for the garbage dump. Really regret buying the lifetime pass. They really seem to be pushing the “free” programming with 80% ads to 20% content and have forgotten about their DVR base. I’m guessing it provides a better cash flow.. and that’s what happens when something starts with a passion and then becomes all about the money. Sad, actually.
Just an update that is on topic. Many atsc3 stations are rolling out immersive audio (Atmos?). Decoders that have worked with ac4 no longer work with these channels. Between DRM and this new iteration of ac4, I can only view 1 of 4 local ATSC3 channels with my Nextgen certified tuner.
Emby is affected and they say they are going to release a new build of ffmpeg to support the new audio, eventually. Custom builds of ffmpeg that decode ac4 are also not working now for these channels. The main dev working on ac4 for ffmpeg (as I understand) says he is waiting on Dolby to release specs to move forward. No timeline.
This is really not a Plex issue, as many of us have been telling you all. If you want to be able to use ATSC3 you should focus your energy on getting ac4 and DRM out of the standard by legislation.
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This makes me wonder how the broadcasters are creating the new audio in the first place. Are they using some kind of “Dolby” box that automatically gets software updates with new features before Dolby tells anyone else how the new features work?
Good question. Maybe a piece of hardware, or a closed-source software package, or maybe a plugin for the software they already use? Over on avsforum I bet someone has the answer to this. That’s a great resource for OTA TV info overall.
Since atsc1 uses ac3, I assume they already had a pipeline from Dolby to the stations techs.
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