Will adding DRM will on the roadmap for Plex?
It does not make sense to purchase an HDHomeRun Prime or any other supported cable-to-network device if Plex does not support DRM decryption. My cable provider (Spectrum) encrypts all channels and because I do not live in a large metro area, I am limited to about 15 over-the-air channels. This is extremely frustrating.
Silicon Dust was able to add this feature, I would expect Plex could do the same. Is there an API available from Silicon Dust?
Extremely unlikely. It’s prohibitively expensive. There have been posts about it previously, if you’ve got the search mojo you might be able to find them.
I know Silicon Dust decrypts for about $35 per year. I would be more than willing to paid an annual fee for that service.
I think Plex should ask Silicon Dust if there is an API they can use (license) to decrypt the DRM traffic.
Thoughts?
It’s not just a money issue, there is also the end to end encryption issue. Again search the forums for the original posts, there is some really good information. I’d help out with the search but I’m not really able to do that just now.
And no, Silicon Dust cannot re-license DRM decryption, that’s not at all how that works.
Here’s a good outline of the issues; add a “server in the middle” scenario (PMS) and it’s pretty much a no-go.
ZERO as in NO CHANCE you will EVER see this in Plex.
I thin it may be possible. If Plex is willing to take the same approach as the Android TV Live Channels app. Use the HDHomerun App on the client device as an input device for live tv instead of talking to the HDHomerun hardware directly. The HDHR application will be deliver through the Plex install package just like the HDHomerun devices drivers are. In the end, when you are watching something for live tv it will be in Plex but in reality it’s the HDHomerun app rendering in Plex.
Plex is not license and I assume can not afford the license but HDHomerun is licensed. As long as Plex don’t interfere with the stream it should be technically be complaint.
It doesn’t work the way you think it does in Live Channels and you can’t record the DRM stream in Live Channels either.
In a nutshell in order to support DRM the whole chain must be certified and there is no way this could happen in Plex. The software/players used by many Plex devices can’t be certified. Not only that but even if you could record the DRM programs you couldn’t use any transcoding at all which doesn’t fit the Plex model. It surely doesn’t fit the DVR recorder as it uses ffmpeg to do the recording.
DRM solutions are at best suited for in home use when you can play back the file AS IS without ANY need to modify it.
Right now if you have the absolute need for DRM channels you need to use WMC or your could use Silicon Dust DVR (and players). There are other “sneaky” ways around it but it’s difficult and not worth the effort as there are “easier” ways these days to “acquire” the content which won’t be talked about here.
I never said anything about recording.
Thanks for the information. After reviewing the June 2015 agreement and May 2018 Addendum, it appears using the Large Adopter fee schedule, the costs would be around $18K for LA fee and between $10K-15K depending if you want 1M or 5M units. (I don’t know how many subscribers would be licensed for this). Or it would be as low as $1000 for 20,000 units. And there is the up to 5 common device keys for $100K.
So if I am reading this correctly, the cost could be as low as $1.06 per unit @ 20K units, or $0.01 per unit @ 5M units, or 5 common device keys for $??? per ??? units.
You can buy business insurance to cover the costs of a breech; and there is always arbitration as to the total cost of the damages which should reduce the ultimate total as long as there was not a malicious attempt to leak the codes.
So in the end, I believe it may be feesable, even if you required an extra monthly/annual fee.
I do like the idea of using an HDHR app which would go through Plex.
And for recording, it is still legal to record anything that is delivered that could be recorded via a VHS recorder.
Except you forget that due to using open source software and having clients that can run on rooted phones and in environment that don’t support DVR the software would never get certified.
The time to have done this would have been 5 years ago, but doing so now would be foolish. People who want these DRM channels to view/record already know how to get them in other ways (legalities aside).
IMHO the amount of customers who would be willing to put up with the restrictions of DRM these days while giving the extra $ needed just isn’t there.
Without even talking about brute force methods or STB capture methods all one has to do is search google for IPTV providers and the light will come on what I’m talking about for alternate methods of getting these channels.
But lets not go there in this forum. 
Carlo
From the “horse’s mouth”, so to speak:
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
