Humax FHR-6000T Will this need its own listing in the forum? ( Now named the Aura EZ 4K Freely Recorder)
- Thread starter trog
- Start date
Owen Smith
Well-Known Member
Well there's all the protected handshake stuff on HDMI to tell the device at the other end this must not be recorded etc.In that case, you either need a new TV (capable of running Freely code) or you can just record the HDMI output
Realistically how could Freely be encrypted all the way over the internet, through the Freely box and over HDMI to finally be decrypted in the TV as you propose? How does every existing TV in the UK, many built long before Freely existed, suddenly get the decryption keys for Freely and know to apply that decryption to a particular HDMI input? It's completely implausible.
Note, all cryptography systems ultimately turn into key management systems. The crypto is the easy part.
Yep. It’s a shame things seem to have gone downhill since then. I think civilisation peaked in the late 1960s tbh.
All this is so stupid. They should make things easy for people to access legally because If anyone wants to watch any programme or film illegally they can do it using a VPN. It’s not difficult and it’s not policed. If they make it hard to watch things legally people will watch things illegally.
Mine used to disconnect too - every few days for no apparent reason.
I think what cured my Aura, was to do the lowest-level reset:
Switch off at the wall socket for about a minute - but leave the television on, switched to the hdmi socket the Aura is plugged in to.
Press and hold down the Aura's power button (on the box itself: top, front right-hand corner).
Keep the power button pressed down and switch on at the mains and continue holding the button for about 15 seconds.
An old style colourful text menu should appear - a bit like a computer basic operating system menu. Use the remote control to hop up and down the menu, using the cursor arrow keys and 'OK' to select.
Select the option for 'Clear Cache'
Select the option for 'factory reset' or whatever it is.
It should revert to the factory default, then you would have to go through the channel auto-tune and set-up from scratch.
Another thing... to avoid these weird 'red light standby' half awake/half-arsed states... When shutting down the box - try to select a channel which broadcasts sensibly - and not a time-share/static card like BBC4, nor a broadcast/internet timeshare (like TogetherTV). These do very weird things.
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Many years ago I was on holiday in Turkey and a couple of guys were convinced I was Mark E Smith even when I denied it in a Southern accent and as far as I am concerned do not look like him.
P.S At the bottom of every post you make is an Edit key to correct your mistakes.
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Owen Smith
Well-Known Member
That is exactly what happens. But as far as the powers that be are concerned that's fine, they'll just prosecute people if becomes a problem.
It should be noted Netflix when it launched online killed piracy as there was a single cheap option you could legally subscribe to. Now that there are seemingly dozens of streaming services and they all cost a fortune, piracy has come back stronger than ever.
"Realistically how could Freely be encrypted all the way over the internet, through the Freely box and over HDMI to finally be decrypted in the TV as you propose? How does every existing TV in the UK, many built long before Freely existed, suddenly get the decryption keys for Freely and know to apply that decryption to a particular HDMI input? It's completely implausible."
Indeed. The only way it can work is if the decryption key is stored securely in the playback device and this is not going to happen.
The tech for this does exist - smartcard chips are pretty good nowadays. But the key must not leave the card, obviously, so the data has to pass through it. Now is anybody building new TVs with this? And you will be able to intercept the data after the decryption... But IMHO needing to chuck out TVs would kill this.
Netflix was doomed the moment you could play it on a PC. Same as PowerDVD (a windows executable) was cracked to extract the video DVD key all those years ago.
So my guess is that Freely a) will not do a PC app b) if they do ios apps these will check for rooting (a common technique) c) they will not do an android app (cloaked root is possible) d) they will stop big retailers selling any noncompliant products e) they will hope piracy is no worse than with Netflix.
I am sure HDMI can be hacked to get video to come out which can be recorded; I read that is the main route to Netflix movies coming out.
Indeed. The only way it can work is if the decryption key is stored securely in the playback device and this is not going to happen.
The tech for this does exist - smartcard chips are pretty good nowadays. But the key must not leave the card, obviously, so the data has to pass through it. Now is anybody building new TVs with this? And you will be able to intercept the data after the decryption... But IMHO needing to chuck out TVs would kill this.
Netflix was doomed the moment you could play it on a PC. Same as PowerDVD (a windows executable) was cracked to extract the video DVD key all those years ago.
So my guess is that Freely a) will not do a PC app b) if they do ios apps these will check for rooting (a common technique) c) they will not do an android app (cloaked root is possible) d) they will stop big retailers selling any noncompliant products e) they will hope piracy is no worse than with Netflix.
I am sure HDMI can be hacked to get video to come out which can be recorded; I read that is the main route to Netflix movies coming out.
Owen Smith
Well-Known Member
It's a perfect digital copy of the decoded video, so why not grab the HDMI output? The only issue is the video is then lossy encoded, so you have lossy encode to HDMI raw video to lossy encode. The original lossy stream from Netflix would be better.
It cured the 'forgetting the wi-fi credentials' problem. As far as I can recall, the box has remembered the wi-fi info since that reset. I do switch the wi-fi back on periodically, to check for any updates.
I generally keep the wi-fi setting on the Aura firmly turned off. I found the internet stuff seemed to confuse the box - it would get stuck in the internet offerings - and I found the backwards EPG irritating.
Also, when I've been raking about in the settings menus checking app versions, etc, it seems to claim memory or confuse the system logic... The box won't shut down even 10 minutes later. I've had to pull the mains plug to restore normal operation.
EEPhil
Number 28
It was possible with the 9150T/9300T using a (torturous) menu option. The 2000T has a simple renaming option. (I'd guess the Fox-T2 models did as well). Later models - no sign of a rename option.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Yes.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Yep, but a simple splitter won't hack it because you need to tap off the HDMI from an existing active HDCP-protected connection between the player and the TV, without causing it to renegotiate. Any splitter able to do this isn't exactly conformant!
If (as appears to be the case) HDMI is not encrypted, then it is trivial to capture the data. There are several configurations of 1 or multiple twisted pairs and a couple of clocking schemes, and there are commercial devices which break out this data so you can record it etc.
Nobody is going to sell a product doing this on the high street, although it is not clear to me why exactly it would be illegal in the UK. But you need to only get one of these, and have a compatible playback device, plus (if applicable e.g. with Netflix) a paid account, and you can record anything you want.
AIUI the data on HDMI is raw, not compressed. But this will not make much difference if it is HD or even 4K.
So this would be the obvious route to building a DIY Freely recorder. And they do nothing at all to stop it.
Nobody is going to sell a product doing this on the high street, although it is not clear to me why exactly it would be illegal in the UK. But you need to only get one of these, and have a compatible playback device, plus (if applicable e.g. with Netflix) a paid account, and you can record anything you want.
AIUI the data on HDMI is raw, not compressed. But this will not make much difference if it is HD or even 4K.
So this would be the obvious route to building a DIY Freely recorder. And they do nothing at all to stop it.
Owen Smith
Well-Known Member
The HDMI data will be HDCP copy protected ie signals that say "please don't record this". It is presumably a breach of some legislation to sell devices in the UK (and other jurisdictions) which don't honour that.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
That is not how it works.
When the sender and receiver are turned on, or a "hot plug" is detected, a HDCP negotiation is triggered which involves exchanging a cryptographic signature. Only receivers (HDMI sinks) verified as display-only are issued with signature credentials. Senders are required to implement the handshake, and as HDMI is implemented in specialist chips the handshake is built in.
If the handshake fails, or doesn't happen, the sender is not permitted to output HiDef. That's when we get the "green screen".
Not legislation, no. Might get a manufacturer thrown out of the HDMI usr group (or whatever it might be), and perhaps sued, but that's not the same as legislation.