HDCP nonsense

A day after Boxing Day I failed to fight the temptation of a new TV to upgrade my circa 2008 52″ Sharp.

The prospect of a 70″ 4K TV, an LG 70UF7300 was too much to resist.

No early adoption of consumer electronics goes unpunished, however.

The industry’s insistence on incompetentently rolling out anti-consumer tech ends up ruining the pleasure of such frivolous spending. 

History repeats itself. Early adopters of HDTVs predating HDMI got screwed by the lack of HDCP in their DVI ports.

Likewise, this TV and countless others like it will likely be unable to interoperate with soon to exist UHD Bluray players.

I’m having difficulty confirming definitively, but it doesn’t appear this particular 4K TV has support for the latest HDCP (High Definition Customer Penalization) standard.

Using my 4K TV as a 4K TV will require thumbing my nose at the conservative’s misguided copyright reform (Canadian DMCA equivalent) and circumventing HDCP (the “Digital Lock”) altogether. Fortunately such devices, HDCP strippers, do exist. I’ve ordered an HDfury Integral either proactively or prematurely, depending on the eventual outcome, to do exactly that.

The situation is rediculous. No intent of copyright infringement has ever been thwarted by such poorly conceived garbage. Legitimately paying customers (suckers like myself) will continue to be harmed. Many otherwise capable displays will end up on the e-waste pile prematurely. Why is this tolerated? Isn’t this what class action lawsuits are for? Aren’t there any consumer protection laws that could be invoked against the intentional crippling of very expensive gear?

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