What killed it, well after reviewing some PS4 gameplay I noticed that it was having audio issues, like it would allow some sounds but not all. It was almost as if it was receiving a 5.1 audio output but was missing the centre channel. Even though the PS4 was set to stereo.
After trying various cables, configs, and boxes. I narrowed it down to this box. Not sure what killed it, whether it’s just old, or that it’s been powered on for over 5 years straight. But its long service will never be forgotten in the hours of Netflix and Disney Plus it passed through to my recorder.
HDCP is so fucking dumb, I couldn’t play Switch on my old projector because of it and it’s absolutely useless in stopping anything from being pirated.
I get and like HDCP. Mostly because of how easy it can be to bypass. I’d rather have a universal “we tried” standard, than an honest attempt to stop this. With today’s tech and online focused DRM, HDCP could be a lot worse, and I am happy where it is right now.
Like Adobe Digital Editions or Kindle for eBook DRM.
That’s the thing though: Ultimately, there is no stopping it with restrictive technology.
The only real way to stop piracy is to offer a good service for a good price.
Biggest evidence of that is Epic will give away games for free, but there will be people who prefer to pay for the Steam version over the free version.
That’s the biggest evidence that piracy is a problem of distribution and goes against the idea that those who pirates are against paying for a product.
I’m one of these people!
Second.
I also waited out the release of some games that launched on the Epic store first. I begrudgingly bought them on Steam, and I hope enough others did to discourage other companies from doing that in the future.
I do the same thing. I never got an Epic account, and really spend more money on GOG.
I enjoy the Epic exclusives because when it lands on Steam or GOG, it’s usually feature complete and less buggy.
Seconded. I like having all my games in one place, on all my devices, with Linux support out-of-the-box thanks to Proton. Also, Steam DRM is easy to bypass with code available on GitHub if you really wanted to.
Epic does none of this for me, and I won’t support a company that called all gamers “shmucks” or whatever that C suite said
Ehhh as much as I’d like to think that’s true, I think that has more to do with managing a bunch of clients and launchers. And also that those clients and launchers are full of spyware and bloatware and ads.
I used to not buy anything on Epic but then I got Heroic Launcher and now I’m not so terribly opposed to it. I have the Steam launcher and then I have HGL for Epic, GOG, and Amazon.
Yup, outside of legacy PC titles which will never get a re-release, a 1-2 combo shot of GOG and Steam, I don’t pirate games. I even took the time to find way to backup my games so I can get legal ROMs too.
Yep, GOG and Steam are pretty much the only ways I play games and I’ve bought a shitload of games from them both over the years.
I have a FHDB PS2 and soooo many games to back up 😭 ughhh.
I have a few titles that I “backed up” 🏴☠️ already, but i’m not looking forward to ripping my physical disks… my PS1 library took the entire day and two cd drives, sadly most of those disks were partially unreadable
PS2 discs can be ripped on a PC with a DVD player. Same with PS1. The PlayStation copy protection was on system not the media.
Same, I have never pirated any game since the day I installed steam for the first time. It just makes buying games so much easier, and I don’t have to worry about drm or malware at all.
In my case, I rather pay a one-stop reasonable price for content than deal with the hassle of piracy.
Especially with music and video. At some point it has to enter your eyes/ears, and even if HDCP wasn’t shit, you could always just record what was on your screen or coming out of your speakers.
Ah yes, the classic analog hole. Next thing you know, “premium” content will need Premium Certified custom eyes and ears, only for the small installation fee of $59.99/month.
How much for the ad-free plan?
Oh wait, it’s from Amazon, so there’s only an ad-fewer plan.
There will always be many ways to circumvent this stupid bulllshit
They haven’t learned and the cycle starts again with streaming services doubling, then they wonder why they’re losing revenue.
The only legit media service I pay for now is YouTube. Before I get Amy lectures I am well aware of the issues with it, but also people still keep paying for Netflix as it cancels shows just as they start to grow, so… I’m a legacy google music sub, so moving over for me was a tiny cost increase to no longer mess with adblock on the site, though recently I do feel the YTM ‘radio’ algo is not as good as legacy google music. Self employed manufacturing stuff in my workshop all day either video or music is always on so its a bargain to me. My point being, that’s the only streaming sub I find worth paying for, out of everything. Maybe I’m an edge case but I just don’t see 4/5 of these services still existing in 5 years, its too much. Unless they can all survive on people subbing for 2-3 months a year
I found a way to bypass one of those the other day for rented books found some tool on linux that did, so even that doesnt work
Or Cinavia on PS3.
Most anti-piracy measures are useless at stopping piracy.
I fly a giant fucking pirate flag with skull and crossbones and no one ever stops me. All they do is say “Are you a pirate?” or “Say Jack Sparrow”. Tcchh bitch please, I’ll torrent your mom’s prom night.
I torrent so much I had to switch to 720p to save space and still have a backlog of 3tb. I blame my ADHD, I have to hoard everyyyyyyyyything.
Phones finally stopped my hoarding.
On my desktop pc I have almost every file I’ve downloaded since 1998. Seriously.
Want that old specific version of Nero to burn CDs, I probably have you. Looking for abandonware? Yeah, that was my thing for awhile.
I used to have operating systems I can’t find any record of existing these days (mostly front ends for DOS made to seem more modern in the early 00s). I had something that made Windows 3.1 look like Windows 95, I even had something that made Windows 98 look just like Mac OS 8 (no shit, it layered over windows and everything flawlessly).
I had every version of Mandrake Linux and several versions after the rename.
Tonnns of software to extend the life of 16 bit hardware.
I still have several screeners in 240p from the early 2000s with the audience moving around and laughing in them.
I have a decent collection of Nirvana bootlegs I downloaded from FTP servers way back in the day.
Man I miss the old internet. I’m getting old and that’s part of it I guess.
I find myself hoarding on the Steam Deck desktop too. Something about having a wide open file system just brings that impulse out in me.
Have you checked if they have that stuff on archive.org? I’m sure plenty of people would appreciate them.
That’s a project I’ll certainly undertake one day. Thank you for the suggestion.
Have you got Jasc Animation Shop?
I don’t have that one. I remember my cousin using it to animate dolls she drew on paint shop pro though. I don’t specifically remember it being animation shop, but I remember the name Jasc when she was showing me her work.
Similar to the war on drugs… Weird.
I’m convinced it has something to do with appeasing ignorant investors.
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I meant investors of the media publishers, not the creators of the DRM.
Publishers certainly know it doesn’t work but their investors probably demand that they “do something”.
I use an Dell docking station with my laptop. Any webpage with Spotify embed turns off my external displays because somewhere along the line the video signal loses the DRM certification. It’s infuriating.