How do Netflix and Hulu hide the screen image when trying to do a screencapture?
In: Technology
This is a DRM system called HDCP. Basically, the contents of the display area are encrypted, and only something with an HDCP Receiver chip “should” be able to decrypt it. That thing is your monitor or TV, and not the computer itself — it’s just relaying an encrypted signal.
This means that at a software level, you can’t just capture the streaming video for the purposes of ripping it and pirating it elsewhere.
Of course, the entire system was compromised within a few years of going out, and the master key for it is widely available for anyone who knows where to look, which means pirates have circumvented this for years, but it’s still in use to limit honest people.
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