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 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
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.
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 even took the time to find way to backup my games so I can get legal ROMs too.
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.
Similar to the war on drugs… Weird.
I’m convinced it has something to do with appeasing ignorant investors.
Companies that sell these DRM schemes, or the groups of companies that come up with the “standards” and ask for a licensing fee, don’t actually believe the solution works to prevent piracy - the investors also do not believe this. They’re just happy to get a tiny fee whenever somebody in the world buys a CD, DVD, streams on Netflix, buys a monitor, a cable, a console, etc.
It’s like creating a closed source media codec, but even easier because you can justify it’s cost with fear.
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.
I have the exact same splitter. Have been using it for Ambilight for the last, maybe, 5 years. It quit on me a couple of months ago.
Here’s to it 🍻What brand?
The exact same one as OP. Weirdly enough.
It doesnt specify a brand on the plastic case.
Very neat fingernails.
I used to work as AV technician in a big corporation and had one of those that always saved my ass everytime someone with a MacBook wanted to do a presentation.
Yup, same. For the unaware: Macs have always-on HDCP, and it doesn’t always work as intended.
Lots of times, I’m trying to run a projector with a feed from the presenter’s laptop. Laptop is on stage, projector is in the tech booth. And the line in between the stage and the booth will complete the video signal, but not the HDCP handshake. So Windows machines will work fine, but Macs will just outright refuse to send anything.
So yes, I keep an HDCP stripper handy, because whenever a client pulls a MacBook out I know I’m going to need it.
I get why hdcp exists, but why the fuck would apple enable it permanently, for everything? They afraid of people pirating their own desktop or something?
Because it accelerates the user experience when transitioning from non-hdcp to hdcp-protected content on their display(s). There’s no need for re-negotiation of the display protocol causing some minor flickering during the transition.
But that only matters if you’re presenting mixed content.
Yeah.
Ouch! Thankfully haven’t run into this issue… either the display adapter I use has a HDCP stripper inside, or my Linux install isn’t enforcing HDCP on my macbook
Pour one out for all the little unsung heroes that just get shit done for years. Looking at you cheap HDMI switcher on my desk.
07
Open it up and replace any electrolytic capacitors.
This is pedantic, but there are indeed capacitors there. They’re all surface mount components, so they don’t look like the caps that people typically talk about replacing, and they likely aren’t what caused it to fail. Anything labeled on the board with a C## is likely a SMD capacitor.
I presumed so, but when I hear someone asking, I think of the old caps in old 90s PSU and Motherboards that are likely to go boom. I’ve never heard of these surface mount caps blowing though.
Agreed. SMD components fail silently.
Not all of them. I’ve seen the mess of shorted bridge rectifiers, burning LEDs, IC packages cracked from heat…
True, there are caps but no electrolytic caps.
My money is on a cold solder joint or two on a couple of the IC pins but that’s just a wild guess.
I see corrosion/deposits by those two leds and the hdmi… rinse it with vinegar, then DI water, then 90% alcohol. See if that doesn’t bring it back to life once it’s fully dry. You also might have to reflow the solder though.
I have another in the setup thats working, but I’ll probably hold onto it though if I can fix it as easily as you say
This.
I would absolutely try cleaning the board.
I would also spend $8-20 for a new one before I tried to DIY solder reflow various SMD caps.
How would you reflow the solder?
With an iron? Or a heat gun? What would be the best approach for something like this with lots of tiny surface mounts?
Not who you asked but 100% use a narrow heat gun, no question; it saves so much time alongside not accidentally bringing connectors
Would an oven work?
They can work, though I’m always reluctant to suggest using them, unless you have one that you can spare without worry of ruining the oven (offgassing from components/PCB/flux), the other problem is ovens can be a lot more variable in temperature than you’d think, and in this scenario where it may even be the chips showing their age, subjecting them to very high temperatures isn’t recommended.
Honestly when I bought a small £20 heatgun (smaller than the type you’d use to strip paint), I was kicking myself for not having bought one sooner, they make surface mounted components an absolute breeze Vs using a soldering iron.
The one exception for using ovens is if you’re having to do an intricate board with hundreds of components, then I’d suggest buying a small/medium toaster over, and an oven thermometer for more accurate readings.
I’ve reflowed a raspberry pi 0w with a camping stove and a thermometer. As long as there aren’t any components on the other side of the pcb, it might work.
Edit: here’s an old photo. Thing still works, many months laterIf you have a hot air rework station, that’s one way. Because then it is temp and flow controlled and you can choose a suitable nozzle and direct heat to small spots.
Just curious since you clearly know a lot about this stuff: What are your thoughts on the heat sinks being a part of the issue? Is there a decent chance the device could benefit from replacing whatever adhesive/paste was used to attach them? Or is that even doable?
It depends on how much heat it’s actually making, but maybe if the factory job done was crappy. It’s probably thermal adhesive though which is harder to remove.
Good call. And better than 90% isopropyl is Anhydrous alcohol.
A neighborhood laptop repair shop could probably do all these steps for you, too.
Provided they don’t explode first, ceramic capacitors tend to fail short circuit. If you have a multimeter, do continuity checks across all of them. In-circuit capacitance testing is very inaccurate, so that specific test is almost always moot. Continuity testing may help.
Also, depending on the speed of the multimeter and the charge of the capacitor, it may briefly give you a tone and/or register as a short circuit. Capacitors can register as a short circuit very briefly until they get a slight charge.
The diode at the top right is another easy thing to check. (D12 // SS34) if it’s failed short, it will cause issues for you as well.
I am not sure what the component is that is under the heatsink by the USB connector. Sometimes, you may have voltage regulators stepping down the USB 5V to 3.3V. Those are easy to replace as well. However, if it is a USB controller of some kind, you would have to reference the datasheet and test it somehow.
Those are some simple checks you can do, anyway.
Then replace the magic smoke.
Dirty girl
deleted by creator
Bit of a tangent but: How dangerous is ripping and distributing web content these days? Like how prevalent is watermarking or other methods that could identify the account the recording originated from?
Not sure about others, but I don’t distribute the content I record or backup, outside of an offsite backup. For me my biggest concern is getting a clean copy for myself, and with certain fruity tablets and a mirrored screen it’s good source to record from for my needs.
They’re great little boxes just for generally fixing issues with compatibility between things like satellite boxes and various older TVs. The little components do tend to wear out after a while though as they use cheap capacitors and thin traces to chips.
You need to make the “you were the best” comic meme with this pasted in
No way to buy another? What’s the part number? I’ll help look.
I already have one, not to worry. Plus they are easy to find on Amazon or eBay.
Can you specify a brand at least?
I might’ve already replied with it in this post, I might not have. Who really knows.
You act like you’re the only person in the world doing this lol. Just fucking tell them.
I have had so many devices that went on long past their service life. Imma pour one out with you my friend.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://m.piped.video/watch?v=xRvCwtLLV6I
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Good bot!
Any chance you remember the brand or manufacturer so that I might look for one, for myself?
No name brand, if you find one that looks like it, it’ll work. Typical search terms are “hdmi splitter 1 in 2 out”, any with EDI switches are busts, like the one from UGREEN.
EDIT Also avoid any with buttons, this is a HDMI duplicator, as in 1 signal goes in, that signal get duplicated and sent out both ports. The ones with buttons switches inputs, so 1 HDMI in 1 HDMI out, the button just chooses which HDMI is being used. Great for monitors with only 1 HDMI input.
Last question if I may, what recorder did/are you using in tandem with this splitter?
Once upon a time, Elgato HD60, I want to keep my current system under wraps, since I don’t want them to fix it ;)
This article
https://www.howtogeek.com/208917/htg-explains-how-hdcp-breaks-your-hdtv-and-how-to-fix-it/
Links to this splitter to strip HDCP
I never used these. I do get a complimentary amazon prime subscription, so can I use a capture card to screen record/rip 4k content from prime?
In theory yes. Some only work at 1080p, depends on the unit and the streaming service you use. They’re like 9 quid though so no real loss if you buy one and it doesnt work for your particulars.
I have a decent gaming PC, amazon prime video. Is there a way I can verify that it records 4k? I’m also looking to upload/seed this somewhere.
You should see it in the resolution of the file as it would scale it down. It depends if there is a re-encode chip or if there is a pass-through facility. Your PC card should also tell you what the incoming signal/resolution is.
Can you still get working ones? My old tv won’t get a signal from my new receiver because it’s not got a sufficient hdcp version. Would one of these work to avoid a new tv?
Q: Can you still get working ones? I presume so, they come from China, and I found another from Amazon a while back when I did some crazy updates to my setup. (3 HDMI outputs, Games gets split to the TV and to another Splitter which gets intercepted by a automatic switch. This switch has the game signal, but also an HDMI override signal that goes to my laptop or Tablet. That input goes to another splitter that goes to HDMI 2 on my TV and to my HDMI Recorded. This lets me play games while recording whats on my iPad, and lets me monitor my output just in case)
Q: Would one of these work to avoid a new TV? Maybe? Not sure TBH, though for the $9-$20 I’ve seen these for it’s worth looking up.
This website says yes a proper splitter will allow you to use your old TV
https://www.howtogeek.com/208917/htg-explains-how-hdcp-breaks-your-hdtv-and-how-to-fix-it/
They link to this splitter:
I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Here is some music to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWYTetgsns
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=cJWYTetgsns
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Here’s some.more music for your loss: https://youtu.be/G44xTr8D_bw
And here’s your link without the damn tracker: https://youtu.be/G44xTr8D_bw
Updated thanks!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/G44xTr8D_bw
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/G44xTr8D_bw?si=v0GJ8s674eT065NT
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
