Mass Media & Technology

Do Sky Q boxes sulk when it detects an HDMI splitter?

(June 2018)

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LL
Larry the Loafer
I visited my parents this weekend with the intention of trying to capture and transfer something I'd recorded on their Sky Q box... Yes I know it's naughty, so don't tell anyone. I've been doing this with my own Freeview box, but there was something on Sky I wanted to get hold of. However, when I tried to do this with their Sky Q mini box, it responded as if it had lost signal. The picture broke up and froze, the menus didn't load and no recordings could be played back. Plugging the HDMI lead from the TV back into the box solved this issue.

So it begs the question, is the Sky Q box able to detect when it's plugged into something it shouldn't be plugged into? I'm quite astonished that the box will pretty much make itself useless unless it's plugged into a TV... Anybody else know about this, or am I just really unlucky?
Luke B and oflahertya gave kudos
MA
Markymark
I visited my parents this weekend with the intention of trying to capture and transfer something I'd recorded on their Sky Q box... Yes I know it's naughty, so don't tell anyone. I've been doing this with my own Freeview box, but there was something on Sky I wanted to get hold of. However, when I tried to do this with their Sky Q mini box, it responded as if it had lost signal. The picture broke up and froze, the menus didn't load and no recordings could be played back. Plugging the HDMI lead from the TV back into the box solved this issue.

So it begs the question, is the Sky Q box able to detect when it's plugged into something it shouldn't be plugged into? I'm quite astonished that the box will pretty much make itself useless unless it's plugged into a TV... Anybody else know about this, or am I just really unlucky?


Don’t be astonished. I’ve had the same with a BluRay player, that I was trying to get the output of into a broadcast SDI router via a converter. Same problem, it shut down its output within seconds of sussing out it wasn’t feeding a telly. It’s the DRM world we now live in Shocked
UKnews and Larry the Loafer gave kudos
LL
Larry the Loafer
Damn, that's scary.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
But how does a Blu-Ray player know that it isn't outputting to a TV? I thought all that DRM crap was as simple as not letting Fred easily rip a copy of a film/song/whatever to his hard drive?

In the old school setup of aerial -> video -> TV, it would be the equivalent of a TV tuner refusing to show you a transmission because you're feeding it through the video and not directly.
AG
AxG
I'll pop this here, an interesting watch.
MA
Markymark
But how does a Blu-Ray player know that it isn't outputting to a TV? I thought all that DRM crap was as simple as not letting Fred easily rip a copy of a film/song/whatever to his hard drive?

In the old school setup of aerial -> video -> TV, it would be the equivalent of a TV tuner refusing to show you a transmission because you're feeding it through the video and not directly.


There are flags and handshakes in the HDMI data stream. An ( legitimate) HDMI device has to identify what type of device it is
PE
peterrocket Founding member
I know of one place that needed a Sky HD box converted into SDI, and it seemed a £25 converter off eBay did the trick.

Trying to do it 'officially' became a very complicated and expensive process with specialised kit.
NG
noggin Founding member
Sky Q may require HDCP 2.2 if connected to a UHD display, whereas Sky HD was HDCP 1.4 or lower. The former may be trickier than the latter when it comes to splitters.

There are official and less-official ways round this.

(HDCP is the copy protection and isn't the same as the HDMI version - though the numbers are often similar. And as others have said some devices are more 'helpful' than others.)
HA
harshy Founding member
My uhd tv dosent even do HDCP 2.2 on the only HDMI port that has deep colour, so on Sky Q the only way to watch 10 bit is to get something which takes the 2.2 converts it to 1.4 to pass it through to the deep colour mode.

I presumed I’ve without realising it knocked off the copy protection?

Of course today’s TVs have no such issue.
NG
noggin Founding member
My uhd tv dosent even do HDCP 2.2 on the only HDMI port that has deep colour, so on Sky Q the only way to watch 10 bit is to get something which takes the 2.2 converts it to 1.4 to pass it through to the deep colour mode.

I presumed I’ve without realising it knocked off the copy protection?

Of course today’s TVs have no such issue.


No - if you've gone from HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 on an HDMI 2.0 signal you've still got HDCP 1.4 copy protection. This has been ruled legal in some countries - whereas removing HDCP 2.2 entirely and leaving it clean HDMI 2.0 would be illegal in many places. HDFury sells stuff that does HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 - as do many others.

You can get solutions that DO remove HDCP 2.2 or HDCP 1.4 though - either intentionally or to save money by avoiding having to put an HDCP output function in...
OV
Orry Verducci
Sky Q is definitely analysing what it is connected up to, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've programmed in some basic checks to ensure the information it is getting looks like a proper TV.

Looking at the status API on my Sky Q box it has information about the HDCP status and the supported TV resolutions, among other things, so it may well be if something comes back on the EDID handshake that it doesn't expect some sort of protection kicks in.
NG
noggin Founding member
Sky Q is definitely analysing what it is connected up to, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've programmed in some basic checks to ensure the information it is getting looks like a proper TV.

Looking at the status API on my Sky Q box it has information about the HDCP status and the supported TV resolutions, among other things, so it may well be if something comes back on the EDID handshake that it doesn't expect some sort of protection kicks in.


I'd expect it to do both an HDCP handshake and an EDID interrogation. The EDID will tell it what output resolutions (and frame rates) and audio formats to squirt out, and the HDCP will be potentially decide between HD (HDCP 1.4) and UHD (HDCP 2.2) output as well. That's pretty standard for most DRM-friendly receivers and streamers.

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