Why people want to crack or get CDM keys for Widevine L1? Or even L3?

[PUFF1N]

I'm started to search DRM methods like Widevine, HDCP, L1, L3 etc. because I'm curious about how this system is cracked/hacked and pirated content is created. Your forum is give me really legit information about this things, there are so many professional people here who knows this stuffs.

If I understand it correctly Widevine has three layers; L3 (Fully software encrypted), L2 (Partially software partially hardware encrypted), and finally the famous L1 (Fully hardware encrypted) and peoples is trying to dump these Widevine layers CDM keys, because they want to download content from DRM protected digital providers. I understand the situation at least there but something that I can't properly understand because there is also HDCP, this DRM method is for encrypting HDMI and other video output signals to against stop piracy like Widevine but this method is kinda break by design. Because its too easy to get HDCP protected signal, all you need is one HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 converter box and one HDMI splitter box to avoid HDCP. And baam you get high quality video signals with no encryption.

So if breaking HDCP is easy, why people even try to break Widevine? Because it seems like its really harder and time consuming than breaking HDCP. If you want to crack the lowest protection level L3, you need to get some Python scripts and general understanding over computer. The L1 is another level, you need to dump CDM key from hardware chip for specifically designed for this stuff, try to understand how encryption work and even reverse engineering... these are really though things for getting 4K stream. I'm not a video guy, I don't know any sh*t about how video codecs works. Is there some quality issue in HDCP? Or other stuff that I don't understand it and make sense in a other way? (Also if there is grammar issue and weird explanations sorry for that, my English is not that really great)

[jagabo]

So if breaking HDCP is easy, why people even try to break Widevine?

With the Widevine keys you can decrypt the compressed video that's sent by the server. There is no loss of quality beyond what was done at the source. And that download can be very fast, much faster than realtime -- a 2 hour movie might be downloaded in a few minutes (obviously, that depends on how fast the server is willing to send it, how fast your connection is, etc.). It's basically a file just a file copy from the server to you. If you use HDMI the compressed video will be decompressed for transmission over HDMI. You then have to recompress the video, losing quality. And the process can only happen in real time. A 2 hour movie will take 2 hours to "download".

[PUFF1N]

So if breaking HDCP is easy, why people even try to break Widevine?

With the Widevine keys you can decrypt the compressed video that's sent by the server. There is no loss of quality beyond what was done at the source. And that download can be very fast, much faster than realtime -- a 2 hour movie might be downloaded in a few minutes (obviously, that depends on how fast the server is willing to send it, how fast your connection is, etc.). It's basically a file just a file copy from the server to you. If you use HDMI the compressed video will be decompressed for transmission over HDMI. You then have to recompress the video, losing quality. And the process can only happen in real time. A 2 hour movie will take 2 hours to "download".

Isn't there 2x or 8x recorder? I don't know maybe its not work properly for HDMI capturing but I know that its work with Blu-Ray and DVD. Hmm the key factor is recompressing, thats the real problem I guess because there is quality lose. But I think still the HDCP cracking is more easy and have enough quality for regular user. Thanks for quick reply.