Adding memory breaks DRM

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Adding memory breaks DRM

#1

Post by DSperber » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:26 am

This story started because my 8GB Win7 HTPC was seemingly "slowing down". I attributed it to an unusually high memory utilization of late, which I couldn't really explain. I had upgraded my recording drive just before the Olympics to a 6TB drive, which is the only thing that's changed after 6 years of pure stability. So I attributed the memory usage increase and overall resulting slowdown as due to the fact that I now had 240 new recordings from the Olympics two weeks (giving me a total of about 430 recordings), something that's unusual for me.

So, finally time to add some additional memory. I bought 2x8GB=16GB and installed it last night. The surgery was successful, and my machine rebooted reflecting the expected 24GB total. However unexpectedly, whereas before the memory upgrade Aida64 showed my memory utilization at between 55% and 75% (of the original 8GB), now suddenly I was using about 50% of my new 24GB! Very surprising. And of course, the size of the PAGEFILE.SYS had grown dramatically, reflecting the fact that I now had 24GB of physical memory.

When I went to confirm that everything was still working after reconnecting all the TV cables (coax from TWC/LA going to Ceton InfiniTV4 and OTA/ATSC antenna coax going to Hauppauge HVR-2250), I was baffled to discover that although I could tune to non-encrypted channels (i.e. local networks both OTA/ATSC and from TWC/LA), I received "copy protection" messages trying to tune to all the other cable channels (as everything from TWC/LA is delivered copy-protected).

Hmmm...

I then double-checked to be sure I could play back all of my many hundreds of copy-protected recordings, and was at first alarmed to not see any of the thumnbails next to the program titles. This typically means there's a decryption problem, which means a DRM PlayReady problem, which was scary. And sure enough, NOTHING WAS PLAYABLE IF IT WAS COPY-PROTECTED. There was a complaint about PlayReady not operating or something, and do I want to update it... to which I replied "sure, go ahead". However the update failed (I think it said "incomplete"), and nothing I could do could make it install again and work correctly, hence I'd just lost many hundreds of copy-protected recordings.

Hmmm...

I then did some Internet research, and discovered that I was not alone. Turns out if you add memory to your PC, you have just broken PlayReady. And there is no real solution.

Some have described a "recipe" based on uninstalling WMC, deleting the EHOME folder, deleting DRM registry key, etc., and then reinstalling WMC and going through the original first-time setup all over again, which would now successfully install PlayReady and regenerate the DRM key. Unfortunately, this from-scratch "solution" is only useful to allow NEW RECORDINGS OF COPY-PROTECTED CONTENT to take place in your newly resurrected WMC without having to go through a complete from-scratch reinstall of Win7. But it does not actually regenerate the original DRM key (since I now have 24GB instead of the original 8GB, and memory size is implicit in the construction of the DRM key) used to decrypt all of my existing copy-protected recordings which is what is really required in order to play back everything already recorded. So although you can once again record new copy-protected programs, you cannot play back anything you already have.

Hmmm...

After thinking about this for 5 minutes, I decided I could not accept the consequences of my 16GB upgrade. Fortunately, I take regular bi-weekly "system image" backups of my C-drive using Macrium Reflect, every Monday morning and every Thursday morning. The reasoning here is EXACTLY what I was now relying on, namely that if I actually did ever need to restore a Windows C "system image", I would lose every copy-protected recording made since the date of the "system image" (because the uncrackable bullet-proof DRM key is time-sensitive and the restored "system image" can only play back recordings older than the date/time of the "system image"). So I didn't want to lose too much if this ever became necessary, hence why I do TWO "system image" backups per week.

So fortunately, I had a Monday morning "system image" and only three unimportant copy-protected programs had been recorded later on Monday, before I added the 16GB of memory and broke DRM.

I then performed "reverse surgery" and removed the just-added 16GB, bringing me back to the original 8GB of my machine when I used WMC for the first time, and which therefore was implicit in the original DRM key creation. I then re-booted to Macrium Reflect and restored the Monday morning "system image" (knowing I would thus lose access to those three unimportant recordings made Monday afternoon).

And then I rebooted, and sure enough I WAS SAVED!!!! All thumbnails in "recorded TV" reappeared. All channels were tunable, and all previous copy-protected recordings were once again playable. I was right back where I started on Monday morning after that "system image".


Bottom line: don't ever upgrade the memory in your WMC HTPC unless you're finished viewing all of your existing copy-protected programs. Also, you have to be willing to reinstall Windows from scratch or at least completely uninstall WMC and reinstall it, as the only way you can get your new memory size reflected in PlayReady and the DRM encryption/decryption key. And of course that means a complete setup of WMC, MyChannelLogos, EPG123, your extenders, etc.

Fortunately, my twice-weekly "system image" backups protocol has finally paid off. I'm glad this disaster (and resulting 7 hours of hysteria) happened on the Monday after the Olympics, and that I actually have not lost any of my over 300 recordings (mix of copy-freely and copy-protected, but hundreds of copy-protected).

I'm certain that as I "view down" my Olympics recordings that my memory utilization will also decline, and my machine performance will improve again. It's only these 240 remaining new recordings in the past 2 weeks (I've already watched many others, which have since been deleted, so the original number was even higher) which is probably adding to the in-memory page load for Windows Search, etc. I've survived perfectly adequately with 8GB for 6 years. Sure, I now would like to upgrade, but can't. I will keep this memory that I just bought, and perhaps some day down the road when I'm all caught up in my viewing, I will go ahead and reinstall the memory and reinstall Win7 from scratch, knowing what additional work that will imply.

Don't ever make this memory upgrade mistake like I did (or at least be sure that you have a recent "system image" backup you can recover from).

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#2

Post by IownFIVEechos » Tue Aug 23, 2016 1:33 pm

Maybe you can introduce them slowly in a smaller amount. Remove the existing 8GB and add the new 16GB. Boot up and see how things go. Then if all is good add back the other 8GB. Memory rarely brakes this; at least it has not mine. And if the 16GB works only at least you boosted it by 100 fold. Good luck. Just as an added tidbit my WMC 7 has also been taking a memory dump too. I wonder if Mr. Softy is playing games. I do not do updates and never received the windows 8 nag on it but you never know what the guys can do.

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#3

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Aug 23, 2016 1:37 pm

Yes^^

And, how about open up Task Manager and see what is using all the memory?

8 GB has always been plenty for me.

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#4

Post by Space » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:15 pm

There is a way to restore all your licenses to play all existing DRM recordings even if you don't have a system image that was made after those recordings were made (but have an older system image).
  1. Make a copy/backup the "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\mspr.hds" file (must be done before you reset any PlayReady stuff).
  2. Restore your most recent system image. Reboot.
  3. Stop the "Windows Media Center Receiver" Service
  4. Copy the backed up "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\mspr.hds" file back to its original location (make a copy of the existing one just in case the restored one doesn't work).
  5. Start the "Windows Media Center Receiver" Service
You should now be able to play back all of your DRM recordings, including the ones that were recorded after your system image was made.

Of course, it is a better idea to make a fresh system image before you make any major changes to your system (if your are able) so you will already have the latest mspr.hds file in your restored image if anything goes wrong.

I only make periodic manual system image backups (maybe every few months) due to not having any DRM channels that I record on a regular basis, but if I recorded DRM channels daily and didn't want the extra overhead of doing system images more often, I was thinking of just making a copy of this one file on a periodic basis, as it would be much faster and use less resources. This way if I ever had a system drive crash, I could just restore the most recent image (even if months old) and then just copy over this file that I had been saving every day from the secondary drive.

I've never actually tried this, but I think it should work.

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#5

Post by IownFIVEechos » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:29 pm

Once the hardware invalidates the key I don't think the above method will help. It would be the same as trying the file restore on a different machine. The key here is to keep the system happy with the current key or whatever it uses. Once hardware screams all bets are off I think. But I am guessing here.

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#6

Post by Space » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:41 pm

IownFIVEechos wrote:Once the hardware invalidates the key I don't think the above method will help. It would be the same as trying the file restore on a different machine. The key here is to keep the system happy with the current key or whatever it uses. Once hardware screams all bets are off I think. But I am guessing here.
Yes, if the memory change causes PlayReady to think it was a new system (as it appears to have done in this case), then nothing you do will allow the old keys to work with the new hardware, however if you revert to the old hardware (remove the new memory and put the old memory back in) it should work fine.

The step at which this method would have worked is after upgrading the memory and before reseting PlayReady. At this point, if you save the mspr.hds file, you could have restored it later (after reverting the hardware change) and it would have worked.

Of course if you make a hardware change and then get the PlayReady message, you are already screwed, so you might as well just revert the hardware change then and there (without having to backup anything) or accept that none of your existing DRM recordings will be playable and reset PlayReady.

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#7

Post by STC » Tue Aug 23, 2016 6:00 pm

I always thought MSs implementation of DRM hardware change monitoring was cumulative. Installing new memory alone would not reset the keys. Historic changes to the hardware have added to the strikes. The memory change was the trigger point in this case.
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#8

Post by DSperber » Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:42 pm

STC wrote:I always thought MSs implementation of DRM hardware change monitoring was cumulative. Installing new memory alone would not reset the keys. Historic changes to the hardware have added to the strikes. The memory change was the trigger point in this case.
I was fully aware that changing motherboard or CPU would produce a new DRM key based on the new "significant hardware change" sufficient to convince PlayReady that this was a different machine than the one used to do the original recording.

I've also upgraded hard drives to make them larger as well as moving and resizing partition, including C. For example, in my current story the unexpected large growth of PAGEFILE.SYS to correspond to my new 24GB memory caused me to drop to only 9GB free on my 100GB Win7 C-partition, on the 250GB 10krpm Velociraptor drive it lives on along with "system reserved" and several other "data" partitions. So I used Partition Wizard to shrink one unnecessarily large partition to the right of C by 30GB, and then move all partitions to the right of C all the way to the right as far as they could go. This created 30GB of space I then added to C, thus now giving me 39GB free space in the new 130GB size for C.

Well, when I restored Monday morning's "system image" backup after removing the new 16GB and reverting back to only the original 8GB, I retained the new 130GB partition, telling Macrium Reflect to simply restore the original 100GB image into the 130GB target.

And, after re-booting, this partition enlargement of C did NOT impact DRM.

So to be honest, although I'd never actually done a memory increase before, I certainly had no expectation that its change would be a "DRM key invalidator" implying (a) "different machine" so that I could no longer play back previously recorded copy-protected programs, and (b) PlayReady activation of installed cablecard in my Ceton tuner card would be invalidated so that I could no longer even VIEW (or make recordings of) copy-protected "live" programs using the TV tuner card. I really would have guessed increasing memory was just something "benign" that people commonly do on their existing machine, so why would MS use different memory size as part of the "crucial clues and fingerprints" used to spot a different playback machine from the original recording machine? Nevertheless, apparently they did.

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#9

Post by glugglug » Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:53 pm

Regardless of whether the total amount of memory changes, Windows sees that you changed from having one memory bank in use to both, particularly with most 64-bit CPUs having the memory controller built into the CPU.

If you install the 16GB as a replacement for the 8GB so that you still only have one bank populated, the DRM might be OK with it.

BTW, after a memory upgrade which DRM didn't like I was able to downgrade back to the previous memory amount and the DRM worked again without re-imaging. YMMV.

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#10

Post by STC » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:02 pm

I'm not sure adjusting partition size on the same hardware has an impact. Just pure hardware changes.
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#11

Post by DSperber » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:15 pm

glugglug wrote:Regardless of whether the total amount of memory changes, Windows sees that you changed from having one memory bank in use to both, particularly with most 64-bit CPUs having the memory controller built into the CPU.

If you install the 16GB as a replacement for the 8GB so that you still only have one bank populated, the DRM might be OK with it.
I see. Didn't think to try that last night, i.e. upgrading from the original 8GB to just the new 16GB using that same bank of DIMM sockets.

I didn't realize it when placing the order, but the newer Patriot Viper memory I bought (to match the original Patriot memory already installed) came with an attached heat sink which made it physically a bit taller than the original sticks. Turns out I have a very large CPU cooler and two attached fans (one "push" and one "pull", through the cooler). And DIMM slot #1 is just under the outer edge of the "push" fan, making it impossible for the new larger memory stick to go into that currently available slot, although I had intended to install the two new memory sticks in #1 and #3, leaving the existing two memory sticks in #2 and #4 where they were. Of course I didn't know yet that this would all be so crucial to DRM.

So I was forced to remove the old 8GB sticks from #2 and #4, and transplant them into #1 and #3, since the one in #1 COULD fit under the "push" fan. And I installed the two new larger sticks into #2 and #4.

Hence when I backed out the upgrade, I simply removed the newly installed sticks in #2 and #4. Had I thought of it, I could just as easily have removed the old sticks which were now in #1 and #3, thus leaving me with the configuration you're suggesting of using the original two DIMM sockets but with doubled memory size in each... and which might have been acceptable to DRM.

I may give that a shot later today. If I do, I'll certainly report the results. But today I'm running with original two 8GB sticks which were originally in #2 and #4 an which are now in #1 and #3 (since I didn't put them back where they were originally , but simply removed the two new sticks from where I'd installed them because of their larger physical size). And the old DRM key is working fine. So apparently it's more that the same original 8GB is in use which is critical, not the fact that I'm now using slots #1 and #3 for those same original two 4GB sticks, whereas before those two 4GB cards were in #2 and #4.

Anyway, yet to be tested whether two entirely new 8GB sticks installed into the original #2 and #4 (with #1 and #3 vacant again) will be acceptable to DRM instead of the two 4GB sticks in #2 and #4 which is what it looked like originally. The two larger sticks WILL go into #2 and #4, so at least I can give it a try.

BTW, after a memory upgrade which DRM didn't like I was able to downgrade back to the previous memory amount and the DRM worked again without re-imaging. YMMV.
That might have been possible, had I not already followed the "recipe" I discovered about uninstalling WMC completely and then reinstalling, to reactive DRM and PlayReady. I hadn't thought it through fully and was simply following this "approach which was successful" for the author of the article, not realizing that it was simply a way of getting a new DRM key for newly created going-forward copy-protected viewing/recording. It would not, however, allowed me to view all of my previously recorded copy-protected content produced with the old DRM key.

So by this time, I'd already destroyed my old WMC setup completely. Had this worked, I was prepared for all of the follow-on work, like channel lists, installing MyChannelLogos, EPG123, my three extenders, etc. It's really a lot of work to have to do all over again. Given what additional WMC damage I'd already done by now, I really had no choice other than to restore an image from Monday morning corresponding to the original 8GB of memory. Just took 10 minutes and really was the perfect recovery method.

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#12

Post by DSperber » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:27 pm

Crash2009 wrote:Yes^^

And, how about open up Task Manager and see what is using all the memory?

8 GB has always been plenty for me.
I agree. And 8GB has always been fine with me, until recently.

Interestingly right this moment I'm only using 33% of my [back to original configuration] 8GB, rather than the 70-90% I had been noticing recently. Could just be what happens to be in use right now (and I am NOT running a WMC window right now).

Anyway, I looked at Task Manager's Memory presentation, but wanted to get a better picture of what was going on. Microsoft System Internals has a freely available utility named RamMap, https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sys ... ammap.aspx, that you can download run yourself. I think it provides much more insight than Task Manager.

Here's what it shows right a while ago (before even starting WMC), as presented by RamMap (on its "summary" page) as compared to what Aida64 shows for utilization (60%).

Image

I can tell you that when I was running with all 24GB installed, things were much larger with the "paged pool" being about 9GB by itself. Sorry I don't have an image of what it looked like at that time.

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#13

Post by JimE » Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:10 pm

Odd that it doesn't always break DRM, as I just upgraded from 8GB to 16GB a couple of weeks ago (trying to solve a FlexRaid RAM issue), and there was no issues with my saved recordings.

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#14

Post by DSperber » Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:26 pm

JimE wrote:Odd that it doesn't always break DRM, as I just upgraded from 8GB to 16GB a couple of weeks ago (trying to solve a FlexRaid RAM issue), and there was no issues with my saved recordings.
After some much needed recovery time from my excitement of a few days ago (and last night I "binged" on the accumulated past four "The Night Of" episodes from HBO), this afternoon I'm going to perform the "partial RAM upgrade" approach which might very well succeed.

As was pointed out in an earlier response to my story, it's possible I broke DRM because I added two more memory sticks into the remaining two DIMM sockets, and maybe that's what was critical. I don't know why the motherboard identity and CPU serial number couldn't be used exclusively with RAM irrelevant, but apparently the previous 0+4GB+0+8GB arrangement vs. the new 4GB+8GB+4GB+8GB setup what caused the issue. What I reverted to just removed the newly added 8GB sticks, so my current working-again setup is 4GB+0+4GB+0 and that was apparently considered "the same machine" as the original 0+4GB+0+4GB.

This afternoon I will try the suggestion of going back to just two memory cards, but of 8GB each instead of 4GB each. Sounds like that's what you did. Because of the physically larger Patriot Viper cards they must go into the slots originally occupied by my original two 4GB cards (and which are currently living happily in the other two DIMM sockets).

So this afternoon I will go to 0+8GB+0+8GB. Since your story is now the second post which suggests I probably will be able to get away with this "partial RAM upgrade" without breaking DRM. I had wanted to go to 24GB using all four DIMM sockets, but I'll end up with 16GB using the original two DIMM sockets. Better than nothing.

I'll report back later on the findings.

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#15

Post by DSperber » Thu Aug 25, 2016 12:10 am

Sadly, the report from this afternoon's experiment is NO JOY!

Before the test, I had 4GB+0+4GB+0, and all was fine. Prior to the other day's work, I originally had 0+4GB+0+4GB and obviously all was also fine in that original configuration. So DRM doesn't seem to mind which of the two DIMM slots held the two 4GB cards it had initially discovered for PlayReady when I configured WMC for cablecard/Ceton on my most recent Win7 install three years ago. Doesn't matter if I move the cards from the pair of slots they were originally seen in to the other pair (since I didn't have all four slots populated), it apparently was the actual cards themselves which were crucial.

Before starting the work, I took a "system image" backup in the event I had to restore things. Didn't want to lose my recordings made (on Monday, Tuesday and today) since my most recent Monday/Thursday morning semi-weekly scheduled backup.

This afternoon I pulled out the two old 4GB sticks from slots #1 and #3 where they had been moved to the other day (in order to make available slots #2 and #4 for the somewhat larger new Patriot Viper memory cards with the heat sinks on them), and installed the two new 8GB cards into the empty slots #2 and #4. These are the same two slots as been originally occupied by my original two 4GB cards before moving them to #1 and #3 the other day.

When I rebooted and launched WMC (with my now 16GB machine), I was initially encouraged to see the thumbnails in Record TV showing properly. However when I went to play one of them, I received the "cannot copy" message.

I then went to Guide, and selected a copy-protected cable channel program to view live. And, not surprisingly, just a "black" (actually blue") screen. It was clear this was a no-go for DRM.

A few more attempts finally triggered the dialog from "update PlayReady", which I said OK to. And as before, the update was reported as "incomplete" and I simply was unable to view either previously recorded copy-protected programs or to view live copy-protected programs. I didn't know the state of PlayReady at this point, and wasn't sure if I'd have to restore my "system image" after reverting my memory back or if PlayReady would magically correct itself once I got the memory issue resolved.

So, frustrated to be sure, I took apart the machine one final time, and removed the just-installed two 8GB of new memory from slots #2 and #4. Then I reinstalled the original two memory cards into those same slots #2 and #4 (where they had originally resided several days ago when this story began).

Reboot, launch WMC, and like magic PlayReady apparently auto-corrected itself (perhaps by silently completing the previously incomplete update it had attempted). I didn't have to restore the "system image" I'd taken. I was simply once again automatically able to play all of my copy-protected recordings, and I was once again able to VIEW "live" copy-protected programs.

==> BOTTOM LINE: although others on this thread have reported that they were able to upgrade RAM (at least somewhat) without breaking DRM, I was not successful. Perhaps I needed new RAM that was EXACTLY the same as the old RAM (but larger), and for example the new memory (with identical timings and latency as the original) came supporting AMP and XMP, whereas the original RAM only supported XMP. I don't know if DRM is that particular, but for whatever reason it simply would not accept my memory upgrade of the new 16GB, no matter whether I added that 2x8GB=16GB in the two free slots or replaced the existing 2x4GB=8GB in those same slots.

So, I'm back to the original 2x4GB=8GB. I have not lost any copy-protected recordings, nor have I lost the cablecard pairing. DRM is happy again, even if I'm not. I'll try to forget these past few days.

Oh well. I will keep the additional 16GB just in case some day down the road when I finally view-down all of my copy-protected content and decide the timing is right to reinstall WMC from scratch along with everything else additional I've installed or configured with WMC, I can finally just bring my machine up to 24GB and "start WMC copy-protection from scratch" with memory at the new size.

You all have been suitably warned.

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#16

Post by cwinfield » Thu Aug 25, 2016 1:00 am

Try and copy then rename mspr.hds as a backup then delete mspr.hds in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\ after installing your upgraded dimms. then playready will complete and replace the missing mspr.hds , then try your recordings. If it doesn't work you can restore mspr.hds with the backup.

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#17

Post by Space » Thu Aug 25, 2016 3:13 am

cwinfield wrote:Try and copy then rename mspr.hds as a backup then delete mspr.hds in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\ after installing your upgraded dimms. then playready will complete and replace the missing mspr.hds , then try your recordings. If it doesn't work you can restore mspr.hds with the backup.
I doubt this will work since the licenses in the mspr.hds will be associated with "the other machine".

It is my understanding that there are several factors involved in giving a machine a unique identity. CPU, motherboard, memory, hard drives(?), other stuff?
If you change just the memory, I doubt you would have a problem, but if you change the hard drives, then later change the memory, then later change something else, etc. it will eventually be to different from the original system and you will have problems.

I think its a pretty bad system, but that is how it works. They could have just associated it with the motherboard and been done with it. Are there really a lot of people that would try to change the serial number on their motherboard to circumvent copy protection? Even if someone did care enough to do so, they would have to do it on every motherboard in which they wanted to view that content. I think this DRM is completely over engineered, particularly since most of the content that is protected is easily attainable elsewhere for free...

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#18

Post by DSperber » Thu Aug 25, 2016 8:29 am

I'm just going to abandon this memory upgrade project for now, until if by good fortune I do eventually view-down all of my copy-protected content so that I won't lose much (or anything) by regenerating a new DRM key corresponding to adding 16GB of memory.

While deleting/recreating a new mspr.hds after installing the new memory might allow the complete update of PlayReady so that I would once again be able to view/record new copy-protected content going forward, it's still not going to be usable to play my old copy-protected recordings. This was already learned the other day when I followed the "recipe" I found for uninstalling WMC and reinstalling from scratch and then going through all the initial WMC activation for cablecard, etc.. Yes, this generated a brand new DRM key based on my new 24GB hardware, but it was useless for playing my old copy-protected recordings which had been made using the original DRM key.

Yes, you might be right. Perhaps if it was only the memory upgrade which characterized my hardware change as "modest" (and clearly just a local upgrade to an existing machine, rather than some other "pirate" machine) I might have gotten away with it. But as you surmise, over the past three years I've changed graphics cards, replaced hard drives and adjusted partitions, and now tried to upgrade memory. Same motherboard S/N and same CPU id (which you'd think would really be all that matters), but in truth lots else has changed over the past three years of my current Win7 install.

I'm sure having more than 8GB would help, but I suspect my excessive usage might also be due to Firefox. But things REALLY slow down when memory utilization goes above 90%.

Anyway, here's a current RamMap summary with Aida64 showing 92% utilization (WMC is not active, but Firefox is currently the largest process consumer):

Image

Image

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#19

Post by robnitro » Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:28 pm

Try firefox beta - making sure it is using e10s (google how to check) or even better, firefox developer edition which has some more features.

Much less memory use!

But yeah this playready crap is ridiculous. I had to do a reinstall of 7 on top and go through the stuck windows updates hell to get playready to work again.

STUPID DRM keeps away HONEST people, stuff is still pirated through the web-dl!

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#20

Post by DSperber » Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:55 am

cwinfield wrote:Try and copy then rename mspr.hds as a backup then delete mspr.hds in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\ after installing your upgraded dimms. then playready will complete and replace the missing mspr.hds , then try your recordings. If it doesn't work you can restore mspr.hds with the backup.
I have not done this, but my intuition tells me that the only thing which this will accomplish might be facilitating the completion of a reinstall of PlayReady, while simultaneously generating a brand new DRM key to allow viewing/recording/playing new copy-protected content going forward. In other words this might address the "PlayReady update incomplete" problem.

However I will bet large amounts of money that the newly generated DRM key will not be usable to play currently existing previously recorded copy-protected content, which was encrypted with the previous version of the DRM key which has now been invalidated by the replacement of certain crucial hardware elements (e.g. adding RAM, as I tried to do).

The Windows DRM key and PlayReady are the most bullet-proof crack-proof protections I've run across (as attested to by the fact that NOBODY and no 3rd-party software product has been able to come up with any hack to overcome it). Only Windows Media Center (not even Windows Media Player on the same system) can play copy-protected content through PlayReady and the original DRM key used to produce the encrypted recording in the first place. Period. End of story. Full stop.

The critical DRM key is generated once and it is time-based unique, based on the critical hardware components along with the installed Windows and current date/time. Although I don't know this for sure, I believe if you uninstalled/reinstalled WMC on the very same hardware, at some later date/time, even with the same unchanged hardware configuration on the very same existing installed Windows, that the newly generated DRM key would be DIFFERENT from the original DRM key (because of the date/time nature of the key)... and would therefore still not be able to be used to play back copy-protected content previously recorded using the previous DRM key, although pretty much everything else has remained the same. The time-based nature of the DRM key really produces a one-time-only value that can never ever be reproduced.

This guarantees that copy-protected content can only be played on essentially the very same primary hardware configuration machine as it was originally recorded on, with the same installed Windows and using the same DRM key of WMC/PlayReady as it was configured to make that recording. Any other change to the crucial pieces here will introduce a crucial difference in the newly created DRM key and make it impossible to play any copy-protected file originally recorded using the original DRM key. Absolutely 100% bullet-proof. Ain't gonna happen.

MS has allowed certain hardware elements to be replaced/upgraded without breaking the DRM key. For example, you can replace graphics cards for another HDCP-compliant one, and not affect the DRM key. You can do any type of hard drive upgrade with associated partitioning and relocating of \Recorded TV and its Library, and not affect the DRM key. But apparently you cannot change CPU, and you cannot change motherboard, and now it's apparent you also cannot change memory size configuration (although you apparently can move existing memory sticks from one pair of DIMM slots to the other pair of DIMM slots without affecting the DRM key). You can't add additional memory to the two unused DIMM slots, nor can you replace the current two memory cards with two different sized memory cards, either in the same or different two DIMM slots. You just can't fool with memory. I honestly don't know how others have had isolated occasional success here as reported, but I certainly didn't.

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