In the event that hardware or licencing challenges prevent original equipment manufacturers from implementing security at level 1, Widevine provides support for levels L2 and L3.
At the same time that visual processing is happening outside, the TEE is responsible for all of the cryptography work that needs to be done. This level, represented by the letter L2, is one step below the level that came before it, which was labelled with the letter L1.
Processing of cryptography and video can take place either outside of the TEE or when the TEE is unreachable at the L3 level. Both of these options are possible.
On the other hand, CDMs almost always operate at the L3 level, whereas Android smartphones almost always only operate at the L1 level.
The Trusted Execution Environment, commonly known as TEE, is often constructed with the assistance of the Arm TrustZone technology, which is also utilised for the creation of the L1 layer. Another name for TEE is the Trusted Execution Environment.
Keep in mind that Widevine is able to decrypt any encrypted video content that has been moved to the trusted zone of the central processing unit. This is something that you should keep in mind. This is a crucial component of Widevine that must not be disregarded in any way (CPU).
Playback is managed with the help of a video driver, and all operations are carried out inside the confines of a private session that was initiated by Android.
The L3 level is not appropriate for premium content since content providers prefer that digital rights management systems (DRMs), which are a form of anti-piracy software, only supply resolutions that are lower than HD. Because of this, the overall quality of the experience that the user has is significantly degraded, which is undesirable for obvious reasons.
If a user’s device is L1 compliant, then the only forms of video material that can be best delivered to that device are high-definition and ultra-high-definition versions of the content. If a device is not L1 compliant, then any type of video content can be optimally supplied to that device.
In the year 2010, Google became the owner of WidevineTechnologies after completing an acquisition of the company.
During the same period of time, over-the-top (OTT) platforms began to gain traction for the same reasons that internet connection was becoming more reasonably priced, the price of smartphones was falling, and there was a corresponding uptick in the number of people using the Android operating system. The occurrence of each of these factors occurred at the same time.
Up until this point in time, the only smart TVs that were compatible with Widevine Classic were those manufactured by Samsung and LG and powered by Android 5.1 or a later version.
Only the WMV video format could be played back on the device; no other formats were supported.
Widevine Modular is a more up-to-date and improved version of the software that was developed specifically for modern devices, as well as for Android and web browsers with higher version numbers. Widevine Modular was released in March of this year. The first demonstration of Widevine Modular took place in the year 2017.
In addition to supporting adaptive bitrates, this implementation is also compatible with the MPEG-DASH, HLS, and CMAF file formats. Additionally supported are bitrates that are dynamically adjusted.
While it is true that the browser compatibility of Widevine has been known to cause a few problems in the past, the overall security of the platform is continually being improved.
Their most recent attempt takes use of the VMP technology in an effort to stop leaks that are caused by browsers. This work was undertaken to stop the leaks. Recently, this has become their primary concentration.
Widevine now has the capability, thanks to Virtual Machine Platform, to validate the browser framework and determine whether or not it is playing content that has been authorized. With this capability, Widevine is able to determine whether or not a browser is playing content that has been given its seal of approval (VMP).
Virtually every web browser that is compatible with Widevine CDM also comes pre-equipped with the capability to stream video with VMP. This capability is a need for streaming video.
Video.js is the name of a video player that was written in HTML5 and satisfies all of these standards. It is suitable for use on platforms that stream video content and can be found on its official website. Because it is capable of playing the vast majority of video formats that are currently available, this open-source video player is one of the players that is utilised the most frequently on the internet. Because there is such a large community of developers all over the world, it also offers a lot of wiggle room when it comes to design and functionality. This is because there are so many developers. This is due to the fact that the community is dispersed over the entire world. This plugin provides support for the requirements of the Encrypted Media Extensions and enables the Video.js players to communicate with the content decryption module (CDM) of web browsers. Additionally, this plugin offers support for the requirements of the Encrypted Media Extensions. Before the CDM starts decoding the video component, the user is given the opportunity to pass the DRM licencing URI by using the plugin. This happens before the CDM starts decoding the video component. This occurs prior to the CDM beginning the decoding process for the video component. This takes place prior to the CDM beginning the process of decoding the video section. In addition, if the developer so chooses, they can provide distinguishing techniques that are exclusive to a source in addition to the combination of that source’s key system and codec. This is possible only if the developer chooses to do so. If the developer so chooses, they have access to this option; otherwise, it is not available to them.
