Ripping the HDMI stream (which is usually still breaking DRM!) is going to force you to reencode the video which will inevitably lose quality. You might also end up with UI elements on the screen and won’t be able to get subtitles out.

AFAIK HDMI protects from direct ripping so how do they actually do it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content... You mean this? Doesn't sound that hard to bypass

Looks like old version. 1080p max perhaps?

I assume HDCP is the reason a lot of ripped content is not in 4K (or because needs a more expensive Netflix subscription). It sounds like people just bypass it by using an HDMI splitter however.

Very easy to remove it with an HDCP remover like HDFury, or even an HDCP downconverter and then using the known master keys to decrypt that.

Eh sort of sometimes maybe. Lots of hardware/cables out there that don’t care what you’re doing. I can use an ATEM mini to grab basically anything I want so long as I’m down to capture in real time.