GoPro SD card DRM

WillOfTheLand · December 9, 2020

So this is something I've been thinking about today.

When I first bought my GoPro hero 5 black I used a kingston SD card (this model to be exact https://www.newegg.ca/kingston-64gb-microsdxc/p/N82E16820242486), it worked for a year, I shot 4k footage, slowmo, time lapses, HDR, everything. The card had no issues with any of it.

Than after a year I did the firmware update required to get the app the to work with the camera to control it remotely, and suddenly my card was no longer supported.

So I went out and bought this lexar card (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1274663-REG/lexar_lsdmi64gbbnl633a_64gb_high_performance_633x_microsdxc.html) with the exact same specifications as the kingston one, because it was listed on the compatibility list as being "fast enough" even though they both have the exact same speed classifications across the board. And my camera magically accepted it. Back to working like normal.

A while back Linus did a video on how RED was using standard SSD's in their "cinema mags" with proprietary adapters that they were selling for thousands of dollars more than the actual cost and just including a hidden config file on the SSD so that the camera would recognize it as "one of theirs".

And just recently I saw some talk about how similar things are done with the XBOX SERIES S/X internal M.2 SSD's to keep people from simply upgrading them and forcing them to buy the "memory card" to expand the storage (still a great console though), and that got me thinking and made me realize.

It's not that other cards aren't "fast" enough to work with gopros, it's just artificial DRM saying "you can only use cards from these companies", so the question is, can this be gotten around so you can just use any card you want with their cameras?