Windows Vista and HDCP

[smike]

On my iTunes, it tells me that I can't play back an HDTV movie without Windows 7.


I had a spare HDMI cable so I thought I'd try connecting that from the monitor to the computer since the monitor has an HDMI port. Whenever I select HDMI on the monitor as an input, it does right back to VGA. Is this just not possible with Vista even with the cable?

[newpball]

Windows Vista is an outdated operating system.

Mainstream support for Windows Vista ended almost three years ago. The last service pack release was almost 6 years ago.

Is there any particular reason you cannot run your computer on Windows 7 or 8?

[Cornucopia]

Vista may be an "outdated operating system", but that says nothing about the fact that plenty of "outdated" OSes can play HD movies, as long as they have the codecs & speed/resources. Not sure about Win9x, but I can attest to playing HD movies on Win2k, XP, ... heck probably even NT4.

Is is smart to use those. No. Win7 or better is certainly strongly recommended. Is it impossible (to use those older OSes), no.

@newpball, the ATSC spec (which includes HD resolutions) has been in effect since '95-'97. What do you think people were working on them (HD) with since then? Certainly not Windows7 (until 2009).

@smike, what I'm guessing iTunes is talking about is that it will not invoke/allow playing of HD files through its player unless running on a Win7 or better PC. Says nothing about what other players are willing or capable of playing. Try Mplayer, VLC, MPC-HC, Potplayer, etc.

Scott

[newpball]

Vista may be an "outdated operating system", but that says nothing about the fact that plenty of "outdated" OSes can play HD movies, as long as they have the codecs & speed/resources. Not sure about Win9x, but I can attest to playing HD movies on Win2k, XP, ... heck probably even NT4.

Is is smart to use those. No. Win7 or better is certainly strongly recommended. Is it impossible (to use those older OSes), no.

@newpball, the ATSC spec (which includes HD resolutions) has been in effect since '95-'97. What do you think people were working on them (HD) with since then? Certainly not Windows7 (until 2009).

@smike, what I'm guessing iTunes is talking about is that it will not invoke/allow playing of HD files through its player unless running on a Win7 or better PC. Says nothing about what other players are willing or capable of playing. Try Mplayer, VLC, MPC-HC, Potplayer, etc.

Scott

This topic is about HDCP support, not about the ability to play HD.

XP and Vista are simply not supported.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201850

This topic is simply one of the many

"I have old hardware/software and this new thing does not work on it"

type of questions followed by endless blame gaming and persistently ignoring those who call it out and write the obvious!

Patient: "Doctor, if I press my left big toe and say yeah-ah at the same time my right middle finger hurts, can you help me?"
Doctor: "Stop pressing your left big toe and say yeah-ah at the same time!"

[El Heggunte]

According to many/most comments in the page https://www.videohelp.com/tools/iTunes ,
iTunes suxxx incredible amounts of {profanity}. Stop using it, problem solved

[Cornucopia]

You are right about XP/Vista with iTunes. But that is specific to iTunes. Vista is HDCP-compatible. It was one of its talking points when it was being rolled out.

Plus, I see "HDCP" in the thread title, but NOTHING in the actual Original Post would lead one to require HDCP being utilized.

Of course iTunes is going to expect HDCP. So would Windows Movie Player (and other commercial-leaning apps). Would I recommend either of those as media players? Only as a last resort. Those other players I recommended neither support nor require HDCP for HD movies.

Whether the movies themselves are encrypted (requiring HDCP trusted playback channels) or not hasn't been determined yet.

Your "doctor/patient" example can work equally as well supporting my argument.

What really has to happen is for the OP to be clearer about their sources/needs/habits, and budget (enough for a PC?).

Scott

[newpball]

Also for 1080p the PC has to have a:

• 32 or 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows 8; Windows XP and Vista don't support HDCP iTunes 10.6 or later
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor
• At least 2 GB of RAM
• A video driver that supports HDCP, such as an Intel GMA X4500HD, ATI Radeon HD 2400, Nvidia GeForce 8300 GS, or better (you may need to check with the manufacturer to determine if your video driver supports HDCP)

[qz3fwd]

You are right about XP/Vista with iTunes. But that is specific to iTunes. Vista is HDCP-compatible. It was one of its talking points when it was being rolled out.

Plus, I see "HDCP" in the thread title, but NOTHING in the actual Original Post would lead one to require HDCP being utilized.

Of course iTunes is going to expect HDCP. So would Windows Movie Player (and other commercial-leaning apps). Would I recommend either of those as media players? Only as a last resort. Those other players I recommended neither support nor require HDCP for HD movies.

Whether the movies themselves are encrypted (requiring HDCP trusted playback channels) or not hasn't been determined yet.

Your "doctor/patient" example can work equally as well supporting my argument.

What really has to happen is for the OP to be clearer about their sources/needs/habits, and budget (enough for a PC?).

Scott

As I recall from using iTunes long ago for any video payback it requires HDCP between the GPU and monitor, even for un-encrypted videos. iTunes is garbage but if the OP has purchased videos, they no doubt will want to watch them. Unfortunately some monitors do not seem to support HDCP in certain resolutions on certain interconnects. I have a dell 30" monitor and it does not support HDCP on displayport or the GPU may not support it on DP-dont recall which but it prevents videos from playing back on iTunes on OSX-presumably on Windows also. Sucks-but that is enforced by either the content owners or appe or both to support their business models. Pretty much any GPU with HDMI should support HDCP, but you have to make sure both ends support the handshake.......

[smike]

Thank you for all the replies.

I didn't really know where such a topic would go.

Basically I was just thinking I could attach an HDMI cable and that might fix the problem, guess it didn't. That's that.

[Krispy Kritter]

So all the bickering just to confirm the OP (and thus iTunes), stated why it doesn't work.

On my iTunes, it tells me that I can't play back an HDTV movie without Windows 7.?

And just to be clear, this isn't an "HDCP" issue. It's an iTunes doesn't support HDCP on OS's older than Win7. HDCP has been functional as far back as XP.