Problems with HDCP/Blu-Ray ATI 1900xt config

[tomkat]

Ive just bought an internal Plextor BD drive, installed fine but when playing the movie a message appears saying its incompatible with my display. Running a diagnostic tool shows that my display connection is incorrect, I need to have a graphics card with hdcp support. Problem is my video card reportedly has this. Its a 512mb ATI Radeon 1900xt card otherwise known as Connect3D (the one with Lara Croft on it), card works fine, has 2 DMI slots. I have a DMI-HDMI cable coming from that into my HDTV.

Googling tells me to use an adapter but using this would give me an analogue signal and not HD, the graphics card was top of the line and cant see a solution myself unless Im missing a driver update (although this weeks drivers were downloaded along with Catalyst and still no joy).

Help!

[jman98]

Although BluRay and HD-DVD did not explicitly require this, software players like PowerDVD and WinDVD decided on their own to not allow full HD resolution on playback unless your video card has HDMI. They could allow playback on PCs through DVI (I think you mean this instead of DMI) but the software companies decided not to do this as they felt that they would have fewer problems with the BluRay and HD-DVD manufacturers if they were very strict about playback requirements. In theory, the discs would allow playback over DVI as some people have older HD TVs that only have DVI inputs and for the time being, both formats discs allow full HD playback over DVI on standalone players, but the software companies who make software players are enforcing the requirement to use HDMI, not the discs themselves. A converter cable and drivers can't solve this issue since it is the player itself that is lmiiting playback. Sorry.

In theory, your movie should play, just not in full resolution HD. This whole HDMI reqirement for full HD resolution playback on PCs started to become noticed in late 2005 when a lot of angry people realized that DVI playback would not be supported for HD-DVD and BluRay and their expensive high end cards were worthless for this purpose.

[Baldrick]

what software bluray player are you using? PowerDVD Ultra?

[tomkat]

thanks for the replies, appreciated.
Im using PowerDVD Ultra yes, I ran their diagnostics tool and the only error is the hdcp one. My TV has HDMI inputs, thats what Im using now, DVI-HDMI cable running Windows on the TV, glad to hear its a software issue though baffled why this wont work, talk about alienating consumers before blu-ray gets off the ground! Are we to assume hdmi graphics cards are on the way?

[jman98]

Are we to assume hdmi graphics cards are on the way?

Yes. Here's one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129076
For what it's worth, the guy who started the ball rolling on ripping HD-DVDs to hard drives said he did so specifically because he was angry that he couldn't play them in full resolution because his video card didn't support HDMI. Hollywood doesn't really care whether or not you can ever watch these on a PC and would in fact prefer that you not because you can't copy what you can't watch, but this is at odds with hardware manufacturers who want to sell you very expensive BluRay and HD-DVD drives for your PC.

[jagabo]

I don't know about that particular card but there were many stories about this a few months ago:

http://gear.ign.com/articles/691/691408p1.html

Even if you purchased a high-end ATI or Nvidia graphics card advertised as HDCP compatible, that all it is: compatible, not compliant. HDCP chips must be bios flashed at the factory, and though these new "compatible" cards have space for a TI HDCP chip, none have them yet.

[Nelson37]

I read somewhere that the ONLY cards that were HDCP compliant were going into some Sony machines, I forget if it was ATI or Nvidea going into the Sony, but the consumer-available cards from either maker did not have the necessary chip, as posted above.

[tomkat]

sounds like one collosal mess, I checkecdd with Toshiba, the makers of my HDTV and they said my model is hdcp comliant. I am one of these people with a very high end pc, wanting to have "everything in one box", I dont want a set top blu-ray player as its more space, more plugs, more leads etc, which is why I bought this ide one, so I guess Im to assume in order to get this £600 drive (some $1200) to run in high def Ill either have to get a new HDMI graphics card or a set top box?

Are there any dvi-hdmi adapters perhaps like the dvi-vga ones or is this simply the same old trick not working again?

[tomkat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfzLVogXOpM

how is this guy able to watch them, and how do you rip the movies to watch in high def?

[jagabo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfzLVogXOpM

how is this guy able to watch them, and how do you rip the movies to watch in high def?

The AACS copy protection has been cracked.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1630827

There are already commercial products that implement the crack. AnyDVD for instance.

[edDV]

sounds like one collosal mess, I checkecdd with Toshiba, the makers of my HDTV and they said my model is hdcp comliant. I am one of these people with a very high end pc, wanting to have "everything in one box", I dont want a set top blu-ray player as its more space, more plugs, more leads etc, which is why I bought this ide one, so I guess Im to assume in order to get this £600 drive (some $1200) to run in high def Ill either have to get a new HDMI graphics card or a set top box?

Are there any dvi-hdmi adapters perhaps like the dvi-vga ones or is this simply the same old trick not working again?

It sure is a collosal mess ... by design. I've been warning y'all about this since 2004.

Advice is don't buy anything unless the combination of products you are considering has been proved to work first with non HDCP enabled discs but also with HDCP enabled.

Some basic HDCP documentation
http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=50
http://www.siliconimage.com/docs/SiI-WP-002-A.pdf > Read pages 7-9
http://www.digital-cp.com/home > these guys issue the keys.

The goal of all this is to prevent you from using a computer as an HTPC for HD/BD DVD playback unless all the HDCP needs are met. When HDCP is enabled on future discs, output on the analog component outputs must be restricted to 960x540 (originally 720x576).

In the USA we still have legislation being proposed by both parties to add HDCP restrictions to digital broadcast television (aka the Broadcast Flag).