Microsoft’s
upcoming new operating system, Windows Vista, has been boasting a range of features
that tailor it specifically for high definition and its integrated Media Center could make it an appealing alternative to having a myriad of home entertainment
units. But it transpires that currently available graphics cards will not allow you to view (legal) HD
content due to a serious mix up regarding HDCP and graphics card manufacturers.
HDTV relies on the use of the HDCP (High-Bandwidth
Digital Content Protection) to protect it from piracy and in layman’s terms
requires that, to view full sized HDTV content (up to 1080p), you’ll need to
use a HDCP compliant transmitter (the graphics card) and an HDCP compliant
receiver (either an HD Ready TV or a new Windows Vista-ready monitor). Should
either aspect fail to meet that, the best you can hope for is a downscaled
image somewhere in the region of 480p and at worst a blank screen.
Although most GPUs have been touting HDCP compliancy on spec sheets for
some time now, it appears a communication breakdown between GPU chip
manufacturers (ATI and NVIDIA) and board manufacturers means that none of the
currently available cards are truly HDCP compliant. Achieving this requires the
manufacturer to pay for a license and to attach a special chip holding a Crypto
key which, despite GPU chips boasting HDCP compliancy and cards with DVI
outputs, has not been attached to any commercially available graphics card.
Even worse, there does appear to be any quick fix solution to the problem
either as the chip must be attached at the manufacturing stage.
How graphics card manufacturers intend to handle this problem remains to
be seen and may not become a mainstream issue until both Vista
and either HD DVD or Blu-ray drives hit store shelves later in the year.
Bearing in mind that graphics cards have had the potential to be HDCP compliant
since 2003, at an increased cost to the purchaser of approximately $1 per card,
this still seems like a pretty serious oversight. It should be noted that this
will only affect the playback of protected high definition format discs and will
therefore make illegally distributed HD content the only solution for PC users
who own current technology. Oh the irony.
More details via Firing Squad
Err, I'm pretty sure that you *can* watch legal HD content without HDCP (like the HD clips on the apple trailers page), and that while HDCP support may be required for some future services, there is no technical reason why it has to be.
HDCP seems, at least to me, purely a technology designed to make piracy a little more difficult and anger consumers who want to exercise their fair use rights by making them jump through digital hoops to do anything with content that they've likely paid for already.
"Err, I'm pretty sure that you *can* watch legal HD content without HDCP (like the HD clips on the apple trailers page)"
Yes, and NO.
The content you are talking about is not protected. The content that the article will be protected.
Current DVD's are not true HD, for that you need to get into the 720P, 1080i resolutions.
In the near future, you will be able to buy/rent true HD DVD's in the Blue ray, or HD-DVD format - these WILL BE protected. To play on your computer, you will need a software player, the player (in order to get liscensed to play the disk) will need to look at the hardware on the computer, if it uses any non HDCP compliant hardware, the player will downgrade the resolution to 480p.
So even thought the disk is HD, you are able to view it in HD.