Very pleased with My new HTPC case (Antec NSK2400)

[JustLong]

No HDCP?

Yeah no hdcp. For me it works because I'm not outputting any restricted content. Also when I did have an HDCP compliant video card I had nothing but problems. Everything worked when my computer first booted, but if I turned off my tv then turned it back on DVDs would no longer play. The problem was that the Video card only did a handshake with the TV when it first initiallized. As soon as the TV powered off the HDCP connection would fail until my computer rebooted.

 

[w1retap]

lol, the HDCP chip is inactive until protected content tells it to do the handshake. Currently HDDVD and Blu-ray are the only formats that do this on the PC. It does not effect DVD's, gaming, or any other activity on the computer.

 

[JustLong]

lol, the HDCP chip is inactive until protected content tells it to do the handshake. Currently HDDVD and Blu-ray are the only formats that do this on the PC. It does not effect DVD's, gaming, or any other activity on the computer.

You would think.
And until you use Vista that is true.

Here are the errors I was seeing.

When trying to watch a DVD in media center:

Cannot Play DVD

The DVD may be in use by another application. If all other applications are closed, the video resolution may need to be lowered or the display connection type may not support the playback of the DVD.

Using Media player. That gives a better error when it decides not to work.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with the digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and Video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card.

I installed nVidia Pure Video and that gives me this error.

nStant Media

Key exchange for DVD copy protection failed. Playback is stopped.

ATI confirmed it was a problem with their drivers and they would fix it in a future release. If I switched the VGA the problem went away. It may not be using HDCP for DVDs, but having a bad HDCP connection can affect DVDs.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Thats actually problems with Macrovision, regular DVDs don't/can't make the HDCP call so it doesn't matter on that end BUT certain apps (like PowerDVD) are very strict in their use of HDCP. It's very possible that something like PowerDVD is forcing HDCP on even when it isn't called for.

 

[JustLong]

Thats actually problems with Macrovision, regular DVDs don't/can't make the HDCP call so it doesn't matter on that end BUT certain apps (like PowerDVD) are very strict in their use of HDCP. It's very possible that something like PowerDVD is forcing HDCP on even when it isn't called for.

According to ATI it was a driver bug and was related to the HDCP handshake only occuring once.

I hit the problem with a clean Vista Ultimate install, no other applications. Using the built in Microsoft Decoder. One other detail, Vista would actually drop my display resolution down to 480p when playing a DVD that is encoded with macrovision. Something it is only supposed to do when when you are outputting over component.

 

[CrimandEvil]

According to ATI it was a driver bug and was related to the HDCP handshake only occuring once.

Okay, ATI's drivers have been rather buggy when it comes to HTPC usage so I guess that holds water.

One other detail, Vista would actually drop my display resolution down to 480p when playing a DVD that is encoded with macrovision. Something it is only supposed to do when when you are outputting over component.

You have little idea what you are talking about. All DVDs contain Macrovision protection and it's only an issue if you are using analog out to a display which is higher then 720x480. If you were going digital out to this display and your resolution is something like 1280x720 then you wouldn't see this issue.

If you still have this issue then Google for AnyDVD.

Macrovision has nothing to do with HDCP.

 

[JustLong]

Okay, ATI's drivers have been rather buggy when it comes to HTPC usage so I guess that holds water.

You have little idea what you are talking about. All DVDs contain Macrovision protection and it's only an issue if you are using analog out to a display which is higher then 720x480. If you were going digital out to this display and your resolution is something like 1280x720 then you wouldn't see this issue.

If you still have this issue then Google for AnyDVD.

Macrovision has nothing to do with HDCP.

I know all retail DVDs have macrovision. Though If I made a DVD myself it wouldn't. So my statement still holds water. According to the people I talked to when I was hitting the driver bug Vista was treating my DVI connection as an analog connection and dropping the resolition to 480p, but only after I had turned off the TV after the initial handshake between the TV and Video card. Switching to a VGA connection solved the issue.

Even though DVDs/Macrovision have no direct connection to HDCP, it was still blocking me from playing DVDs though an indirect route (driver bug).

Here are a few bits of info from ATI and Microsoft, I'd post the full emails, but some of the info is MS confidential.

From an ATI Engineer

This looks like a error when Media Center/WMP queries for output protection status. Can you play non-protected DVD (most commercial DVDs are protected. We can give you a non-protected one to test)? On other display?

From a Windows PM.

That said, to play a DVD with macrovision, the player must handshake with the video driver which in turn communicates with the underlying video card hardware. If there was a bug in the driver or video card hardware (probably the driver), then the handshaking would fail and the disc would not play.