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General discussion

HDCP and Vista

Feb 14, 2006 4:06AM PST

Tom:
You were sort of right in the 13Feb podcast, but you pretty much missed the mark about why there isn't HDCP support in current generations Vid Cards (and monitors, for that case).

Here is the article, to RTFA
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support/

First, what HDCP is. HDCP was designed by Intel, stands for High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (don't ask where the B went). It is (surprise) another form of DRM. HDCP devices will "talk" to each other to display high resolutions and "respect" content protection.

All recent ATI and nVidia chips can support HDCP. (You got that wrong, Tom). The nVidia reference designs even have HDCP support in them. However, ther is a royalty involved (albeit small). The board makers haven't bothered with it.

I understand why the MPAA insists on their DRM. However, is is completely beyond me why Microsoft has declared that Aero-Glass will only work on HDCP equipment. Given that there are very few HDCP compliant monitors, and basically zero HDCP video cards nobody will be able to use it. Given that fact, and the lack of the new file system, etc, why even bother upgrading.

I'm pretty sure that Microsoft will backpedal where it comes to Aero-Glass and HDCP. The system specs are pretty high, this HDCP requirements takes them into the mythical region.

Discussion is locked

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Hmmm but...
Feb 14, 2006 4:53AM PST

The articles I read asserted that even cards with HDCP support, like the current nVidia and ATI cards, will not work in Vista.

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A Little "Clarification" from Ars Technica
Feb 14, 2006 8:32AM PST

Here's an article I just read from ars.technica:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060214-6177.html

These guys mostly get it right and are mostly level headed. I guess that's about as much as one can expect from the blogs gone newsy. Wink

What we need is a bit more truthiness... Grin