HDMI / Industrial Strength Copy Protection !

[Houston]

I don't know if any of you do business with this company, but from my experience, Crutchfield as a company, their Sales Advisor's, and the Management there, are beyond reproach. I've had several wonderful experiences with them, pleasant, informed, and willing to go to any extent to satisfy a customer, nuf said.

Anyway, I get their Catalog, and see many very informative articles in it, and ran across this one, titled:
"The Ins and Outs of HDMI", which you can read for yourself at:
http://www.crutchfield.com/learningcenter/home/cables/hdmi.html

But, I'll copy/paste a portion of it here, and see what you think.

"Industrial-strength copy protection:
This probably seems like more of a benefit for content owners like movie studios than for consumers, but it directly affects the quantity and quality of what we can watch — now, and in the coming years. HDMI's wide adoption is due in large part to Hollywood's demands for ever-stronger copy protection measures to prevent piracy. HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is present on virtually all HDMI-equipped devices even though it's not officially part of the HDMI spec."

Is This old news ?, I never herd about this before ! Does this mean you can’t do a HDD recording of a show, which you happen to be passing through a HDMI connection?

Your thoughts ?

Have a good Day !

SWHouston

 

[CochiseGuy]

I don't know if any of you do business with this company, but from my experience, Crutchfield as a company, their Sales Advisor's, and the Management there, are beyond reproach. I've had several wonderful experiences with them, pleasant, informed, and willing to go to any extent to satisfy a customer, nuf said.

Anyway, I get their Catalog, and see many very informative articles in it, and ran across this one, titled:
"The Ins and Outs of HDMI", which you can read for yourself at:
http://www.crutchfield.com/learningcenter/home/cables/hdmi.html

But, I'll copy/paste a portion of it here, and see what you think.

"Industrial-strength copy protection:
This probably seems like more of a benefit for content owners like movie studios than for consumers, but it directly affects the quantity and quality of what we can watch — now, and in the coming years. HDMI's wide adoption is due in large part to Hollywood's demands for ever-stronger copy protection measures to prevent piracy. HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is present on virtually all HDMI-equipped devices even though it's not officially part of the HDMI spec."

Is This old news ?, I never herd about this before ! Does this mean you can’t do a HDD recording of a show, which you happen to be passing through a HDMI connection?

Your thoughts ?

Have a good Day !
SWHouston

Yeah, kinda old news. Component was / is the last connection that can carry high def without HDCP because it's analog. DVI (Digital Video Interface) was the first digital connection and in consumer devices, it's usually HDCP complaint (DVI is used in a lot of computer video cards & monitors and is rarely HDCP). While HDCP is may not be in the spec. for HDMI, I've never seen or heard about one that isn't HDCP compliant.

And you absolutely can NOT copy anything via HDMI or DVI with HDCP. Every HDCP device along the way communicates with each other, roughly telling each other "Yep, I have HDCP - no copying device here."

I like they're line "This probably seems like more of a benefit for content owners like movie studios than for consumers". Probably??? HDCP provides absolutely no benefit to the consumer - unless one thinks content owners would not offer us any content without HDCP, which I highly doubt. Even when both Blu-ray and HD DVD were finalizing their specs., both were originally going to allow high def resolution only with HDCP compliant HDMI & DVI. They were going to down grade the resolution over non-HDCP component to less than half the quality. In the end the studios & CE companies decided to delay this requirement because there's so many HDTV's out there in use that only have component. So, they shove this down our throat whenever than can, but back away when it may affect sales too badly.

 

[ccg3]

HDCP and DRM are coming soon, my best estminate the end of the year.

 

[Houston]

Cochise,

Thanks for your very informative reply ! :up

Have a good Day !