HBO has apparently started enforcing HDCP so if you have an HDTV connected by HDMI, it needs to support HDCP. I doubt Dish would do this on their own as it means pissing off customers. HBO is undoubtable forcing the issue. I believe HDCP has been used for some time on pay per view and some on-demand content.
If you are connecting via DVI, you are out of luck as DVI does not normally support HDCP.
As I understand it, any connection other than HDMI/HDCP is supposed to fall back to SD rates. I believe analog component connections are included in this.
There is a bug in the Dish receivers that prevent viewing on SD outputs (NTSC, S-Video and RF) if a device is connected to HDMI but powered down. This situation causes the SD outputs to display the error message. A friend reported this problem a week or two ago on HBO channels but he wasn't specific about which one(s). It's even a problem on TV 2 outputs which should have nothing to do with TV1 HDCP handshake!
You must have your HDMI TV turned on or the HDMI connection unplugged from the TV for the other outputs to produce video. Apparently, HDMI powers enough of the interface in the TV to know it's present but not that the TV is actually off.
I read somewhere that Dish will be releasing a fix for the problem on TV2 outputs. No guarantee it'll work for Solo mode or Solo receivers.
It's only a matter of time before other services start insisting on HDCP. We have two options: replace our non-HDCP TVs or make enough noise that the content providers give up on HDCP. Dish, premium content providers and congress should all hear from anyone being prevented from viewing content they are paying for.
