What Kind of HD Inputs Does Your TV Have?

[Jeremy Charette]

All indications are that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will only support HD output (720p and/or 1080i) through HDMI/HDCP connections. Output through component video connections will be downsampled to 480p. I'd like to get an idea of how many of our readers will even be able to view these upcoming formats in all their glory. So here's my question: what is the best video connection you have on your current TV?

[watson81]

To be honest, I'm not sure if my TV (Sony KV-30HS420) is HDCP compliant or not. There seems to be conflicting information. I know it has an HDMI input. However, most places list just HDMI and say nothing about HDCP either way. On the net, a (personal) review I found said it didn't have HDCP. I can only find one Sony document that even mentions HDCP in connection with it; fortunately it says it does have it. Anybody know for sure?

[Jeremy Charette]

According to this review, it's not. Although quite a few spec. pages I've seen say it is. I have to go with the reviewer below though.

http://www.epinions.com/content_185094213252

"I decided to hook up the DVR with the HDMI input. I bought a cable from WalMart for $43 and hooked it up. As the DVR was communicating with the TV, I got a message stating the TV was not HDCP compliant. Apparently, HDCP is an anti-copy protection protocol. I called the cable company, and they said there's nothing they can do on their end, it's the TV. Upon checking the Sony site, I discovered some of their TVs are HDCP compliant, and some not. I noticed the ones with the built in HD tuners supported it, and the HD monitors did not. I wonder why they have the connection, if you can't use it?"

[Jeremy Charette]

So far, 64% of us are screwed as far as HD-DVD/Blu-Ray goes. The other 36% have a 50/50 shot at their HDTV working with an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.

What is the industry thinking?

[Felix Torres]

So far, 64% of us are screwed as far as HD-DVD/Blu-Ray goes. The other 36% have a 50/50 shot at their HDTV working with an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.

What is the industry thinking?

They're *not* thinking.

Now, with BluRay its understandable; Sony does this all the time and end up shooting themselves in the foot every time (witness their latest folly: the ebook reader where all legally purchased books expire after a few weeks).
But Toshiba and NEC *used* to have better track records...

Oh well, if Blue laser systems won't work, maybe WMV HD or DiVX HD on red laser will take off.

[Jeremy Charette]

I doubt it. Neither is being supported by the major studios without some form of DRM and Content Protection. DRM requires an internet connection and the ability to verify the DRM encoding (in other words, they'll only play on a PC).

This whole mess is just unbelievable. My prediction: someone (or some company) creates a DVI-HDCP or HDMI/HDCP compatible convertor box that outputs a regular HD Component Video signal. Then, the movie industry, the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray consortiums, and whoever else has some stake sues that company. All hell breaks loose.

[Kursplat]

Sony just announced that they are sick of all the griping over HD vs Blue-Ray so they are dropping Blue-Ray and will instead start shipping movies on an existing "standard": massive Memory Sticks. 8O

[dazla]

All hell breaking loose may just be around the corner :lol: ;

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000230050640/

[Jeremy Charette]

Honestly, I'd rather pay $700 to convert an HDMI/DVI HDCP signal to HD Component, than pay for a whole new TV. Screw the consortiums that assume I'm a criminal, just because I won't drop a few grand on the latest and greatest TV, with the latest and greatest copy protection built-in. :?

[Jeremy Charette]

Ok, so HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't even out yet, and HDCP has already been compromised. Not surprisingly, "they (http://www.aacsla.com/founders/default.htm)" have already come up with a new scheme: AACS.

http://www.aacsla.com/what/default.htm

[[email protected]]

I thought that HDMI never comes without HDCP, but that DVI does.

[David Horn]

Best my TV has is SCART, but that's a European thing. I think it's the equivalent of RGB composite.

[Jeremy Charette]

HDMI and HDCP are licensed by separate groups (http://www.hdmi.org/consumer/faq.asp#about_hdmi), and therefore just because you have HDMI does not necessarily mean you have HDCP, as some TV buyers have found out (http://www.epinions.com/content_185094213252).

[Jonathon Watkins]

Best my TV has is SCART, but that's a European thing. I think it's the equivalent of RGB composite.

Yup. SCART here as well.

[dazla]

It's interesting to note that UK broadcaster Sky originally specified HDCP as a requirement for their new HD service (to be launched in 2006) but are now saying their first gen PVR/decoder will have component outputs. I suspect some market research has pointed out that a lot of early adopters with plasma/lcd tv's paid top dollar for pre HDCP sets. These same early adopters are the target consumers for their service, so why cut them out of the equation. I think this is an (unusual) sensible move by sky, and the blu ray / hd dvd consortiums should take note.

Will consumers who have waited for lcd/plasma prices to drop (and now accidentally have hdcp) rush out and buy expensive first gen hd dvd / blu ray players (probably not)?

Will vast numbers of existing non hdcp plasma/lcd owners dump their existing sets and get a slightely cheaper hdcp tv and a very expensive hd dvd / blu ray player (also probably not)?

So how are these new formats going to take off? Not very well in my opinion.

Dazla

[Jeremy Charette]

I live in New York City, and here, Time Warner does not require its' users to have HDCP. I've had both their HD converter box and the HD-DVR box, and both have non-HDCP component video outputs, at up to full 1080i.

Something tells me they would rather have the customers than the assurance that pirates can't rip them off.

[Felix Torres]

Out of curiosity: *IS* there any readily available DVD recorder with DVI or HDMI *inputs*?
I haven't been seriously looking--I have no use for one, for starters--but I haven't even seen one with component inputs...

We all know the MPAA and the networks et al are paranoid about hd content piracy, but do they even have a valid reason to fret yet? Or is it all just paranoid delusions?

Cause some of the stuff they're cooking into BD-Rom is so draconian its got me thinking they're cooking up another DAT disaster...

[dazla]

AFAIK there is nothing on the market that will record via HDCP or component input. That's not to say that several years down the line there won't be, but all this protection at the moment is paranoia on the part of studios and the manufacturers that are trying to please them.

The danger is that by restricting the formats too much (and remember, a manufacturers HDCP chipset has the ability to have it's licence revoked via blacklists either broadcast on a service that outputs on that interface or via blacklists included on media used in the hd dvd / blu ray player).

Joe Consumer isn't going to be very pleased that his brand new expensive plasma suddenly doesn't display hd because the hdcp chipset in his box has been used in some dodgy hdcp to component converter box and blacklisted by the studios.

Whatever restrictions are put in place there will eventually be ways around them. But make your technology too restrictive for your customers and no one will want it.

Dazla

[Jason Dunn]

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out - consumers might buy a new $100 DVD player every few years, and a good chunk might drop $300 on a HD-DVD player, but a new TV? Those are replaced in most homes every 5-10 years, and right now we're in the swing of a big replacement cycle - and most do NOT have HDCP. If HDCP is what is required before we see the content providers get behind high-def DVDs, it will take another decade before there's a big enough consumer base.

What a massive screw-up this is becoming! 8O

[Jeremy Charette]

Out of curiosity: *IS* there any readily available DVD recorder with DVI or HDMI *inputs*?
I haven't been seriously looking--I have no use for one, for starters--but I haven't even seen one with component inputs...

We all know the MPAA and the networks et al are paranoid about hd content piracy, but do they even have a valid reason to fret yet? Or is it all just paranoid delusions?

Cause some of the stuff they're cooking into BD-Rom is so draconian its got me thinking they're cooking up another DAT disaster...

Philips makes a DVD recorder with Progressive Scan Component Video Inputs. I used to own it. However the studios need not worry, as it's about as reliable as a Yugo! :roll:

[craigf]

It's funny that this is shocking to some people. DRM is the essence of the content industry's screw-the-customer mentality, so the fact that the customer (us) is getting screwed in yet another way (your 1-year-old $6,000 TV needs to be replaced) shouldn't be all that surprising. The fact that our elected officials help this happen is really what should be inciting the torch-and-pitchfork-toting mobs to emerge.

Given that I watch most stuff in compressed formats anyway (off DVR/TiVo or in XviD), I know for a fact that *this* early adopter won't be falling over himself to go get a new HDMI-compliant TV the moment HiDef DVDs come out. I think HiDef DVDs will only serve to further stratify an already increasingly stratified home theater market. The top 1% of households by income might make a compelling marketing strategy for the maker of a high-end TV or DVD player, but the studios certainly won't be satisfied with selling only 2,000 HiDef DVDs of "American Pie 7".