HTPC HDCP, HDMI, Have I screwed up the graphics card choice?

I'm trying to put a HTPC together (the first effort at PC building for a few years) and I'm a bit worried I screwed up with the graphics card. I've got a blu-ray drive and bought what looked like a sensible passive card: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD4670-512MB-Ultimate-Graphics/dp/B001PA6WEM/ to upgrade the 3450 I had in the box I'm using, so I could manage a little light gaming as well. The TV is an LG 32LH3000 with VGA and HMDI input so I thought I might as well upgrade to a card with a native HDMI out.

Alas I hook it up at it appears that the card isn't HDCP compliant so I think I need to return to the 3450 which is (though no native HDMI) and I'm left wondering what the hell a HDMI is for if you have to find a VGA cable to play a movie?

or am I not up to speed on this HTPC lark yet?

 

Really?

I thought that card was.
Sorry to ask the obvious, but have you uninstalled and installed latest drivers?

 

lt on 9.12 I could strip them out and try again later. I 'm a bid concerned as now I look I can't find HDCP anywhere on the spec.

 

The TV is what HDCP is all about. You can't just plug it in and hey presto. Or at least that's not what I thought. In your control panel options there should be a setting for output to an HD TV.

Excuse my ignorance here, but how do you know/what is telling you the tv is not HDCP compliant? Is the signal getting passed through to the TV and then as soon as you play a blu ray dvd, it doesn't work? If that's the case, download a free trial of anydvd, run that while you play the dvd. That will remove the hdcp bit while the dvd plays. If it works, then you know it's to do with hdcp. Otherwise, it's something else. The only time I ever tried connecting my pc to my tv was with dvi. I ended up having to create a custom profile, refresh rate, resolution etc.

 

The Amazon reviews talk about Blu-Ray playback, so I'm guessing it's HDCP compliant. What make/model is your TV, if you don't mind us asking?

 

He doesn't mind you asking at all

 

Right, there's me not being awake.

Apparently, according to the specs here, only 2 of the HDMI ports are HDCP compliant. Try a different HDMI port - specifically, the rear ones are HDCP compliant, but the side one isn't.

 

I haven't taken the box downstairs yet. I was trying to play with the monitor which is a NEC LCD22WMGX with VGA, DVI, HDMI et al.

The drive came with the cyberlink software which I updated to latest and it said I wasn't HDCP compliant,a and pointed me at the BD advisor which noted the same. Futhermore my card appears here on Sapphire's site http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=205 but while it does claim you can watch Blurays, it doesn't mention HDCP like the (cheaper older) card http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=167

 

I don't think your monitor is HDCP compliant, hence the problem.

The card, however, is HDCP compliant, according to this. There's more like it, too.

 

Yeah I reckon it's unlikely that the monitor will be HDCP compliant; that's your problem as (obviously) both the player and the VDU must be compliant. Said monitor doesn't appear in this list.

 

According to the Datasheet on NEC's site, it is HDCP Compliant. At least it lists HDMI and DVI-D (with HDCP), as supported inputs.

http://www.nec-display-solutions.co...atasheet_AccuSyncLCD22WMGX-english.pdf&e=e3s1

 

The DVI-D is the only HDCP-compliant input, so running through the HDMI probably won't manage it. Weird, considering they're electrically identical, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Why don't you try the machine on your TV, and come back to us with the situation then?

 

Ahh, well there you go I just assumed if it had an HDMI socket, it was HDCP complaint. A bit uneducated in the whole HD affair tbh.

But yes, as he says, troubleshoot the equipment that you intend to use, or you could be trying to solve a problem that is irrelevant.

 

Worked fine with the TV over HDMI. Picture quality is awful for windows , though.

Is this a cable quality thing or is HDMI no good for PC Display?

 

If you've connected them over HDMI, it shouldn't be bad at all. What do you mean by awful? Is it blurry, tinted, misshapen - what?

Anyway, no, HDMI/DVI is the best way for PC output to connect to a TV.

 

Try changing the resolution to 1360x768 or 1280x720. The TV's marked as "HD Ready" which leads me to believe it's an upscaling 720p set. My Phillips does the same.

 

Also make sure it's not already set to 1360 instead of 1366, that could cause nasty image quality.

 

Update:

I finally have a chance to sit down and watch a film on BluRay and it's now decided that the hardware isn't supported after all. It's the same disc with the same hardware and the same cable connections but before it started up playing the trailers and now it prompts me to download BD advisor which will no doubt tell me that the card isn't supported.

This is seriously annoying.

 

Update 2. Connecting via a DVI to HDMI cable allows playback. Sounc now back to mainboard audio.
Stilll don't know why it stopped liking HDMI, but at least I have something working and I think the PC display (at 1920x1080) is a bit better if not great.

This is a cheapo cable again. still wondering if anyone has seen inprovements with better cabling.

 

HDMI not working is, as above, because DVI is the 'card's only HDCP-compliant output. It may be that trailers are not HDCP-encrypted.

Cables shouldn't make one iota of difference with digital signals. I wouldn't pay for more than 'decent' cables; that gold-plated deoxygenised triple-wrapped stuff is ludicrously pointless.