Is DVI/HDCP a critical feature now? (1 Viewer)

[Brent Joye]

Will this offer some future protection or not? Are there any other uses for it? Can you use the DVI input to treat your TV like a flat screen computer monitor?

 

[Brent Joye]

A sales guy told me today that Mitsubishi was banking on Firewire, while some others like JVC were banking on DVI/HDCP for future copy protection stuff. Does anyone have some insight into all this?

 

[Dean McManis]

There are three different digital encryption standards out now. None are compatible with the existing RGB and Y PbPr connections, and they are not compatible with each other.
I'm not sure, but I don't think that the DVI connection is compatible with computer DVI output to DVI/HDCP displays, but I'm sure that computer DVI connection without the HDCP encryption will not work for playback.
It still looks like a connection format war brewing (VHS/Beta anyone), and so I'm not jumping on the DVI/HDCP bandwagon until/unless some cross-compatibity is created.
Only time will tell if one, or any of these encryption formats is accepted as the ONE digital standard.
-Dean.

 

[yekai]

The important improvement of DVI is to support non-compression digital data up to UXGA.
Fireware or IEEE1394 is only 400MBPS. It is to slow to transfer HDTV.

Now, people in consumer electronics are interested in HDMI/DMI/DVI-CE. This maybe becomes standatd interface of HDTV in the future.
It not only carries digital video data, but also up to 8channel digital audio.

 

[yekai]

I think that DVI/DMI is a good thing to people.

So, just stop HDCP, don't stop DVI/DMI

 

[Brent Joye]

Dean,
Thanks, what are the other standards besides DVI/HDCP? Firewire? The DVI/DMI thing yekai is talking about?

 

[yekai]

The website about HDMI is still under construction.
http://www.hdmi.com

 

[Brent Joye]

I just got my Home Theater magazine today and it talks about the DVI/HDCP and DVI/HDMI stuff. It sounded like the HDMI would be a more comprehensive interface that would INCLUDE HDCP? So do I need to wait for sets with the HDMI or is it OK as long as you get one with DVI? And what about the announcement that Tosh and Sony will put DVI on their next sets this fall, will that be HDCP or HDMI? Anyone know?

 

[Dean McManis]

Brent,

Probably to two biggest competitors are DVI/HDCP, and 5C/Firewire, but there is also DVI/DTCP. If HDMI is HDCP compliant then I wouldn't consider it a separate encryption technology, but conversely if someone big like DirectTV or a few of the larger electronics manufacturers adopt HDMI and include features or restrictions not supported by the base HDCP encryption, it could cause trouble. DTCP may be swallowed up and also included as a subset of HDCP, but there is also DFAST, which is what the cable companies were banking on, and when they finally get off their butts and support DTV (not their "digital" cable, which is really just a mask for packing in more compressed channels).

The problem is that without one uniform encryption standard, or a "Rosetta Stone" universal translator, the only real DTV connection standards are RGB and Y PbPr so far.

-Dean.