Some info while investigating PC to DVI

[RichG13]

Hi,

New to this forum but have been looking at the 48 inch I'Art Pro for quite a while now. It seems to offer the best bang for the buck.

I emailed Digital Content Protection, LLC about my concerns of having to use multiple hardware devices in my entertainment center when a single PC could eliminate half of them using DVI.

Here is a responce from the president of DCP:


Rich,

Thank you for your question. The short answer is that there are no prohibitions against companies building PC add-in cards that support HDCP. However, I am not aware of any add-in cards currently available that support HDCP. You may wish to check back on the list of HDCP licensees, available from the http://www.digital-cp.com website, to see if any manufacturers of PC add-in cards decide to license HDCP in the future.

A more complete answer to your question has to do with connecting a TV and a PC, using HDCP over a DVI 1.0 link. With HDCP, there is the concept of a "source" and a "sink." Content is sent from the source to the sink. If HDCP is to be used to encrypt content, both the source and the sink need to support HDCP.

If your HDTV is the source and your PC is the sink, meaning you want to output content from your HDTV to your PC over DVI 1.0 using HDCP, then two things would have to be in place. One, the HDTV would have to be constructed as an HDCP source device. Note that many manufacturers choose to design TVs to be HDCP sink devices only, and not to re-transmit content that has been encrypted with HDCP to other devices. Two, your PC would have to support HDCP. Note that if you wanted to again re-transmit content that has been encrypted with HDCP to your PC monitor, your PC would have to also be an HDCP source device and your PC monitor would have to support HDCP.

If your PC is the source and your HDTV is the sink, meaning you want to output HDCP-protected content from your PC to your HDTV (that already supports HDCP), you need a PC add-in card that supports HDCP. Your PC may also need some additional software that supports HDCP.

Even though none of this is prohibited, it may take some time before manufacturers build all these devices that are able to "talk HDCP" over DVI and interoperate in this manner.

Please understand that, after all that, if the content is not protected and does not require the use of HDCP, then this ability to "talk HDCP" may not be necessary. I am aware that there are currently available PC monitors that support a DVI connection to a PC, and do not support HDCP, without breaking any rules The benefit to a device (such as a TV or PC monitor) that supports HDCP is that it should allow you to receive and display high-resolution digital content that has been protected.

For the latest news on DVI, you may want to try http://www.ddwg.org/.

Please let us know if you have additional questions or concerns.



Regards,

Lelia Barlow
President, Digital Content Protection, LLC
5440 S.W. Westgate Dr.
Suite 217
Portland, OR 97221
Fax: 503-297-1090

[garygrun]

Doesn't ATI make cards with DVI-I output such as 9500pro? Also doesn't JVC support DVI-I I/O?
That's my thinking.

[RichG13]

Yes, It is my understanding that the DVI-D on the JVC I'Art can be used with a video card/PC.

The email was a response to a message I sent while I was try get more info. At first I was under the impression that DVI with HDCP would NOT work unless the source used HDCP. This is what the JVC user manual led me to believe.

From reading these forums and the President's email response I learned that this was not true.

I hope to have everything setup and configured by next week and this web site has been a big help.

[kidslice]

One thing you have to make sure is that the PC card supports video formats (SDTV, EDTV, HDTV) and not just computer fomats (VGA, XVGA, ETC). TVs that do not support computer formats may not work properly, if at all, with your PC.

I have an ATI 7500 All-In-Wonder with DVI and it only supports one format that is compatible with my JVC iArt.

As far as HDCP on a PC, there is no need. The JVC (actually all HDCP enabled sink devices) only enables HDCP when the source device enables HDCP.

[garygrun]

Which one format? HDTV?
So can you tell me if I used a ATI 9500pro128 card with DVI out to the DVI in of my JVC Iart 36P902 hdtv will it display in 1020i or 1020p or...

[57U]

The JVC TV will display 1080i if it is fed a 1080i signal. (Only the $10k Toshiba LCoS TV does 1080P (upconverted))

I looked at a lot of spec pages for this JVC TV and it doesn't seem to have any upconversion capability. Weird specs. None of them even indicated a format other than 1080i, although I'd assume it does 480i and 480P (It says it does progressive scan, but doesn't say the scanning format...)

[kidslice]

The JVC only worked with 640x480p over the DVI link. The problem with the card is overscan. For some reason PC card manufacturers do not have a good grip on overscan. So I lost all of the edges of my video. A real pain in the neck