cheap hd-dvd

caff

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/12/27/cyberlink_purevideo_ultra/

so you get a xbox hd drive 200
and cyberlink ultra 100

and then you can play hd-dvds on your pc

.. is this good value?

aphex™

It won't output over VGA. You need a HDMI port on your graphics card connected to your monitor.

As far as I'm aware.

caff

Films at the moment havent implemented HDCP (the need for hdmi ), otherwise the xbox360 wouldn't play anything ( it has no HDMI at all )

So it will work over vga for the moment, lot of the newer cards have HDMI now anyway, just be a while till it gets rolled out to everything

8T8

You need a very good PC to do the decoding as Cyberlinks and Intervideo's players are terrible performers.

In short a dual core CPU and a GPU minimum of a 7600GT/X1600 or higher for GPU assisted decoding if you want things to run smoothly.

VGA = no HDCP required.
DVI or HDMI = HDCP GPU & display required.

Also judging from some of the posts on the AVS Forums the Cyberlink player is very buggy & has issues with running over VGA I'd wait till the next update to see if they start fixing bugs.

caff

8T8 wrote:

DVI or HDMI = HDCP GPU & display required.

but you only need HDCP if it is enabled on the media no?

8T8

No on the PC they refuse to allow playback over DVI unless HDCP is supported.

The media can contain what's called the ICT (Image constraint token) whereby if it detects it is running over a non-HDCP display it will lower the resolution of the output to something slightly better than a regular DVD.

At the moment the studios have not implemented the ICT in discs which is why you get full resolution over VGA or component but on the PC playback over a digital connection is only permitted with HDCP (that actually goes for everything players, consoles etc).

RuggieBear

Is it possible to break this HDCP bull****?

If i get a dvi gfx card will that work or will i need to get a hdmi output?

caff

ah okay, I thought the downgrading was linked only to the ICT which they have delayed rolling out. Hmm still though means that over vga the xbox hd would work, although.. not much contect at the moment so no real point but interesting to see if in a few months with content out will there be more players released at the same price to compete

caff

RuggieBear wrote:

Is it possible to break this HDCP bull****?

If i get a dvi gfx card will that work or will i need to get a hdmi output?

In a number of coutries without laws against this kind of thing there are devices available, mostly consisting of filters that strip out bit bits you want from the bits you dont want.... but probably bad to post up too much here. Just flick around google a while.

8T8

Those HDCP stippers as far as I heard no longer work with the rev 1.3 standard of HDMI.

Also I'm sure you have seen the news of the AACS protection being "cracked" but it hasn't really only slightly worked around (as the video was still encrypted) and the key revocation feature will no doubt be deployed with a software update to the Cyberlink player and future titles to close the door again.

The key revocation feature being more intended for this sort of scenario as they suspected a PC software player would be the weak link so they will update the software player and probably do a better job of hiding the keys in memory and future titles will have the compromised software players key on a blacklist so they will not play unless you update the player.

unklerosco

Does this mean the Xbox Hd player will be rendered useless when this HDCP comes into full effect???

8T8

unklerosco wrote:

Does this mean the Xbox Hd player will be rendered useless when this HDCP comes into full effect???

No because the Xbox 360 cannot plug into a digital connection, it's A/V output chips and multi-A/V connector are analogue only. A new revision of the Xbox 360 will be required for HDMI {+HDCP} support but the older analogue kind will continue to play discs at full resolution.

Microsoft knows the Xbox 360 does not support HDCP or HDMI for that matter as the system was never conceived with it in mind. But certain forces lobbied the movie industry & HD media forum not to invoke the ICT over analogue connections till 2012 or somewhere around then (I forget the exact date).

Anyway the ICT is still at the studios discretion so they can use it if they want but it is no longer mandated as standard practice. It seems unlikely ICT will ever be used given the bad rep it will generate among consumers and the backlash it would provoke.

unklerosco

Cheers for that.. I had wondered. Now all i need to do i replace my plasma with a new HD one.... Must do the lotto tonight ;-)