New Details on True HDCP Support on PC Video Cards

By | February 16th, 2006 comments icon (7) Comments


ati radeon x1900 crossfireLast week FiringSquad reported that video cards by both ATI and NVIDIA that claim HDCP support did not provide the full access control system keys to allow for the playback of next-gen, high-definition movie discs (i.e. HD-DVD, Blu-ray). And today we learn the reason why: AACS’ access control scheme has not been finalized; and on top of that, there is no way to update current video cards’ firmware with the “technical specifications” necessary, so says ATI PR Manager, John Swinimer, to Ars Technica. The good news, is that once all of AACS’ specifications have been completely ironed out, all future HDCP labeled video cards released will truly be 100% HDCP compliant.

Now for the not so bright side of HDCP and what it means to consumers today. Personally, I like how Ken “Caesar” Fisher at Ars Technica puts it:

A future so bright, you’ll have to wear HDCP-complaint shades

We’re in the midst of a a top-down, all-points-covered attempt to lock down every part of the HD viewing experience. In a nutshell, the content industry wants to see video encrypted end-to-end and passed only among approved devices that obey content access rules defined by the industry. This is not limited to the PC. Our in-depth primer on CableCARD revealed that the lock-down will also come to include the video streams from cable providers, too. In both cases, we see a disturbing trend: not only is the technology all about locking down the content, but the implementation is becoming locked down as well. For example, while CableCARD has been heralded as the great breakthrough that will allow for Home Theatre PC nirvana, the fact that CableLabs has to certify entire machine designs means that the do-it-yourself market is likely out of luck.

I suspect that the content industry may be in for a big, nasty surprise when all of this truly hits the public in the face. Never before has the rollout of the “next big thing” been so encumbered with built-in obsolescence, user-unfriendliness, and hypocrisy. Groans the world over will be heard when early adopters learn that their TVs won’t play Blu-ray movies. Folks who bought computers recently will be disappointed when they learn that their hard-earned money couldn’t buy them end-to-end support for HD content playback.

Our take: Buyer beware! Well, at least until things settle down and HD-DVD and Blu-ray compatible devices start hitting the market.

UPDATE: CNET News just post an article entitle, “New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion,” that you definitely checkout.





Filed in: Industry Buzz

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    FYI, HDCP support in general has nothing to do with AACS. Whether AACS will define additional properties that need to be in the silicon I don’t know (however, I very much doubt that there are additional properties).

    At this point for the standalone player market, the silicon is done, 99% of the changes will be done in software. Sigma has chips (shipped), Broadcom has chips (shipping now), and they are not going to be producing “new” chips when AACS is finalized, they will tweak the software/firmware to allow for the slight changes in AACS (which can be done in this case). Sigma’s chip is used in Pioneer BD Player, and Broadcom’s is used in Toshiba’s HD DVD Players. The Toshiba Players should ship next month (eg. the silicon is done!)

    I’m calling BS on ATI for this, HDCP has been sitting infront of them for a long while now.

    Intel started developing HDCP almost 5 years ago, and anyone in the industry already knew that next-gen media woul require it! Yet, as media is now going to require HDCP only a select card or two (Sony-based solutions, according to FiringSquad).

    Chris

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    It sounds like the chips you’re talking about are in Hi-Def DVD players only, not video cards. As far as what I’ve read, next-gen DVD players are designed to be updated with new firmware to circumvent any copy-protection hacks. I’m wondering if the first crop of HDCP labeled video cards have the same functionality.

    BTW, I hope you posted the above comment in the Ars Technica forums as well. I would love to see what those guys have to say regarding your statement since they seem better connected than I.

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    Correct, the chips I’m talking about as for standalone HD DVD/BD Players, however the same applies to video cards in the case of HDCP. Another interesting bit is that both ATI and NVIDIA are both listed as HDMI Adopters and HDCP Licensees, yet we don’t have products for retail with HDMI/HDCP!

    As for “new firmware”, I would assume you are rerferring to BD+/AACS ability to support Renewablity/Revocation/Renewal. Both BD+ and AACS have different methods for this, and HDCP has it’s own too. The lack of HDCP is not because of AACS, it’s seperate in all of this as far as I know.

    Edit: Sorry, back from snapping a few photos with my girlfriend and my EOS 350D :D. Let me explain the above a bit more.

    BD+ is supposed to be “independent” of AACS and acts as an additional layer of protection. The concept behind BD+ is that if a single player gets hacked, BD+ can effectively disable that sinlge hacked player. Whereas with just AACS, once a specific model player is hacked, the hack could (in theory) be applied to every player in the world of that specific model. That means that your mom’s player would be affected even though she has no idea what the hack is, how to do it, etc. AACS will deal with the revocation with it’s own methods, but does it to all players. BD+ is a VM (Virtual Machine) that runs on the player.

    HDCP compliant products participate in a “handshake/encryption” transaction without other HDCP compliant products. If the content you want to output says it needs HDCP, your player/receiver/display (anything in the playback chain) must support HDCP. This is really nothing new, HDCP is up to version 1.1. Just for the record, HDCP 0.80 was publised in Sept. ’99!. HDCP 1.0 was published in Feb. ’00. It’s now Feb. ’06. ATI/NVIDIA can’t give me a good why HDCP is not supported in there cards other than they just didn’t feel like they needed to even though they know exactly what was coming up. Depending on who you ask, all versions of HDMI support HDCP 1.1 (some people say this isn’t true, but it’s true for likely 99.99% of HDMI products).

    HDCP itself will likely be required by AACS to output full resolution, but it’s independent of AACS. Windows Vista will likely (very likely) do the software side of AACS. The cards from ATI/NVIDIA don’t need a thing that I know of from AACS, they will need it to write a full featured driver set, but not to make the card.

    As far as posting in on Ars Technica, I was going to until I say it was already posted by a very good source. :D

    Chris

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    Related to HDCP: New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion

    Related to Players: HD DVD and BD are a GO!

    Excerpt from CNET:

    Toshiba American Consumer Products on Thursday announced an ambitious marketing push in support of HD DVD but conceded that some of the high-definition optical disc format’s interactive features won’t be available in the two first-generation players slated to hit stores next month without a “firmware upgrade.”

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    iHD is going to work on those players without a firmware update.

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    ChrisL01 said: iHD is going to work on those players without a firmware update.

    Can you back up that claim? I would side with Toshiba on this one because they are the ones who are the markers of said players and the ones who announced publicily that they would not have interactive features in their two first-generation players without a firmware upgrade.

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    I would side with Toshiba too, good choice. I would bet someone will write up a story on it in the next few days. Roadshows with the product being demoed brings out more real information.