Component HD! Old PS3 or ???

[Arkaign]

Hi AT AV guys!

I have an extra HDTV, an older Sony XBR 57", that has component HD, supports 720p/1080i, and really a pretty good picture and great sound for what it is. I'd like to hook it up with a BluRay player, but recently I've heard that component HD outputs are starting to disappear from newer set-top players, and that even the ones that do are getting the outputs nerfed to 480p by newer firmware.

Anyone have an old PS3 with component out, does the current firmware still allow 720p/1080i BluRay playback?

And, bonus points, what about DVD upscaling?

I'm planning on replacing this TV at some point, but 57" is still an expensive size to replicate. 42" and 46" LEDs are pretty cheap, but going up from there gets expensive in a hurry.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I'd like to hook it up with a BluRay player, but recently I've heard that component HD outputs are starting to disappear from newer set-top players, and that even the ones that do are getting the outputs nerfed to 480p by newer firmware.

The problem isn't with the firmware, the problem is with the copy protection which requires and always has required that all Blu-Ray players downsample analogue outputs if the disc requests it. This is implemented through what's called the Image Constriant Token (ICT). While in the the past Blu-Ray discs haven't requested this, apparently discs are now starting to set that flag.

Apparently Blu-Ray players aren't allowed to include HD analogue outputs at all anymore, but this isn't a firmware issue and wouldn't affect any existing players.

As for DVD upscaling on analogue outputs apparently that's always been disallowed with copy protected discs. In effect they always have the ICT set. In practice it shouldn't matter much, if your DVD player doesn't upscale your TV should instead.

 

[NutBucket]

I never understood the rationale behind preventing upscaled analog output for standard DVDs. Am I missing something obvious?

 

[lamedude]

Same reason we can't have HD audio over S/PDIF, it lacks copy protection.
Last of the Mohicans might have ICT (don't think it was ever confirmed) but AFAIK no other titles use it.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I never understood the rationale behind preventing upscaled analog output for standard DVDs. Am I missing something obvious?

None of these attempts to cover the analogue hole make sense anymore. Even HDCP doesn't do anything useful anymore to prevent illegal copying and not because it's been completely cracked. If you want to illegally copy a DVD or Blu-Ray, or just watch them at full resolution on a component-only HDTV, you can just rip them complete with menus. There's no point in plugging other holes when there's a bigger and much more convienent hole in the copy protection scheme for pirates to use.

Same reason we can't have HD audio over S/PDIF, it lacks copy protection.

Actualy SPDIF has an ineffective form of copy protection, but then so does HDMI. The real problem is that SPDIF just doesn't have the bandwith for any of the HD audio encodings.

 

[lamedude]

If S/PDIF can handle 24bit 192Khz stereo (9.2Mbps) that I'm outputting to my AVR right now it can handle 24 bit 48Khz 7.1 (same bitrate).
Reading up on S/DIF's copy protection not hard to believe they wanted move to something more secure.

 

[Ross Ridge]

If S/PDIF can handle 24bit 192Khz stereo (9.2Mbps) that I'm outputting to my AVR right now it can handle 24 bit 48Khz 7.1 (same bitrate).

In theory SPDIF can support any bitrate both ends are capable of, but in practice most devices are limitted to much less than 9.2 Mbps. That's why Dolby Digital and DTS use much lower bit rates.

Reading up on S/DIF's copy protection not hard to believe they wanted move to something more secure.

Too bad they didn't get it.

While it may not be quite "HD audio", AACS would allow a Blu-Ray player to send 16-bit 48 kHz 7.1 channel audio through SPDIF. That would be a big a improvement over Dolby Digital or DTS, but since nothing actually does this, and nothing actually prevents this, it doesn't seem to be a copy protection issue.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Same reason we can't have HD audio over S/PDIF, it lacks copy protection.
Last of the Mohicans might have ICT (don't think it was ever confirmed) but AFAIK no other titles use it.

Does S/PDIF have sufficient bandwidth capabilities for, say, lossless audio transport?