HDCP over DVI

[flxnimprtmscl]

1) I've been looking at upgrading to Blu Ray and while I was googling about tonight I stumbled upon something. Apparently, my TV several year old TV (Samsung HLN467WX DLP) is HDCP compliant through the tv's DVI port. Does this mean that a stand alone Blu Ray player, PS3, etc, would output full HD with a HDMI to DVI adapter?

2) Between a PS3 or a Blu Ray drive for my HTPC, what's my best option for Blu Ray playback and audio? A few things to keep in mind here; I probably won't game at all on a PS3, I want to be able to back up all my BR discs for easy access on my HTPC, and my A/V receiver does not support HDMI.

3) How well will Blu Ray downscale to 720p, my tv's native res. Would one type of player (PS3 or Blu Ray drive) do a better job at this than the other?

4) Since I want to be able to back up all my movies, are there any good programs for Blu Ray compression?

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl
1) I've been looking at upgrading to Blu Ray and while I was googling about tonight I stumbled upon something. Apparently, my TV several year old TV (Samsung HLN467WX DLP) is HDCP compliant through the tv's DVI port. Does this mean that a stand alone Blu Ray player, PS3, etc, would output full HD with a HDMI to DVI adapter?

That's the theory. It ought to work, but I have heard of some people having issues with DVI-HDCP when coming from an HDMI output. YMMV.

2) Between a PS3 or a Blu Ray drive for my HTPC, what's my best option for Blu Ray playback and audio? A few things to keep in mind here; I probably won't game at all on a PS3, I want to be able to back up all my BR discs for easy access on my HTPC, and my A/V receiver does not support HDMI.

If your receiver doesn't support HDMI, it probably doesn't make any difference.

3) How well will Blu Ray downscale to 720p, my tv's native res. Would one type of player (PS3 or Blu Ray drive) do a better job at this than the other?

The PS3 can only output BR-Ds at 480p, 1080i, and 1080p. Given that, I would think your computer would be the better bet.

4) Since I want to be able to back up all my movies, are there any good programs for Blu Ray compression?

Define "back up" - because it doesn't really sound like you're trying to make a back up copy of the disc.

 

[BassBomb]

Going on what erwos said, your computer will have to be a decent one in order to do BluRay without lag.

For Audio you can use Optical Out from a PS3
From a computer it might be better to use 6CH or SPDIF/Optical

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

1) From what I've read there was a firmware update way back in 06 that allowed the PS3 to output all SD and HD resolutions for both Blu Ray and games.

2) By back up I mean I want to be able to rip (and hopefully slightly compress) all the discs I buy to my HTPC's hard drive so I can have them all available for viewing on my HTPC.

3) The machine I'll be running this on has an Intel Core 2 6320 @2.94, 2 gigs of ram, and I'll be picking up an 8600gt for the video card.

 

[Shawn]

If you already have a HTPC it'll be cheaper to just buy an internal Blu-ray drive. That said, getting everything to work correctly is a hassle. Everything must be HDCP compliant, and even then you can run into problems. Are you running Vista? If not don't bother going the HTPC route. Also avoid PowerDVD. It's a POS. Go for WinDVD instead.

BTW, Even if you are running Vista and the HDCP works correctly you will still need to get AnyDVD HD in order to bypass the copy protection so that you can back up the movies.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Shawn
If you already have a HTPC it'll be cheaper to just buy an internal Blu-ray drive. That said, getting everything to work correctly is a hassle. Everything must be HDCP compliant, and even then you can run into problems. Are you running Vista? If not don't bother going the HTPC route. Also avoid PowerDVD. It's a POS. Go for WinDVD instead.

BTW, Even if you are running Vista and the HDCP works correctly you will still need to get AnyDVD HD in order to bypass the copy protection so that you can back up the movies.

I'm running XP Pro, and I already have AnyDVD since I've backed up all my SD Dvds onto my HTPC. I've read that AnyDVD strips out/bypasses HDCP in real time so I'm not really worried about hdcp compliance if I go the PC based route.

 

[Shawn]

Well I think AnyDVD HD is an upgrade over the standard version. Also, Blu-rays are a little different because some of them have also have BD+ protection. You probably won't be able to watch those movies when the first come out. You will have to wait for an AnyDVD update for each title. I think all Fox titles have BD+ now.

If you had Vista and everything else was HDCP compliant you could watch all Blu-rays including those with BD+ without needing AnyDVD.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Shawn
Well I think AnyDVD HD is an upgrade over the standard version. Also, Blu-rays are a little different because some of them have also have BD+ protection. You probably won't be able to watch those movies when the first come out. You will have to wait for an AnyDVD update for each title. I think all Fox titles have BD+ now.

If you had Vista and everything else was HDCP compliant you could watch all Blu-rays including those with BD+ without needing AnyDVD.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the version of AnyDvd I have has BR and HD-DVD support.

And yes, if everything was HDCP compliant down the line I'd been fine. However, that means a new OS, new MB (right?), new vid card, and possibly a new TV if my current one doesn't support HDCP correctly. While I do make decent money I'm still a student too and I try not to blow too much money if I don't have to 😛

 

[Shawn]

You wouldn't need a new mobo. Also didn't you say you were getting a new video card anyway? Just get one that says HDCP Compliant. Personally I'd get a Radeon HD, because it supports hardware decoding of Blu-ray/HD DVD codecs.

I personally was looking into getting this card for my HTPC.