Copy protected HD DVD's and HDMI switchers

[Ken]

I recently bought a Toshiba HD-D2KU high def and up converting DVD player.  My Samsung DLP high def TV has only one DVI connection on it and I have plugged my Apple TV unit into that DVI connection via a HDMI--DVI cable.  So I could watch HD DVD's without having to swap cables between the DVD player and the Apple TV, I bought the Bellkin PureAV 3 to 1 HDMI switcher.  Much to my dismay, the copy protection scheme on the DVD's produce a blank screen after about five minutes.  Thinking that I may have had a bad switch, I bought another HMDI switcher, a Sima brand, and got the same result.  The Apple TV signal had no problem through the switch.  And, if I plug the Toshiba directly into the Samsung DVI connection, there's no problem. 

Other than buying a new TV with more than one DVI or HDMI connection or manually swapping cables,  is there any solution to this problem?  From reading other threads on this site and my google searches, I've run across the acronym "HDCP", which I presume means "High definition copy protection".  What does "HDCP compliant" mean?  Does this mean that an HDCP HDMI switcher will not invoke the copy protection scheme?  Are there HDMI switchers out there that will solve my problem?  Just what good is an HDMI switcher that won't pass through a signal from a copy protected HD DVD?  The Belkin and Sima switchers worked fine on my home produced non-encrypted DVD.  However, by far, the most use that I and most everyone else would have for the switch would be to watch commercially made DVD's, most of which would be copy protected. I called Belkin about this problem and they had no suggestions or answers for me.

I appreciate any help on this problem.

[Jonathan]

HDCP is indeed a copy protection format.  What it does is the HDCP compliant DVD player checks to make sure that the TV it is connected to is also HDCP compliant.  If it is then there are no problems.  But if for one reason or another it cannot recieve a proper HDCP signal back it will black out the screen on protected DVDs.  Just like you are seeing.  So there is going to be one of 2 causes for your problem.  Either the switches you are using is not HDCP compliant and therefore causing the DVD player to not be able to make it's copy protection check.   If that is the problem you just need to buy a switch that is fully HDCP compliant.

The second possibility is that your TV itself is not HDCP compliant.  If that's the case the only way to get around the problem, unfortunately, is to purchase a TV that conforms to this new standard.  Since we live in the US it's actually illegal to sell any device that gets around that copy protection.  So there's not anything you can do to get the DVD player to ignore the fact that it's not plugged into an HDCP TV. 

Unfortunately this often comes as very bad news to people, namely those who have older HDTVs that were built before the HDCP.

I hope this kinda clears up what HDCP is, or what the situation is.  If you have any further questions please let us know.

[Ken]

Jonathon,

As mentioned, if I plug the Toshiba directly into the DVI connection on the Samsung DLP High Def TV (i.e. not thru an HDMI switcher) the Toshiba DVD player has no problem with the copy protection producing a blank screen.  Does this mean the Samsung TV is HDCP compliant? According to your response, I would think so. 

However, when I plug the Toshiba into either the Belkin PureAV HDMI switcher or the Sima HDMI switcher, the copy protection kicks in and produces a blank screen after about 5 minutes.  Both the Belkin and the Sima HDMI switchers claim in their documentation to "work with HDCP compliant devices". Does this mean that both switches are NOT really HDCP compliant? Do I need to return both switchers and try another switcher?  Maybe there's some incompatibility of both switchers with the Toshiba?  Maybe "works with HDCP compliant devices" is not the same as your "fully compliant" description. I've thought about doing a firmware upgrade on the Toshiba but I'm skeptical that would solve the problem since the Toshiba Hi Def player works fine when not running it thru the switchers.

The website, CNet reviewed the Belkin switcher and tested it with another Toshiba model, the A2 high def DVD player, along with other high def DVD players and had no problems with the copy protection being invoked.  They gave it a 7.2 and recommended this switcher.

I don't understand what's going on here.  Any further thoughts?  Should I return the Toshiba and the switchers and start all over? It would seem the Samsung TV is not the problem.  Or perhaps there is an incompatibility problem of the TV with the switchers?

Thanks for your response and any help you can give me.

[Jonathan]

Since the DVD player works fine direct to the TV it is definitely going to be a problem with something between the player and the TV.  It could be that both switchers aren't as HDCP compliant as they claim to be, but i find this hard to believe.

It is possible that one of the cables you are using when using the switch is causing problems.  You may want to try each cable individually direct to the TV rather than through the switch to see if that has any problems.

Other than that I would talk to toshiba about it and see if this is a known incompatibility issue.  They may be able to help you figure out why it's having that problem.

I've never seen that sort of issue through a switch that says it is HDCP compliant, it could be caused by a lot of different things.

[mark]

HDCP is only indirectly copy protection.  The acronym actually stands for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection.  It basically uses an encryption method to verify that there was a perfect signal transfer between the source and display ensuring that the content was not altered in any way. 

The copy protection comes into play primarily with the licensing.  In order to support HDCP your devices  have to have copy protection measures built into the device.

Like Jonathan mentioned, it is possible that there is something causing loss making the DVD Player think it has lost the HDCP signal.  Poor quality cables, long cable runs, poor connections between the devices and the cables or connection problems internally could drop the HDCP signal.

HDMI devices always support HDCP.  DVI can support HDCP, but it isn't required.  Toshiba might not be forcing HDCP over a DVI connection, and that could be another explanation.  When you connect it directly, the Toshiba sees a DVI port and disables HDCP, when you connect to the HDMI switch it enables HDCP which the switch passes on to your TV.

I know that it is frustrating to keep buying and returning products but it might be worth trying to get a DVI switch. 

Just another idea.