Sony, Others Won't Degrade HD Content on Analog Outputs

Misleading. If you write an article like this you should at least try to know what you're talking about. The HDMI connector isn't the indicator of HD content protection (HDCP). A display can use the older DVI connector and still have HDCP copy protection, al;though not all DVI connections implement HDCP. HDMI just happens to include HDCP in it's spec too. Please try not to mislead any more people.

Alan: I'm not aware of many sets out there that implement HDCP over DVI but don't also feature an HDMI connector. I'm sure there are a few, though. Of course, anyone who owns one of those sets could easily buy an HDMI to DVI adapter and watch full-resolution HD that way.

Alan,

I never got the idea from reading the article that HDMI automatically meant the content was protected, because not everything is protected, but that it was an option.

It's about time they realized that reducing the quality isn't gonna stop pirates anyway. Large scale pirates don't really care about the quality. I don't understand why the media companies think this way.

Are they going to make everyone hook up to a phone line and monitor their data stream every time they want to watch in HD resoultion?

Inevitably, some 15 year old HS student, will come up with a device which emulates the HDCP system so they can pick off the data. After which they will have the data in the clear. If it can be watched someone will find a way to copy it.
Most people I know prefer to have an original copy. I know I do. People will buy it if they keep the price reasonable. But it appears they are raising the prices for HD content, in my opinion because they are over-confident that the protection won't be compromised so they will start to gouge.

The Syntax LT26HVX has HDCP over DVI. I own one.

Eric:

Literally hundreds of different brands/models of displays have been sold which have HDCP implemented on their DVI ports, and also most of the cable and satellite boxes out there today - that people get HDTV through - only have DVI output ports. So most of the existing HD user base isn't using HDMI yet - and don't need to. Your comment, as with your article, pretty much seems to be from the viewpoint of someone who imagines HDTV started about late 2005. That would be the time when the HDMI ports started to appear exclusively on many units, with no DVI ports any more.

As for your 'full-resolution' HD, I take it you're alluding to 1080p, which again is practically non-existent in terms of availability to consumers and with the continuing and deepning HD-DVD/Bluray fiasco is likely to remain so. It seems that if such 1080p sources ever do _actually_ become available they may indeed only be offered with (a possibly new version of) HDMI, which would require more than a physical connector to work with a DVI port, making their material likely unavilable to most of the current HD customer base.

Let's state it simply and to the point:

ANY DVI port that implements HDCP properly (and the majority of currently installed HD sets probably fit this category) can view all forms of (available) HD, either with or without HDCP present. However most computer monitors do not implement HDCP over any DVI ports and also they don't yet feature HDMI either. This extra aspect will be part of another upcoming fiasco: Windows Vista.

As an aside to LB: I personally suspect that HD-DVD and Bluray (for consumer movie/video use) will acheiev about the same level of actual market penetration as did DVD-Audio and SACD. The comparison are striking between these two sets of botched technologies and would-be standards and their resulting failure to gain any significant market share (chiefly down to too-little, too-late and also to absurb copy restrictions, IMHO). I suspect CD-Audio and DVD-Video will remain the most significant consumer audio and video (distribution/purchase/usage) formats for many years to come.

Alan:
I don't think that the DVD will remain as King of video.. for these reasons:
1.The studios are very interested in changing the format towards a more secure one. So they will introduce "bonus" , "extra scenes" and so on..
2.All the people who have purchased big Tv units ( 32", 40"...) would like to see HD content, as the quality difference on such a huge display really shows.

I have a substantial investment in the movies I've already bought on DVD. I'm not going to start re-investing in a new format. DVD and CD were easier from a mechanical format perspective. Better resolution for many of the movies I've seen isn't much of a draw.

Does not seem there is concern about Blu-ray players degrading 60fps progressive content [SONY/DALSA/Kinetta/Showscan-originated] to 24fps, despite all the 1080P60 displays out there... HD-DVD would have a bandwidth excuse, and Microsoft limited WMV-HD to 1080P24 because of Joe six-pack's computer performance...

1080P/60fs is overkill,because movies are shot at 36fps or 30fps.60fps is as gimiky as microsoft releasing a stand alone hd-dvd player for the flopbox 360.720p or 1080i tv sets are the debate.90% of the networks don't show any hd content in 1080 anything.So if the studios shot movies under 60/fps why do we need 60/fps?

Alan,

I think the author's point was that Sony blu-ray will not downscale on ANALOGUE connections; i.e the 3 phono plugs that pre-hdmi HD sets carried. DVI wasn't even in his article .

Darell, movies are shot at 24fps.
1080p will very likely be 1080p/24.

Alan wrote: ANY DVI port that implements HDCP properly (and the majority of currently installed HD sets probably fit this category)

You have a source to back this claim up? HDCP compliant ports didn't start showing up on consumer sets until 2004, and I would guess that most sets until the middle of 2005 didn't have them. That suggests that most consumer sets currently out there do NOT have the capability to play HDCP protected content.

Please explain,

I just bought a 42 screen hd so I could use it as a monitor for my laptop as well as to watch movies.
The plasma screen has hdmi and pr/r pb/b y/g
inputs for the computer.
My laptop has only vga output.
Could someone explain to me what to do .
There is no vga to hdmi cable on the market becouse as I understand one is analog and the other digital. Right?
I found a vga to pr/r pb /b y /g adaptor, but they tell me that is not going to look correct on the screen . and the adaptor it is not cheap.

The plasma has s video and usb imputs as well.
Thank you