I just got the new Sony VPL-VW50 projector which is very nice. Focus is a little soft for my liking, but over all its a fantastic projector. Especially like the native 1920x1080 panel resolution. Works great connected to a 10-250 or home theater PC via an Nvida 7900 DVI graphics card.

I also got a new Sony BWU-100A BluRay DVD drive for my home theater PC. Yeah, I paid too much, I know, but I just really wanted to be the first on my block to have one! It too works great.

So the BWU-100A comes bundled with Cyberlink's PowerDVD V6.6 BD edition software that's suppose to allow you to watch commercial BluRay DVD movies in stunning 1080p. Well, it does sort of. As long as I go VGA analog out of the Nvidia card to the projector' VGA or component input, it works as advertised. However, if I connect the Nvidia's DVI port directly to the projector's HDMI port, the movie plays for about 5 seconds, then a Warning dialog from Power DVD pops up and says that "an HDCP session can't be established with the display" and it stops playing. Waaaaa.

I have the very latest Nvidia drivers which are suppose to support HDCP. Best I can tell, the Nvidia 7900 GT 256MB video card is also suppose to support HDCP. The projector is suppose to support HDCP according to Sony's website. I upgraded the BluRay drive to firmware 1.0c which is suppose to allow playing movies.

Cyberlink now has a new version of PowerDVD 7.2 BD that is suppose to also work, which I downloaded for $99, but it has exactly the same problem. Cyberlink doesn't have a phone number listed, but you can pay another $29 for "phone support". What a waste of time and money. They took my information and "are forwarding my issue to Cyberlink". I expect to never hear from them again.

So, does anyone here have any insight in to what the problem could be?

Anyway to circumvent this HDCP BS?

What a crock. I have spent $5000 to legitimately buy and view HDTV movies and I cannot because of copy protection. What's wrong with this fricken industry?

Thanks for any assistance you can lend.

Matt

I would bet your 7900 GT doesn't have a HDCP chip. Only the 8800 and I think the 7950 are required to have the chip. It's optional on the others. My eVGA 7900GS comes in two versions with and without the chip. I got the version with but don't have a BD drive yet.

The graphics card must have DVI/HDCP, not just DVI-I or DVI-D, some cards say they do HDTV, but don't provide the HDCP handshake.

Btw, the HDCP graphics cards from nvidia are in the $500 range and up in the toronto area. This is hardly worth the effort for the DVI connector if the component/VGA works. (Thanks for pointing it out, I will use the VGA on my other PC)

As the others have said, it sounds like your card doesn't have HDCP. I don't think it's really fair to blame them, it's fairly well known that you need a card with HDMI out and good PC to playback BD's. Once you start trying to do it with DVI you've got more chance of something not working. But at least VGA works, for now anyway

I would bet your 7900 GT doesn't have a HDCP chip. Only the 8800 and I think the 7950 are required to have the chip. It's optional on the others. My eVGA 7900GS comes in two versions with and without the chip. I got the version with but don't have a BD drive yet.

You hit the nail right on the head!

I picked up a new Nvidia 8800 GTX which specifically lists on the box that it supports HDCP. Popped it in, loaded the 8800-specific drivers, and presto, I was watching awesome 1080p video on the Sony Projector.

Interestingly, I find that the Software redunduring is MUCH clearer and sharper than the Hardware renduring.

So, if you're trying to send 1080p video from a BluRay drive to a HDCP enabled projector over DVI/HDMI, make sure that your video card specifically supports HDCP with an encryption chip.

Matt

Matt are you saying that watching video on a software player is MUCH sharper than a stand-alone player? One thing I noticed with DVD, PowerDVD was/is sharper than my old DVD decoder card

Matt are you saying that watching video on a software player is MUCH sharper than a stand-alone player? One thing I noticed with DVD, PowerDVD was/is sharper than my old DVD decoder card

Well, sort of. In PowerDVD there is an option for selecting either Hardware or Software accelleration. I'm finding that with Software accelleration, the picture is noticably clearer. I believe that someone else on this forum reported similar behavior.

Matt

I would bet your 7900 GT doesn't have a HDCP chip. Only the 8800 and I think the 7950 are required to have the chip. It's optional on the others. My eVGA 7900GS comes in two versions with and without the chip. I got the version with but don't have a BD drive yet.

Is it possible to test if a card is HDCP compatible short of buying an HD-DVD/BR drive and playback software? Or is it possible to at least tell visually if the HDCP chip is on the card? I'm considering an "eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO 256MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out , HDCP", but would like to be able to somehow verify that it is actually HDCP compliant.

Is it possible to test if a card is HDCP compatible short of buying an HD-DVD/BR drive and playback software? Or is it possible to at least tell visually if the HDCP chip is on the card? I'm considering an "eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO 256MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out , HDCP", but would like to be able to somehow verify that it is actually HDCP compliant.

Actually yes. If you already have the card, cyberlink has a tool that can be run to determine if your system can play BD movies. If you don't have the BD drive, that button says no.

In a system that is using the VGA connector, it says [analog] YES (meaning it considers VGA an analog connection and hence subject to ICT(?)), if you use DVI without HDCP, it will say NO.

I found this link earlier for my BWU-100A : BD checking and upgrade (http://sony.storagesupport.com/BDupgrade/)

The advisor tool in that page does what you want but you need the card in your system (or you can ask someone who has the card to run the program).

Thanks, Neo1965, now I need to purchase it from a place with good return policy!