Does anyone know if HDCP compliant HDMI cables are a myth?

HDCP compliance only applies to the devices at either end of the cable.

Go back and read what I posted above.

There is a lot of BS included in descriptions of HDMI cables. HDCP compliance is an example.

As Colm said, purely a myth that the cable has to be HDCP compliant. HDCP is implemented in software / firmware, not in the cable (there isn't a specific HDCP line in the cable).

No, HDMI revision is also irrelevant, at least since HDMI 1.3. All that is relevant is whether the cable is standard or high speed, with or without ethernet. There is no difference between a HDMI 1.3 cable and a HDMI 1.4 cable, unless the latter has ethernet. In fact, current HDMI licensing requirements prohibit the use of a version number on the cable or in advertising.

And (as usual) exactly as Colm said - no version number may be used with an HDMI cable. Using a version number puts the company in violation of HDMI Org's directives.

High speed cable = 1080p / 60, Deep Color, 3D (plus everything with standard speed)
Standard speed cable = 720p / 1080i

You have two questions -

1) Eliminate "1.4" and I'd say yes (although Ethernet is extra unless you have components that are able to send Ethernet over HDMI). So just "High Speed" should be sufficent.

2) The sink device must be able to support HD audio for the source to send it out. The source and sink talk using the EDID token so that the source doesn't send out something the sink can't handle. Could that be the problem?

probably a lot of reasons... "flakey" wdtv live HDMI implementation (lots of posts in other forums on the web), HDCP compliancy across all your equipment, the sun, the moon,... :-) ... its a fun HDMI world ... and the finger pointing continues... :-)

It just hit me that the key to your question is the "Not Supported by TV" message. This is the WDTV saying that the TV does not support the audio signal. So, in other words the WDTV is believing (for whatever firmware reasons) that your TV is stereo only. My first thought is that the firmware programmers said that any flat panel TV must be stereo-only. But, that's just speculation.

It would not surprise me that two different models of WDTVs have firmware from two different vendors and each vendor would implement things just a bit differently depending upon how they intepreted the requirements.

Assuming there isn't some WDTV menu item that isn't set properly, this looks like an EDID problem that can only be solved with updated firmware. It could also be that the TV EDID output is not standard, but again that would require a firmware update to fix.

If what Budwich suggested below doesn't work (also reset your Vizio) then I think your best bet if you can't get WD interested in fixing the problem, is to find a way to run coax Toslink directly to the A/V receiver. Of course, I'd bet that WD will claim it is a Vizio problem and it could be if their EDID isn't standard for some reason.

BTW, if this was an HDCP problem I would expect your picture to go blank and for you to get a completely different error message on the WD. There is usually only one response to a HDCP violation and that is no picture and no audio. HDCP was designed to prevent violations, not help the user by providing some of the data (a video picture in this case).

lastly, have you reset your wdtv live plus box... some posts (other places) have indicated success with clearing "various issues".

The "finger pointing" comment was about the industry (hdmi related stuff) in general.... and is the usual "method" when multiple systems try to "play" in the communications world, especially in consumer communication products.

Either the capabilities of the equipment on either end of the cable, or how they are configured.

Let me summarize here but I would suggest you go to the HDMI Licensing, LLC site and read up on the HDMI implementations for future reference. Basically, most of us will need to use just High Speed HDMI cables as was stated previously. If a manufacturer or retailer sells High Speed HDMI cables, make sure the you can get or view the certification certificate. If it's not certified, I'd look at another brand. And, price (the "M" brand comes to mind) does not necessarily mean you're getting a better cable.

High Speed HMDI:
Deep Color
xvYCC Color
Dolby Digital and DTS
DTS-HD Master Audio (lossless)
Dolby TrueHD (lossless)
ARC (Audio Return Channel)
4K, 1440p, 1080i/p, 720p, 480i/p
3D
HDCP Compliant
340Mhz or up to 10.2Gbps
Ethernet (optional)

If you're tv can support HD audio (DTS-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD) then you're set. If your tv can't, and a lot of them don't, then you have to pass the signal thru to your HTS or whatever via toslink. However, toslink doesn't support lossless audio so the best you can do is Dolby Digital and DTS. All of my audio goes thru my HTS and the only thing I pass on to the tv is video. I use the toslink to pass Dolby 5.1 digital audio to my HTS when I'm watching tv which is OTA only. Oh yeah, to use the ARC feature of High Speed HDMI, both devices have to be able to support it. My HTS and BD player support ARC but my tv doesn't, but in my case it's unimportant. Nowadays, you almost have to "match" your devices if you want to be able to take advantage of the current HD audio and video formats. High Speed HDMI cables that are certified are more than most of us will need for a long time.

quote... "I have updated the firmware (official and custom), resetting the device several times. I have not reset the device via the reset button however, not sure if this does anything different..."

I think the people are thinking a "reset button", but that is just my read. "Some" report that their box was working, connected to another TV, doesn't work, complains of things like "invalid mode", then try to connect back to the original TV, doesn't work, complaining of the same thing yet the TV worked previously... flakey yes, anyways some then report a "reset" cured issue while others had "less success". YMMV

having said all this... I see some sites indicating that there have been licensing issues between WD and DTS. This might have an impact on what was actually implemented. Just a "quick browse" of various searches.

Actually, first let's fix a terminology issue. HD Audio is not the same as saying multichannel audio. If you mean high resolution audio (which would include DTS master audio and Dolby TrueHD) these are codecs that allow greater than CD/DAT resolution audio to be sent but the audio does not have to be multichannel. If on the other hand you mean standard DTS and Dolby Digital (AC3) then these are multichannel codecs but not high resolution (although DTS 96/24 would be considered high resolution). Digital audio can also be uncompressed two channel audio at 48-kHz and 16-bits (and on a CD 44.1-kHz) and not be considered high resolution.

As for "HD Audio", that is not an official term. If you mean the audio that is carried with high definition video signals, that is usually some form of Dolby Digital (AC3). DTS is also available on DVDs and some movies, but again would not be considered "HD Audio". It would just be considered DTS, which is usually 48-kHz, 16-bit, although DTS-CDs are 44.1-kHz, 16-bit with 5.1-channel audio.

All of that is to say that the folks at WD actually did give you a correct answer. No high resolution audio can be sent over a Toslink output. So, digital audio does not necessarily mean high resolution or HD audio. And it would not surprise me to find that WD meant that they don't send high resolution audio when you asked about HD Audio.

Now to reset your TV, check the TV menu and look for an item labeled "reset". It is usually the last menu selection on most TVs. Unplugging may not perform a reset (likely won't). BTW, a TV reset will also reset all of your settings including color, contrast, brightness, channel saved, etc. Please write down those settings before resetting.

Would not impact anything. If they have a license then DTS is allowed, if they don't it isn't allowed. How it is implemented is an engineering / software issue.

If you want to prove that DTS is working, then hook-up a cable directly to the receiver and see if DTS is output. I'm assuming your receiver does not have an HDMI input, which is why you are using the Toslink from the TV method. So, a simple Toslink to receiver test should show DTS is working.

Unfortunately, I think you're stuck at this point waiting for a manufacturer to provide an update (if it ever occurs). Basically the WD does not think the TV can handle DTS multichannel.

Only choice I can see is to send the audio to the receiver as Toslink (optical or coax) as mentioned above. $20 seems cheap to me compared to the time you've spent on trying to solve an unsolvable problem (at least without manufacturer help).

Newer tv's do have multiple HDMI inputs but that's what they are, inputs, not ouputs. HDMI audio travels in one direction, unless the HDMI cable and both devices support ARC (Audio Return Channel), and the HDMI inputs are High Speed HDMI (one of the specs). It doesn't matter what the audio is, once they leave the tv thru the toslink cable the best they can be is Dolby Digital etc. The toslink cable does not support lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, etc). I only have two cables connected to my tv. One is the HDMI out from my AVR to the tv, and the toslink out from the tv to the AVR. All of my other devices are connected via HDMI to the AVR inputs. All of my audio is played thru the AVR with the tv speakers turned off ,so all I hear is what is passing to the AVR initially which is uncompressed audio (in the case of lossless if it's recorded that way). The toslink passes the audio from my OTA (Over The Air) tv reception which is Dolby DTS 5.1 (again the tv speakers are turned off).

No, you summarized very well. Just be careful of the "HDMI doesn't allow..." argument. However, IMHO your best argument against that is the message that the WD delivers which implies it doesn't understand that the TV can process DTS. The other thing I'd emphasize is that you have another WDTV device that works exactly how you would expect. So, one of the WDTVs must be "wrong".

Ok. I'm not familiar with WDTV so what's the advantage of WDTV 2 verses WD Live Plus? If you don't care about lossless audio then using the toslink cable from your tv, the WD Live Plus should work, which, if I understand correctly, is the problem. I get Dolby DTS 5.1 just fine thru my toslink to the AVR (from the OTA tv source). I'd ask them to get specific about the HDMI differences between the 2 different WDTVs. The plus sounds like an upgrade for the 2 so it makes no sense that they would "down engineer" it.

Keep in mind that most TVs report they are stereo TVs only. No multichannel. So, testing with those TVs will result in stereo only being sent via HDMI. So any attempt to send DTS to that type of TV would result in a "TV Not Compatible" message, much like you are receiving.

So, your test suite may be very limited, if you're going to use a TV as the sink. This could also explain why this is a very limited scope issue for WD. Most people's TVs are not designed to do what you are trying to do.