About 10 days ago I played a CD from my OPPO BDP-95 via HDMI into my Datasat AP20. I use the digital outs from the Datasat into an external DAC.
I was quite surprised to see the DAC reported it was receiving a 48kHz signal even though the Datasat was configured to output 96kHz (and does indeed output 96kHz with all non-HDMI sources).
It was my understanding that non-high-rez sources such as CDs and DVDs with DD/DTS had no encryption tags and were not affected by HDCP, so I started seeking clarification.
I emailed Datasat and they replied they were just following the what the source told them. So I emailed OPPO and they replied:
When using HDMI, HDCP is always engaged due to the HDMI specifications. HDCP is not engaged based on the content being copy protected or not.
I then emailed HDMI and just received the following:
HDMI interface uses HDCP for content protection and all the restrictions come from HDCP adopter licensing agreement (this document can be downloaded directly from DCP LLC website).
Speaking about audio, generic audio shall be down sampling to 48KHz or lower/16bit prior to sending out to any digital interface.
For special audio such as SCD and DVD Audio, it is not allowed to output any audio content to any digital interface no matter how low the down sampling rate is.
So it looks like those who want to use the digital outputs of a Datasat or a Theta are going to have downrezzed data even for CDs unless a workaround is employed.
Meridian is the only company I know that can send full rez audio using non-HDMI connectors because they use their own MHR proprietary encryption system, which is approved by HDMI.
I find HDCP to be very annoying.
I was quite surprised to see the DAC reported it was receiving a 48kHz signal even though the Datasat was configured to output 96kHz (and does indeed output 96kHz with all non-HDMI sources).
It was my understanding that non-high-rez sources such as CDs and DVDs with DD/DTS had no encryption tags and were not affected by HDCP, so I started seeking clarification.
I emailed Datasat and they replied they were just following the what the source told them. So I emailed OPPO and they replied:
When using HDMI, HDCP is always engaged due to the HDMI specifications. HDCP is not engaged based on the content being copy protected or not.
I then emailed HDMI and just received the following:
HDMI interface uses HDCP for content protection and all the restrictions come from HDCP adopter licensing agreement (this document can be downloaded directly from DCP LLC website).
Speaking about audio, generic audio shall be down sampling to 48KHz or lower/16bit prior to sending out to any digital interface.
For special audio such as SCD and DVD Audio, it is not allowed to output any audio content to any digital interface no matter how low the down sampling rate is.
So it looks like those who want to use the digital outputs of a Datasat or a Theta are going to have downrezzed data even for CDs unless a workaround is employed.
Meridian is the only company I know that can send full rez audio using non-HDMI connectors because they use their own MHR proprietary encryption system, which is approved by HDMI.
I find HDCP to be very annoying.















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