ATi ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT & hdcp thru dvi

[juggy]

Hello,

i am looking at getting an all-in-wonder (agp) to add to a machine which eventually will be used to play blu ray titles

i am looking to find out if ATi ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT is hdcp compliant thru the dvi connection - i seem to be getting conflicting information - seems like the chipset supports it but i am not sure if the dvi port on the board does

if this one doesn't then what does?

i have a monitor with hdcp dvi on order

[Octavean]

No the AIW X800XT does not support HDCP and in fact as far as I know no AIW card does.

The only HDCP compliant ATI cards I know of are the new X1950 Pro and up as well as SOME X1900GT cards. All of these cards are PCIe not AGP.

There might be some AGP HDCP compliant nVidia cards not really sure.

[porcukor]

And what about X800 GTO?
It writes, it's HDCP compatible:
Sapphire's website writes it is.

[Octavean]

I have a Sapphire X800GTO2 and have checked it with a free utility to test for HD DVD and BD support. The utility test for proper driver support, HDCP hardware support on the video card and HDCP support on the monitor for complete end-to-end compliance,…and more:

Download CyberLink BD / HD Advisor (Beta)

CyberLink BD / HD Advisor Software Releases

Get Started

The X800GTO2 was connected to a ViewSonic N3250W 32" 16:9 8ms HD Ready LCD TV With HDMI and HDCP support via a DVI-to-HDMI cable.

The last tests that were performed on the system in question with both a Sapphire X800GTO2 and later an AIW X1900 failed full support on the video cards. I know the Monitor has HDCP support and the driver was reported as supported so the problem was the video cards.

I read an article a while ago that pointed out the confusion on this very subject and as such I fully expected that neither card would support HDCP. At the time the article was written nVidia had only a few low end HDCP capable cards (6600 class) available only to OEMs like Sony for example,…not for sale in the retail channel. And ATI had NO HDCP compliant cards whatsoever OEM or retail and wouldn’t for some time.

Apparently nVidia had been incorporating full HDCP support in their reference card designs for yrs but actual manufacturers never implemented them so the end customers never received such support (nVidia doesn’t make or brand their own cards). ATI on the other hand does brand there own cards and as such has little to no excuse not to have had such HDCP support.

Just about all new video cards should have HDCP support and most future cards will likely have it too. Motherboards with integrated video will likely have HDCP support as well.

Buying older cards are the problem since retailers often make it difficult to make the assessment of which cards support HDCP. For example, if a card does support HDCP a retailer or e-tailer may explicitly state that it supports HDCP. However, if a card doesn’t support HDCP they may simply omit that there is no HDCP support,….so if HDCP support isn’t foremost on the buyers mind it could be easily overlooked.

Here is an example:

SAPPHIRE 100131L BLUE Radeon X800GTO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM

POWERCOLOR X1900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM


connect3D 3071 Radeon X1900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 VIVO HDCP Video Card - Retail

The firs two cards do not support HDCP and no mention is made of it. The last card however does support HDCP and it is mentioned in the name and description as well as the specifications. Check the specifications and you will see that HDCP is only mentioned in the last card listed. Clearly they are using HDCP as a selling point. If it has HDCP point it out and if it doesn’t don’t draw attention to that fact by not mention it at all,…!!!

You will also note that two of these cards are X1900GT cards. So if someone thinks all X1900GT cards have HDCP support or all X1900GT cards don’t have HDCP support they would probably be wrong. One would also think that all X1950 class cards have HDCP support but that might not be entirely true either.

Crossfire X1950 cards might not have HDCP support and AGP X1950 Pro cards might not have HDCP support.

[DA1745]

Very Imformative, well written article