No HDCP for you!!!

[fredered]

And by that time we will probably all be more interested in the next big technology that we will need shiny new components for our pc to work with.

[shaithis]

Do you mean that it'll take more than two years before the dust settles or it'll be the same as DVD-R vs DVD+R (pretty even with neither looking to be phased out before the other)?

I personally think that neither will win the war....in fact 'the war' will probably be a skirmish as even a lot of AV nuts are holding off due to the fact that DVD is still high quality and the cost of a screen to make HD material look noticably better, costs at least £3000.

Now, why will 'Joe Public', who is the person who decides what is mainstream, buy into this new, expensive tech right after he just bought a widescreen TV and a DVD player? He won't....and BD/HD-DVD will probably end up as the new LaserDisc/MiniDisc because of this.

i dont see much of a problem here sure they've misled consumers etc. but think how many are going to be crying into their pints over this.

Im all for kicking up a fuss when being misled about "futureproof" technology, but this isnt that bad if you think about it.

I feel a fair bit duped TBH and it will probably effect me...

Just bought an X1900XTX and one of the things that caught my eye when looking at them was the "H.264 decoding".......at the time I will admit it was just "icing" but still it felt good knowing (or should I say thinking... ) that the card would be HD-future-proof.

Why are companies marking stuff on their products as features if the product cannot use the feature? It is blatently misleading and I wonder where they stand under the UK trading laws TBH.

[TooNice]

Ya, I got the X1800XT partly for the H.264 decoding as well. That said, it will work for personally encoded H.264 files right?

And as for the £3000 screen... Why would you need that much to benefit from HD material? A 24" monitor (by no mean cheap, but only a fraction of £3000) support the resolution (though you lose waste some space in the 16:9 and 16:10 bit).

I sampled HD clip, and while the CPU usage was 100% and the video clippy even on an OCed Barton, the monitor didn't seem to be limiting the video quality. Well, then again, I wouldn't know if it did, but am I missing something about HD video?
(I thought it was just higher resolution)

[shaithis]

If you place two 42" or smaller plasmas of similar build quality side-by-side.....1 of them HD and the other SD and feed them both the same HD feed (the SD will downscale it), you will be hard pressed to tell them apart.

Its only on 50"+ screens where the difference starts to become noticable, basically down to the sheer size of the image.

Yes, if you plug your PC in and use Windows, you will notice the difference with text even on smaller screens, but for the most part you need a VERY large (and therefore expensive) screen to make HD shine.

[lienly]

where to get that kind of HDCP remover?