HDCP support on 8600/8500 cards?

sam0t

Gawd
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Mar 17, 2006
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Just read pretty disturbing review about Radeon 2600/2400 in which the review had extensive video playback evaluation too. Here is the review: Techreports 2600/2400 review

The strange part is in the video playback evaluation where 2600/2400 are pitted against 8600/8500:

"Beyond that, the new Radeon HD cards have some clear advantages in other departments, especially those features that fit under the Avivo HD umbrella. These GPUs' native support for dual-link DVI ports with embedded HDCP crypto keys takes the guesswork out of connecting them to almost any sort of display you might choose. We found out about the perils of navigating these waters first-hand when we discovered none of our GeForce 8500 GT or 8600 GT cards support HDCP—and thus won't play back HD movies over DVI. Radeon HD owners shouldn't have to confront such surprises. The new Radeons' support for HDMI with audio makes them nicely suited for home theater PCs, too."

Notice the bold part, can any 8600GT/8500GT owner with HD player confirm this? I thought 8600GT/8500GT were toutted to be HD playback cards with their dedicated processor for HD decoding and all. Well what do you do with a decoding processor if the cards do not support HDCP?

R600 cards support HDCP natively, but I guess its still up to the board manufacturers to add the HDCP decryption keys into the cards with Nvidia cards? Ofcourse this does not mean that all 8600/8500 cards miss the HDCP keys, just the ones TR tested.

edit:

Just noticed that the review talks about 8600GT and 8500GT cards, no word on 8600GTS.
 
Only the 8600FGTS supports HDCP natively. On the 8600GT/8500GT it is vendor optional.

Given that the general consensus is that the 8600GT and lower are no good for 3D gaming, but fine for video, this was a silly choice by Nvidia.
 
I only wonder what is the reason for not supporting HDCP keys natively on the low end. Do the HTPC keys in themself costs so much in form of licence or whatever, or what is the reason they are not included natively with low end cards :confused:

But yes indeed a bad move from Nvidia part for not including them natively on the low end cards which are adverised as HTPC cards anyways.
 
I think the whole 8600/8500 family has the same problem. Right on nVidia's 8600/8500 page when it says, "HDCP capable" there is a superscript 3 after it which at the bottom says, "Requires other compatible components that are also HDCP capable". Sounds like the 3rd party vendors are cutting corners again. :rolleyes:
 
I think the whole 8600/8500 family has the same problem. Right on nVidia's 8600/8500 page when it says, "HDCP capable" there is a superscript 3 after it which at the bottom says, "Requires other compatible components that are also HDCP capable". Sounds like the 3rd party vendors are cutting corners again. :rolleyes:

That means, software player, and display. I have an EVGA 8600GTS SC in my HTPC and it does HDCP just fine to my 62" Mits DLPm via 360 HD-DVD drive. Now if Nvidia would release XP drivers to enable the CPU offload of HD content I would be much happier.
 
Th.... Now if Nvidia would release XP drivers to enable the CPU offload of HD content I would be much happier.

Supposed to be this month. I was hoping 162.18 were the drivers to do this, but ...
 
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