Tv repair and BS

[lordofduct]

I've been working on TVs for a long time. But with the advent of digital television and HDMI I haven't been able to keep up with the whole "copy protection" they've implemented and the sort.

So, who here has heard of HDCP? And do any of you know anything about XBOX 360's implementation of it. Because I have the XBOX 360 Elite which worked fine on my Samsung HL-S5087w 1080p HDTV ever since I got it. I unhooked it recently for a party. We hooked it up to a projector via my VGA cable for some big screen fun at a friends birthday.

When I got back and hooked it up to my HDTV with the HDMI again I had to fiddle around a bit to get it back into 1080p... and something weird occurred. I couldn't watch DVDs, HD-DVDs, or downloaded movies anymore.

Now I know what this means, the HDCP isn't working and the 360 thinks I'm on a none supported display. But I am! So I'm thinking the XBOX 360's HDMI port fried the pin that handles the HDCP. Which is kind of annoying and further drives my hatred for this anti-piracy shit higher.

I mean shit, now this protection stuff renders hardware un-usable. Before it'd be a movie I just couldn't watch on the DVD-player, 20 bucks, oh nooos. But now it's a 1000+ dollar TV and a $500 console w/ HD-DVD player add-on basically rendered useless for what I got it for. Yeah I could use component, but come on, I bought the Elite for the HDMI, not the big hard drive.

And what about the people who don't have HDCP support on their TVs? They go out and buy, get home and hook it all up expecting awesome visuals. Low and Behold it doesn't work... they google, they hunt, they fiddle around with the console and probably even try returning it for another thinking its defective. All to find out they need to buy ANOTHER HDTV to support all the latest DVD players, consoles, and everything. Not to already make the transfer from SDTV to HDTV hard, they have to do this to people.



Anyways, I knew about this stuff from the get go. It didn't catch me by surprise. But, now I'm pissed because even though I had seen this issue coming, and I accomodated, it still jumped and bit me in the ass because THEY made faulty hardware to support this dumb copy protection.



And who the ... rips movies off the HDMI cable!? //sorry, I need to stop cussing.




[edit]
and what the gay is going on with my gamer tag from MS? Sorry, but that American flag thing is ugly. I'm an America, but come in, I'm an American with taste!

[Hatta]

This is exactly why I'm never going digital.

[Zer]

This is exactly why I'm never going digital.

So you're in a cave with a NES hooked up to a B/W TV with a RF adaptor and a dial-up internet connection connection?

On the topic of BS anti-piracy, <rant> I really hate that kind of shit. They (the media companies) are 'losing' money to pirates, but they can't comprehend a basic fact: NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO IT WILL NOT STOP PIRATES. Short of physically checking the harddrives of every citizen, there's no way they could ever stop piracy. The reason is, this is a basic cat-and-mouse game. They can do all the retarded 'anti-piracy' things they want, but it's only stopping one thing, the one thing they SHOULD be focusing on: the enjoyment of their media by legitimate buyers. Look on a average bit-torrent tracker, you'll find every recently released movie, every recently released TV-show, every major commercially released video, basically, and probably a lot in HD. They're not stopping piracy, at best, they get a week or two of silence before it's cracked. So, these measures are only doing one thing: making people want to just pirate stuff! They're hurting themselves, not the pirates. I hope soon they grow a brain cell or two and realize the best way to get people to buy it is to make people want to buy it. Keep the price down (with digital distribution, it's nearly impossible to lose money), and get rid of this BS.

</rant>