HDCP Question

[GenericHbomb]

This may be an obvious question, but I have looked and can not find the answer.
I have a monitor that supports HDCP(ACER x223W) and a graphics card that supports HDCP (Radeon 4850).
Display stuff etc. I tend to have more trouble understanding and learning about.
What exactly do I need to use HDCP; is there HDCP wires etc.?

 

[darkgoth678]

HDCP is a technology that alows you to take both your audio and video through the same wire.

As far as I know, HDCP can only be done with HDMI, so you need an HDMI cable. HDMI because it is "multimedia Interface" so the cable can carry both audi and video on the same cable.

 

[GenericHbomb]

I think I didn't phrase the answer correctly.
My video card is HDCP ready and it has a dvi to hdmi converter that I can use to run the hdmi. My monitor says its HDCP ready but there is no HDMI port. Would I got Video card->dvi to hdmi converter->hdmi cable->hdmi to dvi converter?

 

[Sea Breeze PC]

I think the original reply you got was somewhat confusing. HDCP is the acronym for High-Bandwidth Content Protection. It has become the newest consumer nighmare since Digital Media Rights were conceived. It is empoyed on most High Definition copyrighted material, in particular Blu-ray and other HD video media. It is a copyrighted media protection specification and therefore must be licensed by video card and video monitor manufacturers in order to be 'HDCP Compliant'. HDMI is the acronym for High Definition Media Interface. These are not synonomous terms. You can interface from your graphics card to your monitor via a DVI port, which your monitor should have. Your graphics card should also have the DVI port and possibly has an adapter to an HDMI port (similar to the way a DVI-to-VGA adapter works). When using an HDMI Digital interface both the video and the audio are carried from the display adapter to the monitor. In most cases this will be to an High Definition TV. You did not state what other capabilities your computer has. Most current MOBOs have digital audio output through an Optical S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital InterFace) which carries only the audio. If your Video card has DVI and your monitor also has DVI input, I would not go through the various converters you proposed, although that might work. Just use DVI-to-DVI and all of the HD video will carry fine. The audio should go through the S/PDIF to an S/PDIF on a home theatre receiver. Otherwise, your MOBO's onboard audio probably has 6 or possibly 7 channel output, which can be utilized as is to provide your audio content.