Two words composing a confusing, often ambiguous, yet essential term to understand completely:

“High Definition”

The more I read anything online concerning those two words its always in connection to the consumer confusion it creates. What exactly is high definition? Why should I want or need it? And why are there consumer products claiming to support when, in fact, they don’t?

A nice little trail of research is todays slashdot article on ATI’s claim of HDCP ready video cards which were anything but. How is it that such a prominant member of the IT industry who specialises in video card products manage to advertise so falsely. Surely ATI wasn’t stupid enough to do it on purpose. There are laws against false advertising afterall. Yet they somehow managed to break them for months, across the sale of millions of their products. I can already see th EU response – bad little company advertising falsely then trying to cover it up. Time for a wrist slapping or two…

HDCP is a content protection scheme (CP) for High Definition playback of the next generation DVDs. If you don’t know what HD itself is you’re probably living under a rock somewhere. It’s already reached our satelite and cable networks (yes, even here in Ireland! Usually we’re the last to see such.), and some will have certainly gone shopping for TVs with HD support (and maybe a new decoding box). High Definition is all about the resolution and clarity of your TV or Monitor visuals when playing HD content. CP is the protection scheme covering the use of such resolutions from DVD formats such as the upcoming Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (whichever wins at least). It’s mandatory, i.e. no HDCP support = no viewing of HD content except in a bummed down format.

Here’s the scenario. A few months from now you get hold of a Movie title on HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray – there’s another VHS/Betamax war a brewing ;-)). It will deliver HD content to your Nvidia or ATI card. Problem is it requires a HDCP ready card – without the card’s HD Content Protection scheme and keys the content will be dumped down to a lower resolution that is definitely not High Definition. Worse the video card is only one piece of a very large jigsaw needed.

The full line of defence includes Windows Vista’s HDCP support, your Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, your video card, and your monitor – all need that magical label of HD or HDCP ready present and valid. Plus since Vista and that DVD war is just around the bend its a waste of time buying anything else – it’ll be rendered defunct inside the year.

Unfortunately that has a nasty side-effect. There are no video cards with HDCP support. None. Nada. They advertise the term, build it into their GPU’s, then fail completely to license the encryption keys necessary to actually output a valid HD signal. Neat – maybe they have a little false advertising loophole going but that’s small comfort to those who buy a top of the range “HDCP ready” card tomorrow and find out in a short while its worthless for actually using HD content.

Same for your Monitor. If its not HD ready, it can’t display HD content. So buying a Monitor tomorrow at the top range is…a waste of time. Who thinks buying an expensive monitor or LCD tomorrow that will be defunct in months is a good idea? Nobody? Good, because its a bad idea. Monitors and screens last years – I’ve had mine for 4, and only because the other started showing stress lines after 7 years of service.

Still think ignorance about HD and HDCP is okay? ;-)

Now you’ve woken up and smelled the bitter stench of corporate bigwigs making lots of money knowing you’ll have to replace everything you buy now with a HD-enabled model in a few months or else do without HD content, maybe you feel a little worried. Do.

Surprisingly Nvidia are looking like the happy leprechauns in this horror story. They don’t manufacture boards other than for Sony, and they actually are validly HDCP-ready (of course we’re talking Sony here. They would have to be.), and they’ve had a board manufacturer partner program in place for ages. Few (i.e. none) seem to have taken this up so far, but then everyone making video cards and monitors for the last half year or more have been aware it might threaten the honeypot.

I’m suddenly happy to have purchased an Nvidia 6800 last Autumn, cheap and easily replaced…