There s bad news about ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards and their alleged “support” for high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP), that wrench in the works that will keep you from watching high-definition content on a monitor unless both card and display have this special juju.
If you buy a graphics card today, even if it says it supports HDCP, it won’t. It’s total bullshit. That’s because HDCP itself is a moving target and still hasn’t been finalized.
Worse, there’s no way a graphics card can be retrofitted for HDCP, because it’s not a software or firmware fix—HDCP has to be supported by adding special encryption codes during the manufacturing process. But the cardmeisters will probably fix this problem as the HDCP spec is finalized. So if you buy a graphics card now, you’re SOL if you want to watch high-rez HD content on a computer monitor.
It looks like ATI and NVIDIA are clinging to that old adage: Ready, Fire, Aim.
