HDMI handshake problems

[Barry928]

HDCP (http://www.reference.com/search?q=HDCP) is High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. This is a badly written standard enforced by the Hollywood studios to prevent theft of digital content. The standard requires the source (cable box, dvd player, etc) to enforce the legal connection with the display by "talking" to the display over the HDMI cable. The main problem is that the technical standard was so loosely written that the display manufacturers all applied it differently and created a huge mess. The cable company gets most of the blame from the consumer but in reality they are caught in a situation when updating software to fix Samsung plasma HDCP handshake breaks Sony LCD (hypothetical example). No matter how they change the handshake software someones HDMI does not work.

If you are receiving a warning message on the screen saying you need to switch to component video post the make and model of your display, the hardware and software of the set top box and if the path of the HDMI passes through another device like an audio receiver (relay). We are looking for patterns such as all Sony LCD's do not HDCP handshake properly that we can pass along to the software developers.

Techniques to work around the problem is the order of powering up the devices or eliminating routing HDMI through the audio receiver. In a few rare cases customers have reported HDCP handshakes not working directly to the display but start working after routing through an audio receiver.

[bdraw]

Although I agree that HDCP handshake issues are due to bad design, I think you're giving Cisco and Moto a pass for bad design.

I mean, you almost never hear anyone with a TiVo HD or a Blu-ray player complaining about HDCP, it's almost always someone with a Cisco or Moto box or a long run cable etc.

[Barry928]

That is true. I have more problems with cable boxes than any other source.