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HDMI came out after HDCP. However, despite sporting shiny new HDMI ports, many video cards/drivers had poor support for Windows Protected Video Path, or couldn't encrypt the output signal. It's possible that PowerDVD was complaining about that.

My first HDTV setup had a HDCP enabled DVI port. It was a combination video scaler and ATSC tuner. The scalar applied HDCP, the tuner did not. Peculiar little device.

Getting a display that doesn't support HDCP is madness. Most consumer video outputs require it, and stripping it out is a pain.

Not to mention that most stations will probably flash cut to digital on 2/17 anyway as scheduled. http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/TheDigitalDelay.html

TVFool (www.tvfool.com) is better than antennaweb.org because it uses the Longley-Rice Propagation Model. However, before you go out and buy a bigger antenna, try to improve your existing rooftop antenna setup. I'm located 70 miles north of New York City with a 25 year old UHF/VHF antenna setup that can still pull in most of the major analog stations. When I got my converter box and hooked it up, I couldn't pick up any DTV channels from New York, so I know that feeling of frustration. After adding a mast mounted preamp and replacing the old 300 ohm twin-lead wire with 75 ohm RG6 coaxial cable, I can now pick up one DTV station from New York (WNYW). Not much better, but after checking the TVFool site I discovered that I'm also 70 miles south of the TV antenna farm outside Albany NY. Aiming the antenna north resulted in picking up three TV stations from Albany where the terrain is more favorable between my house and the Albany antenna farm. There's lot of trial an error to get DTV signals, so get everything tweaked and working before winter. The last thing you want to do is climb up on a icy roof in February when you discover that your digital signals aren't coming in.

HDTVExpert.com has some helpful articles:

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/DTV_transition08.html

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/ReceptionOnTheFringe.html

TVFool (www.tvfool.com) is better than antennaweb.org because it uses the Longley-Rice Propagation Model. However, before you go out and buy a bigger antenna, try to improve your existing rooftop antenna setup. I'm located 70 miles north of New York City with a 25 year old UHF/VHF antenna setup that can still pull in most of the major analog stations. When I got my converter box and hooked it up, I couldn't pick up any DTV channels from New York, so I know that feeling of frustration. After adding a mast mounted preamp and replacing the old 300 ohm twin-lead wire with 75 ohm RG6 coaxial cable, I can now pick up one DTV station from New York (WNYW). Not much better, but after checking the TVFool site I discovered that I'm also 70 miles south of the TV antenna farm outside Albany NY. Aiming the antenna north resulted in picking up three TV stations from Albany where the terrain is more favorable between my house and the Albany antenna farm. There's lot of trial an error to get DTV signals, so get everything tweaked and working before winter. The last thing you want to do is climb up on a icy roof in February when you discover that your digital signals aren't coming in.

HDTVExpert.com has some helpful articles:

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/DTV_transition08.html

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/ReceptionOnTheFringe.html

I found some indoor/outdoor antenna reviews.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/squareshot.htm

Here is the FCC fact sheet on pre-emption rules regarding antenna placement. Read it and determine if it is something you want to fight with.

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

At my place they simply require a professional installer to perform the task.

Yeah, but video on demand isn't going to happen for another 10 or more years.

Comcast currently tops of at around 6mbps. Just imagine the bandwidth comcast would need for even 20% of it's customers all streaming 40mbps on a Friday night for 2 hours. They would also need a multitude of servers that could handle streaming all that data out.

The per-user cost of the routers, servers, and set-top boxes has got to be well over twice as much as a blu-ray or HD-DVD player is now. I'm not saying it won't happen, it's just not there yet and I don't see cable companies as smart enough to figure it out.

No, seriously, I don't know why you are arguing.

Please re-read my post.

The bitrates you specify do not come close to the bitrates currently being acheived via modern video compression (H.264). AT&T's Project Lightspeed is a drop-in cable replacement service, and is currently operating IPTV over Fiber-To-The-Node, with VDSL providing the last leg, at a total of 25 Mbit/sec per residence.

The quality is supposedly pretty good; though I doubt it is as good as a conventional cable provider.

And the "QXGA" I wrote there is simply a typo. If you notice, in the same paragraph I use the word QVGA. Either way, QXGA is a vastly greater resolution than QVGA. Here's a handy chart for you.

I'm starting to think you are a troll, and I guess I shouldn't be feeding you. There are no online, commercial music providers which ship 384 kbit/s MP3s; and I'm 100% certain that a 128 kbit/sec AAC would satisify 99.5% of the population. I've never heard of anyone encoding anything at 500 kbit/sec ; either switch to a better lossy codec, or switch to a lossless codec. It's pretty much indisputable that 192 kbit/sec AAC is "good enough"; that's iTunes's highest quality bitrate, and Apple does plenty of business through iTunes.

In today's world, it is simply factually true that major companies are currently distribution HiDef Video, way beyond anything you would want on a mobile device, and at a higher resolution that XGA, in 6 Mbit/sec including audio. QVGA at a very high level of quality does not require more than 500-800 kbit/sec; and that's simply fact.

Endgadget currently encodes it's QVGA podcasts at 300 kbit/sec. Take a look at a sample here: http://weblogs.podcast.aol.com/engadget/videos/Zun e/Zune_walkthrough_QVGA.mov

It looks great.

There's a more indepth discussion here, but let it suffice to say that your compression projections are way off. With MPEG-2, think 40:1 to 60:1 compression. With MPEG-4 (or better yet, h.264) think 80:1 to 130:1 .

It's safe to say that your estimates are way off. Do some research, and do automatically assume I don't know what I'm talking about. I do a fair amount of video compression for my job, so I know that this stuff is for real.

My nearest PCMCIA slot is on the left side of my notebook. So, when do I finally get to watch TV on my laptop?

--Mike--