ATI Claims HDCP Then Covers Its Tracks

BigControversy writes "It looks like a big can of worms is being opened. The DailyTech.com is reporting that ATI sold millions of video cards knowing that HDCP support was not enabled. Despite that, the cards were sold and advertised to its customers as having HDCP capabilities. A day or two after this information was revealed, HDMI.org went completely password protected and ATI is now modifying key areas of its website, removing any mention of 'HDCP-ready'."

Comments

Re:Awww

[StikyPad]

It's no mixup, as the "related story" (aka dupe) explains. There's no method of retroactively enabling HDCP. From TOldFA:

"The boards themselves must be designed with an extra chip when the board is manufactured. The extra chip stores a crypto key, and you cannot retrofit an existing board after the board is produced."

ATI knew this. Everybody knew this. Somebody in marketing decided to advertise it anyway, nobody corrected them, and now they're trying to clean up the mess.

Re:Whoa... How did they get away with this?

[ScottLindner]

HDMI does not inherently include HDCP. The specific is a bit loose in the way people interpret it. HDMI is the physical standard, HDCP is essentially a data layer standard. It's the same as wondering why you only get two channel audio if you use an SPDIF interface (AC-3/Dolby Digital). Sure, SPDIF can carry full 5.1 audio, but that doesn't mean it has to. This is the same with HDMI and HDCP. What I think most people are confused or frustrated with is some displays say HDMI support, and don't tell you that they require HDPC as well. You gotta figure that one out by visiting forums.

This WAS going to happen

[ratboy666]

Of course all those video cards are "HDCPI Ready". They *can* generate the encrypted content. No sweat.

But (and here's the rub), the content providers (strike that, the "copyright industry", or CI) have decided to not trust any "home-brew" system. Which means that the keys won't go to the cards (because the *system* isn't trusted) and the feature is now useless.

Of course, a new system can have exactly the same chip, and it will then work.

Its the CI backlash against the DVD crack (which, of course, a vendor of playback equipment was responsible for -- which is NOT being forgotten). Coupled with some bad crypto choices, and DVDs are now wide open. The CIs would want to prevent this, and are now qualifying everything (my opinion).

External boxes can only produce SD (DVD) quality output on analog, which is what Vista will generate as well.

ATI make chips, boards and drivers. They (in my opinion) couldn't care less -- they just implement the spec. They put it the feature, and now can't use it because of key control concerns; they have been caught with their pants down.

Is is possible for ATI to sue the CIs? Because if I were in ATI, I would be as mad as a wet hen right now.

Ratboy.