New ATI cards still not supporting HDCP?

[Ravendust]

ATI's Little (Big) Slip Up

There is no support for HDCP (High bandwidth Digital Content Protection) with the Radeon X1900XTX. With ATi incorporating H.264 decoding and transcoding into the graphics core, without HDCP support it is basically a wasted feature.

ATi does state this on its website about HDCP "This feature is supported by the ASIC and can be specified by PC manufacturers for its add-in-boards. This feature is not typically enabled on stand alone cards."

While this might not be much of a concern right now, when Windows Vista and high definition movies are released later in the year, consumers who forked out a ton of money to buy a Radeon X1900 XTX videocard may be out of luck.

http://www.pcstats.com/ArtVNL.cfm?articleid=1932&page=3

Am I the only one who finds this really, really stupid? With all the fuss over HDCP and DRM, and the impending doom/blessing of HD content i'd have thought ATI would be all over supporting it. If Vista is a year away (or less) then who in their right mind would buy a £350/$600 card that doesn't support HD?

 

[KidMan]

Wow, that sucks. I was going to go and buy the 1900XTX when i had the money but now I don't think I will. I guess I will havwe to wait for ati to come out with a new card soon. They always do.

 

[Killface]

so people that want to use their X1900XTX for Vista cannot now? I dont understand.

 

[SailorAlea]

Vista does not require an HDCP-compliant card. Only if you want to play Bluray or HD-DVD protected material at full resolution.

 

[DiebytheSword]

What's stupid isn't card manufaturers scrambling to make due, it's the movie studios cramming DRM down everyones throat in a half assed manner. Sure you can have HDCP compliant cards, but until the movie studios and intel finalize the hardware keys, the technology is useless.

 

[frsrblch]

I was under the impression that we would need new DX10 compliant cards for Vista...

 

[|Overlord|]

I was under the impression that we would need new DX10 compliant cards for Vista...

Cards that support dx9 functions will be able to run vista's aero glass.

 

[The Cheese]

I for one don't see why everyone is going nuts over HD. You mean I have to purchase 1000's of dollars of all new equipment so stuff looks better! Where do I sign up?