HDTV - AACS - HDCP - HDMI - DVI
These abbreviations accompany us every day. No, there are neither new parties nor clubs that have defeated FCB, which is a shame ...
To shed some light on the darkness, a few explanations.
HDTV
HDTV stands for high definition television. According to the ideas of the manufacturers of entertainment electronics, it should replace the old TV standards such as PAL (576 visible lines) and NTSC (USA, 480 lines) and make the home theater more beautiful with a higher resolution and a more stable picture. HDTV content can be displayed with 720 lines using the progressive scan method (720p), which means that each picture is completely rebuilt with each pass. The alternative is called 1080i, although it has more image lines to offer (namely 1080), but only every second line is drawn alternately per pass (interlaced method, hence the 'i').
THE STANDARDS
Comparison PAL - HDTV
AACS
The Advanced Access Content System is a copy protection system that is to be built into all drives that can play HD content, especially at the request of the Hollywood film studios. You shouldn't be able to play high-resolution films without AACS. Copies should only be made with the express permission of the author, which could be picked up online, for example. This is the only way to stream a film via a media center or to mobile devices. However, the author can also prohibit copies or charge a fee. There was a long tussle about AACS - because there aren't many devices that support the system at all. An interim solution will therefore initially make copy protection toothless - you will then still be able to watch HD films via analog outputs, although the studios would have preferred to limit the output to digital outputs that are provided with additional protection called HDCP. The film industry wants to get rid of the analog video outputs on Blu-ray, HD-DVD and network video players - after December 31, 2013, only devices with protected digital interfaces should be allowed to be sold. That is at least what is stated in the preliminary specifications of the AACS copy protection and rights management system that will be used by the two competing DVD successor candidates.
HDCP
High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection is a type of hardware copy protection. It is also intended to prevent high-resolution material from simply being recorded. HDCP must be installed in the sending device, i.e. the player or graphics card, as well as in the receiver, i.e. the monitor or TV set. While televisions that have the "HD Ready" logo must be HDCP-capable, many monitors and graphics cards are not yet. An HDMI interface can always also be HDCP, a DVI interface not necessarily. HDCP was born because the film industry is afraid of perfect copies of a digitally played device. For example, a DVD player is connected to a digital recording device (e.g. DVD recorder) via a DVI or HDMI connection. In this case, HDCP prevents copying. So you can watch a film about devices that have implemented HDCP copy protection, but the copying does not work.
When buying a TFT TV with a DVI or HDMI connection, you should make sure that the TFT TV supports HDCP copy protection for the digital video connections
HDMI
According to manufacturers' wishes, the high definition multimedia interface should be the general interface of the future, for music, films and also the connection between computer and monitor. It is equipped with HDCP as standard - an output device with an HDMI interface and a television with the "HD Ready" logo should therefore be able to display high-resolution films together in any case.
HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI-D, for example a DVD player with a DVI-D connection and a TFT TV without DVI-D but with an HDMI connection can be connected to one another using a DVI-HDMI adapter + cable or a DVI-HDMI cable .
IMPORTANT: If such a connection is made, both devices must work with or both without HDCP, otherwise a conflict is inevitable! NO picture is output!
- DVI-D connector and HDMI (small) connector as well as an adapter connector
DVI
Digital Video Interface - the first digital interface for video content, which is already in the process of being replaced by HDMI. Some DVI outputs are also equipped with HDCP, others are not. Hardware copy protection is still missing, especially with many graphics cards, which could lead to problems when playing copy-protected high-resolution films. There are three versions of DVI: DVI-I transmits analog and digital video data over a bus. The DVI-I can be connected to the Dsub 15-pin port of any standard graphics card via an adapter. DVI-D only transmits digital data, DVI-A only analog data.
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DVI-I (above) DVI-D (below) and DVI connector
DVI-D and HDMI are compatible with each other!
The first graphics card with HDMI output offers Sapphire Technologies with the Sapphire X1600 Pro HDMI
Sources: SPIEGEL ONLINE - News HIFI-REGLER - special shipping for HiFi and home cinema PRAD | Index home page