Do I really need that HDCP video card on my computer?

branson

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Apr 25, 2006
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Ok, so if you are like me, then you have a 1080p monitor (that supports HDMI, HDCP, DVI) in your living room that you use to watch TV and also use it to do computer work/games and whatever. With the PS3 on the horizon, it makes sense to buy one just for the cost of have a blu-ray player. Seeing that the current blu-ray player costs $1000, it makes sense to buy something cheaper to play hi-def movies and that I can use to play some cool video games. To get the same affect of playing a 1080p HDCP movie on a computer to the 1080p monitor, I would need to get a decent video card with HDCP capabilities, a blu-ray rom drive, some proprietary software to play it, and might have to do some cpu/ram/motherboard/harddrive changes if that can't handle the load. And the cost of that could be safely over the cost of a PS3. Maybe, and just maybe, if it is possible to get the blu-ray movie data on my harddrive by means of file sharing, or whatever, and I were to play the blu-ray movie directly from my harddrive, it would still be HDCP, and the video card with HDCP would still be needed. So that would only change the cost of the computer implementation to be reduced by the cost of a blu-ray rom drive. But those are just my thoughts; tell me what you guys think.
 

branson

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Apr 25, 2006
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lol, ok, well here it goes....current computer specs :D

btw i am looking to upgrade...

Athlon 1800

1gig 266ddr

600-700 gb harddrive space among 6 harddrives of varying sizes

ati 8500 aiw agp 4x

i have comcast cable with a DCT-6200 receiver, i take the firewire from that and connect it to my computer which allows me to save the .ts as it is being streamed from comcast (as long as the channel isn't protected) These files can be huge, ie 12gb for a 2 hour movie, but i retain the full information of the movie, which i can later convert to a format of choice.
 

branson

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Apr 25, 2006
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1080p monitor = 1920x1080, yes my vid card does support it

AIW to record from PS3 = i don't want to

PS3 hooked directly to the TV = absolutely

capture card conflicts = don't really care, i use the firewire to capture the direct audio/video stream from comcast signal. No need to capture, its just like saving a file that is being transferred over the network. So what I see on TV is exact pixel for pixel what I save on the computer. And I don't have to worry about dropped frames or any of that AIW nightmare.