Gadgetman: HDMI – Still not working in 2009

Recently I upgraded by home theatre and my lounge to support a better layout, following a recent upgrading of several components, including ones that have HDMI capabilities.  Part of this involved utilising the HDMI connectivity of my PC, MySky HDi, HTPC and Rotel amp to allow me the decode the new DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks on my new Blu-rays disks, plus of course the reduction in cable clutter this offers to hook everything up, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

So I proceeded to first try the PS3 -> amp -> TV combination, with all new HDMI cables.  However it very quickly became apparent something wasn’t going to plan; after hooking everything up I had sound from my amp but no picture on my TV, hardly the best way to enjoy an action movie.  A bit of playing soon revealed that the TV did sometimes show a picture, sometimes not, and sometimes it would flicker like it was trying to sync but couldn’t.  I never had any problems running Sky, the PS3 or the PC directly to the TV, and I am not blaming the amp or any other component, but it just amazes me that in 2009, several years after HDMI became an official standard, that end users like me still have major problems with simple configurations.

The cause of these HDMI related issues is the HDCP copy protection built into the standard to stop the transmission of unprotected high definition content, all so the greedy movie studios can try and exert the most control over our viewing habits whilst still be able to sell us a movie.  These copy protection standards dictate that ‘hand-shaking’ must occur between devices in order for them to be able to display HD signals (without this handshaking the display is supposed to only show standard definition).  But that hand-shaking has for years caused problems, and still does.

Life was simple in the days of analog connections, and component connections even support up to 1080i.  Then DVI came along as a computer interface, capable of displaying greater than full HD (1920×1080) TV, but it didn’t offer any copy protection at all.  So in order for the content producers to be happy about an all digital HD capable connection something need to change, and HDMI was created, which is simply DVI for the video plus audio plus copy protection.  That’s why you can buy DVI-HDMI adapters for your PC and have them work, the PC is not outputting any copy protection and all the adapter is doing is changing the connector type.

But in the end I still don’t have a system that works properly with HDMI yet, and I have had to resort to using optical cables from the PS3, HTPC and MySky units in order to get surround sound, but no DTS-MA or Dolby TrueHD since they need HDMI.  I will get there one day!