HDMI, DVI And HDCP: Even More Insanity

I had a fairly stressful day today, so this evening I thought I’d so something easy and gratifying. I decided to hook up my Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite to my Samsung plasma HDTV via HDMI, as I mentioned I was planning on doing in my previous post. The Xbox 360 Elite is a modern piece of gear, like its Sony PlayStation 3 competitor that’ll tether just fine to the DVI/HDCP-equipped Samsung display either directly (via a HDMI-to-DVI translation cable) or via a HDMI switchbox intermediary, so I figured I’d have no problems. I mean, I should at least be able to direct-tether it to the display as I can with its flawed Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player predecessor, right?

Wrong. On both counts. Sigh. I disconnected the HDMI-to-DVI cable from the PS3, moved it over to the Xbox 360 Elite, and punched the console’s power button. Up came an ‘Out Of Range’ error message (which, I should also point out, isn’t mentioned in Samsung’s documentation) on the plasma screen. What the $@%&#? The Xbox 360 Elite works fine with the display over analog component video cables, but red laser DVD upscaling isn’t supported with that particular cable option due to CSS restrictions, and high-definition HD DVD playback will similarly be blocked if the studios ever decide to activate the Image Constraint Token. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

Fortunately, the HDCP-stripping and D/A converting HDfury came through again. As I type these words, I’m staring at a pristine widescreen 720p image output by the Xbox 360 Elite, run through HDfury into the display’s VGA input. After online-upgrading the game console to its latest firmware release, I re-attempted the HDMI link-up to the display, again without success. Guess I won’t be needing that HDMI switch box after all…

Friggin’ insanity, this HDCP-inclusive digital interconnect BS. Absufrigginlute insanity.