An Overview of HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)

The Definition of HDCP

What is HDCP? The HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital copy protection (also called Digital Rights Management), which is developed by Intel Corporation. It is built to protect content creators and distributors against.

To be specific, the HDCP can prevent digital audio & video content from being copied when it travels across connections. Products like DVD players, satellite and few entertainment computers usually require a safe connection to the compliant display, which can be compatible with the HDCP scheme.

As HDCP is utilized by more and more equipment manufacturers, it is strongly recommended that you buy a compatible HDTV. In this way, you can use it smoothly. Even though most video devices support high-definition via component output, analog connections are going to phase out in the future or forced to limited resolutions output.

The highest output resolutions (720p/1080i/1080p) can be available via the digital DVI or HDMI connections that use the HDCP encryption. This probably is the reason for buying a compatible HDTV.  The HDCP has several key releases (HDCP 2.0, HDCP 2.1, HDCP 2.2 and HDCP 2.3). How does the HDCP work? The next part will explain it in detail.

If you would like to know more about computer security, you may be interested in this post: What Is SID (Security Identifier) and How to Find It on Windows

The Working Theory of HDCP

How does the HDCP protect the digital content from being copied? To find the answer, you should have a deep understanding of HDCP working theory. An HDCP session can cause the exchange of keys between the source and the display device. Before displaying the content, the source device will check the display to ensure that the device has HDCP support.

Non-HDCP devices like computers and previous model DVI products can work well with any DVI compliant display. However, HDCP compliant boxes will only display the image on HDCP compliant display. Given to that fact, some products such as scalers, switches, as well as splitters can be influenced by HDCP.

Though these devices don’t do authentication for key exchange, they are required to transmit the presence of HDCP if the video is managed in any way. The inability for proper communications may lead to interoperability because of the two different digital connections formats.

Top recommendation: What Is A Microsoft Safety Scanner and How to Use It

How to Fix HDCP Error

Although HDCP can offer you much many benefits, it can out of work in sometimes. You can encounter various kinds of HDCP errors. For instance, if you get a HDTV set that is not HDCP compliant, you will not see ant HDCP compliant content on it.

When you plug a HDCP-compliant device into a non-compliant device, you will get a blank screen or receive the error messages like “ERROR: NON-HDCP OUTPUT”, “HDCP unauthorized,” or just “HDCP ERROR”. The incompatibility issue shows on-screen in a form of snowy image or an error message.

How to fix these HDCP errors? Buy a new TV set or upgrade the properly running audio-video receiver? Absolutely no! What should you do to fix HDCP error? The correct way is to buy an HDCP-compliant device that complies with HDCP. In a word, you should follow the instruction of HDCP support.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, this post tells you what HDCP is, how to HDCP work, as well as how to fix HDCP error. After reading the post, you will have a further understanding of HDCP. When you encounter HDCP errors, you can refer to the tips offered in the post to fix it. Hope the post can be a great help for you. Here comes the end of the post.