HDCP Ready Video Card Needed?

[nwboater]

I'm setting up a SageTV Client PC and will be purchasing a new video card. The Client will get all of it's media from our WHS Machine over the network.

Some video cards are advertised as "HDCP Ready". Trying to determine just what this means and if I might need one. Does anyone know under what circumstances HDCP ready cards are needed?

Thanks very much.
Rod

[GKusnick]

Pretty much any newish card that has HDMI out should support HDCP, which is an encryption protocol to protect DRM content during playback. However since Sage doesn't do DRM, it shouldn't matter for Sage (but might matter for WMC, TivoToGo, DirecTV2PC and similar DRM players).

Edit: Note that your monitor must also support HDCP for those apps that require it.

[bhyman1]

You need HDCP for playing back blu-rays and hd-dvd's with software like PowerDVD or WinDVD.

Sage doesn't need it.

[nwboater]

Greg & bhyman1,

Thanks very much for your helpful responses. So it sounds like if I'm playing back my HD content that I've ripped to the HD with AnyDvd I would not need it with any playback software. But if I play back some HD media directly (not ripped) with some software I may need it.

When you say "Sage doesn't need it", do you mean that Sage won't pass the encryption protocol through?

My plans are to rip everything to the HD and then playback, but if someone brought over a BlueRay it would be nice to just put it in the drive and play it. So perhaps I should get a card that will pass it through.

Thanks,
Rod