“You see, I don’t own an HDTV, which is required for the Apple TV… My Apple TV has been connected to a Dell FPW2005 20-inch LCD display (the same kind to which I connect my MacBook Pro at home and at the office). The two devices are connected by a cable that has an HDMI plug on one end (which attaches to the Apple TV) and a DVI plug on the other (connecting the Dell monitor),” Jeff Carlson reports for TidBITS.
MacDailyNews Take: Connecting a monitor with a Dell logo on it with any Apple product is like grafting Ed Asner’s head onto Jessica Biel’s body. It’s unnatural. And disgusting. Yuck. Just say no to Dell.
Carlson continues, “When I attempted to watch the movie, however, the Apple TV displayed an error message: ‘This content requires HDCP for playback.’ HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital rights management (DRM) that prevents you from playing video over DVI and HDMI connections (in my case) if you don’t own compatible hardware that can decode the signal properly.”
“Beneath the error message was a note that I could watch the movie using the Apple TV’s component connection instead. I couldn’t take advantage of the HDMI solution that sends video and audio down one cable, but I could output video through the three component video cables and separately attach audio to the Apple TV. Unfortunately, the Dell monitor, being primarily a computer display, didn’t include component connections,” Carlson reports.
“I could have simply sacrificed the $4 rental fee and chalked it up as the cost of research, but $4 is also the cost of a pair of double-espressos and is therefore real money. So I did what I imagine few people do: I wrote to Apple,” Carlson reports. “Within 24 hours, I received a reply: ‘I’m sorry to hear that you can’t play the movie that you rented. I have reversed the charge for this rental.'”
More in the full article here.
As we said yesterday, Hollywood should drop the senseless DRM they are insisting upon as it only punishes paying customers while generating laughter from pirates. Just sell us good content that’s free of draconian restrictions at a reasonable price and we’ll make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.
“I don’t own an HDTV, which is required for the Apple TV …”
simply wrong.
an HD TV is a TV with at least 720p in resolution. i have a panasonic vierra 42″ TV, PAL standard 480p resolution (it’s not an HD TV) an my apple tv works just fine.
it seems to me journalists don’t do any research before they write something nowadays.
“grafting Ed Asner’s head onto Jessica Biel’s body”
Oooo… I just tasted a little throw-up in the back of mouth.
Although they left out the lockdown on where you can use your own paid for content, I’m glad to at least to see *somebody* reporting the hardware based DRM on the HDMI output. People should know what DRM is included in the products they choose to support. I’m waiting for the stupid assumption to fall that somehow a digital signal means a product will be stolen. A thief can steal from the component outputs very easily and create a very good copy; it’s not the broadcast format that allows theft but the sheer desire.
“grafting Ed Asner’s head onto Jessica Biel’s body”
The other way around would be much worse. You can bag the head.
I’m planning to get a Mac mini and a Dell Ultrasharp 22 widescreen monitor. I think it’s gonna be cool.
MacDailyNews should never have picked up this bogus article. it’s one more self-centered whine by an idiot who blames Apple for their own stupidity.
ALL HDMI-out connections from every piece of hardware of any kind require HDCP compliance at the other end. this is a central spec of the HDMI connector concept. like maybe anyone posting technical blog items ought to know this? Duh!
ATV gives you the option to use component connectors instead to avoid HDCP. All you need is – a Television! virtually all TV’s have included component inputs for several years now. that’s why Apple put “TV” in the product’s name! Double Duh!
using a computer monitor to “test” ATV is plainly not-clear-on-the-concept. then whining about it is simply trolling.
the blogs are full of troll pieces like this. usually MacDailyNews does a good job of ignoring them. but this time you gave the troll hits, alas.
Dell monitors probably use the same panels that Apple monitors use. Don’t get me wrong; I love Apple, but their monitors are definitely over-priced.
Also, Dell sells 24″+ monitors with HDCP HDMI connections on the back, and component too.
@Demon,”I’ve rent Movies from iTunes and My Apple TV is connected to a 22″ Widescreen Samsung Monitor Via a HDMI to DVI cable and have not had any issues.”
Do you mean that you tore them out of iTunes, or that you’ve rented them?
@ squid
I remember when Steve Jobs said that at one of the keynotes. I believed it back then to.
My 24 inch Dell is better than the ACD in pretty much every way. It has better colour, better contrast yadda yadda yadda (it has no Firewire port but my Mac has plenty of those on the front and the back.)
I used both in my work. I use a 23inch Apple cinema display for my illustration rig and 2 Dell displays for my work on my video/3d animation setup. The Dells outperform the Apple displays. This is why I chose to get a Dell monitor for my new 8 core Mac Pro.
Dells monitors are better and cheaper. It’s as simple as that. Maybe reading MDN you think Apple can do no wrong. But I’m no fanboy to any company. I go where the best performance is. The logo on the front doesn’t matter to me much.
I’m sure you think RAM bought from Apple at their crazy prices is better than the exact same RAM purchased from OWC to.
OK MDN, your comments are getting a little ridiculous. Stop acting like a jealous school kid and be a professional news source. Absurd…no wonder people have a bad taste in their mouth for Mac fanboys.
Oh and my Dell has Display Port, HDMI and memory card reader built in. Also I can rotate it when I paint in portrait view using Corel Painter. Nice option to have. It has newer LCD display with brighter colour. Oh and that extra inch helps. Try one you might just like it.
And while I’m not positive, I’m just about willing to guess that Apple’s Cinema Displays don’t have DHCP either…..
Should have bought the 22″ HP-it supports HDCP over DVI.
Little things like that is why HP is kicking Dell’s butt.
” . . . no wonder people have a bad taste in their mouth for Mac fanboys.”
That’s only because it doesn’t taste like chicken.
A year or two ago, finding monitors with HDCP was hard. Gateway was an early adopter. I have the same Dell monitor as the author, but it cost me $300 a couple years ago, while the Gateway with HDCP at the time was $500!
I’ve been posting in all these, why doesn’t iTunes download HD, and answering that MPAA requires a HDCP connection from start to end. No HDCP in a Mac, no HD movies.
HDCP HAS BEEN CRACKED!!
Like all copy protection schemes, they get broken by the pirates.
What HDCP is supposed to do is prevent not the experienced cracker, but prevent CASUAL PIRACY.
You see if Hollywood makes their stuff copy protected, gives all sorts of threatening warnings and such, most law abiding citizens will comply.
The pirate doesn’t give a rats ass if they copy protect it or not. He can still do what he wants.
The same idea applies to locking a house. It keeps the honest people honest.
A burglar just kicks the door in no problem.
Now it has been mentioned that with all these EFI based Mac’s being produced that Apple will begin crippling the video and audio outputs, using EFI to report/verify DRM schemes and monitor your content.
It’s 100% absolutely true. It’s coming for sure OR ELSE THEY WOULDN’T HAVE IMPLEMENTED EFI!!!
EFI was Intel’s brainchild, part of the Trusted Computing bullshit. The TCP module was no longer needed, the computer id is sufficient to implement trusted computing.
EFI is a very powerful firmware level, has it own boot environment. Read/write to media contact the internet without the OS even being loaded.
Good going hollywood. Treat every customer as a potential pirate. You only end up pushing more people to piracy. The music cartels tried shoving DRM down the collective throats of the consumer. As a result a large portion of the population now pirates music. All the DRM and lawsuits in the world have not been able to stop this. The consumer is going to conclude that they don’t need bluray, dvds, or hollywood to enjoy hidef content on their televisions and computers. They’ll just cut out the middle man. Why stay in a relationship where you’re constantly getting abused?
If people want to backup videos and movies they paid for they should be able to do it. Screw HDCP.
Brain Fart,
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Only Apple’s and Eizo’s high-end monitors are SWOPE certified for color accuracy. So you may think your Dell is better, and in some ways it is. For gaming it’s probably a better choice. But for serious work, there’s nothing like Apple or Eizo (which costs significantly more than Apple’s monitors).
I found that a small piece of black tape over the Dell logo on my 24″ monitor helps me sleep better at night
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A large piece of black tape around Michael Dell would be more fun.
I have to disagree with the Dell monitor dis. While I would never buy a Dell pc over a mac, their monitors are damned nice, and the price/value point is very good. I have the FPW 24 with dual inputs (hello, apple?) and it is perfect for my needs, which include both mac and pc gaming.
Apple is long overdue in updating their monitor line, unfortunately.
Oh, and I also disagree with the DRM nonsense that required corporate ass-kissing compatible hardware. This is something that we all really need to watch and speak out against, as the media industries are really trying to talk display and drive vendors in to firmware-imbedding their DRM nonsense.