HDTV madness
So I bought a PS3 two days ago. I was looking forward to finally use my somewhat old HDTV to enjoy 720p action. Ok, I have had some decent action with my XBox360, but you know, that’s still analog VGA.
The first thing that I thought was weird is that Sony does not ship the PS3 with any hires cables. No problem, i thought, just pay a few bucks more… As it turns out, Sony also does not sell any DVI-cables (my TV is about two years old and thus does not come with HDMI. Also the component input only allows for 576i). Luckily HDMI is just DVI+sound with a different plug, so I buy a HDMI->DVI cable. Now how do I get decent sound of my shiny PS3? With optical audio, of course. Unfortunately my amplifier does not support optical audio, so I head to a Hi-fi store and buy a new amplifier and optical wires. At last I have everything I need to enjoy superior picture quality.
I connect everything, select HDMI mode and…. nothing.
F*ck. I mess around a bit but the screen remains blank.
Googling around a bit I notice a lot of problems users are having with some HDTV’s. A term that I’ve not heard before is in most posts: HDCP – High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection. I’ve always thought of a TV being just a bloody stupid enhancement of the oscillator. A signal comes in and images are displayed. Boy have I been wrong. HDCP is a copy protection for the “last feet”. The signal that comes out of your Blue-Ray or HD-DVD is still encrypted, so that swappers have no easy way of recording that data-stream, and HDCP encrypts it just before it hits the screen. Ok, this surely is something that a mere mortal does not need to know, does he?
Well, he does, if he has bought his LCD HDTV a few years ago.
As it turns out my f*cking LG RZ-32LZ50 does not support HDCP.
Err, I’m quite certain that the store that sold me the LG said that the TV is HD-Ready. HD-Ready is a strandard which basically says that the TV has at least 768p resolution and supports HDCP (since most HDTV services, be it satellite or blue ray require HDCP).
So what happened? Well, the store actually did not use the term that described HD-Ready standard, but they had a sticker on the TV which said “HD-Valmis”. “Valmis” is a finnish word which translated into “Ready”. So they did not user the standard HD-Ready, which would have given me something to complain about (they promised me something that was incorrect, which by Finnish consumer law would have given my complaint quite a bit of leverage). But because they just said “You know, this TV is ready for some of the future services because it has good resolution”, I doubt I’ll ever be able to have them refund anything.
The point of this story? If you’re an early adapter of any technology, be sure that you know all the pitfalls involved, even if it’s a simple consumer electronics product such as a TV, Microwave-oven or toaster.
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Hi,
I have the same problem that you have: same TV, same PS3 and the enormous lack of information that LG (un)provides. I’ve tried many HDMI->DVI cables and none made it work. Also, the TV’s DVI input works as I have succesfully connected other DVI devices.
After some time digging in Google for answers, a common pattern began to emerge: perhaps the fuc*ing TV’s DVI input wasn’t exactly what the PS3 needs. Something to do with HDCP compatibility?
Thanks to your post everything fits in place. Some time ago, with the Xbox 360 I had to do something very similar to get to know the limitations and possibilities of the composite input. In the end some user in a forum stated that the limit was something like 576i and not the 720p which I was trying to use. Also the original brochure didn’t helped me at all!
By the way, I do remember removing an HD Ready sticker from the TV prior to its first use. But that was close to 2 years ago. It’d be difficult to reclaim anybody anything based on that…
Thanks for the info. Now I know that the PS3 to LG 32LZ50 won’t work at all in Hi-def through the DVI input. One reason more to get a new Tv some time in the future…