is there a simple tool to determine if my combo of video card and TV is HDCP compatible?

Question

I'm using Arcsoft TMT3 to play Blurays. It's been playing fine for a few years but all of a sudden TMT3 says that my system isn't HDCP compatible. No changes to anything in the system -- possibly a change to Win7, upgrade to SP1. The manufacturer of TMT3 thinks the issue is with the vid card driver but I'm getting the same results before and after an update to the vid card driver.

I wonder if there is a simple tool I can use to determine if my setup is HDCP compliant? That way I can determine if it's an issue with the video card or the player software.

Solution 1

Cyberlink has a free utility that's intended to assess Blu-Ray and 3D playback readiness. While you're asking about the more general case of HDCP compatibility, period, the requirements are essentially the same and this will even break down component by component what the problem is.

Solution 2

The nVidia control panel will display the HDCP status of your card, cable, and display. You'd still need another tool to check the drive and anything else, though.

Have you recently added any drivers? I think windows disables HDCP when certain drivers are loaded because the drivers could access decrypted data and can't be trusted to not abuse that privilege (unsigned drivers, or if you're running windows with driver signing disabled).

Solution 3

I was looking for something like this to test if I could watch purchased Amazon videos in HD, but I didn't really want to download and install anything to my machine.

Amazon actually has a free video linked to in their documentation which can give you an idea of whether your setup supports HDCP. One thing that it doesn't seem to do is explain why your setup doesn't support it. (I think in my case it's my dual monitor setup again.)

December 2020 update

The text of the now removed documentation page, from archive.org:

HDCP for Amazon Video on Computers

You can only stream Amazon Video content in HD through your computer's web browser if your computer and connected display screen(s) meet HDCP requirements.

You can check whether your computer is HDCP-compliant by playing this free movie. Use the video player's HD indicator to determine if your device meets requirements:

• If the HD indicator is illuminated, HDCP requirements have been met and the video is playing in HD.
• If the HD indicator is dim, HDCP requirements have been met, but the video isn’t playing in HD because your Internet connection isn’t fast enough.
• If the HD indicator is disabled, HDCP requirements have not been met and the video is playing in SD. Hover your mouse over the HD indicator to see a message explaining why HDCP requirements have not been met.

Note: Some Video Graphics Array (VGA) and Digital Visual Interface (DVI) connections and monitors don't support HDCP, which may prevent your computer from meeting HDCP requirements.

For more information, go to System Requirements for Streaming on Your Computer.

So if you can find a free, HD video on Amazon Prime Video, it sounds like you can verify HDCP on your machine.

Comments

[uxout]

Has the gear attached to the output changed at all? Is there a driver installed for the display itself?

[jcollum]

No, TV has been same for 2 years. No driver installed for the display. It's just a pretty standard HDTV.

[uxout]

Ouch! I've used it successfully before myself so I don't know what's different here. (FYI, if it's an Nvidia driver that version number probably is right - the version you see when you download it is the PACKAGE version, not the actual driver version itself. I'm running 266.58 here but Device Manager shows the video driver as 8.17.12.6658 - notice how the last five digits match.)

[jcollum]

It may have been reporting correctly then, since I was using the tool over Remote Desktop. I ran it directly on the TV and it found the TV and the BD drive. Arcsoft also has a tool to do this, called BD HD Assistant or something like that.

[jcollum]

Yikes, hadn't considered that. I haven't changed any components in the system for quite some time, even the mouse has been the same for more than 6 months. Wonder how I'll track down unsigned drivers...

[Felix Dombek]

This tool is awesome. I came here because the Win10 Amazon app would not play HD video. The tool determined that a Intel SGX driver was missing and could even install it for me. This incidentally also enabled HTPC video on Amazon!

[Muneeb Zulfiqar]

Sadly it doesn't work outside the US.

[James Skemp]

And they removed the documentation, with no alternative (that I can find at least). :( Text pulled from the Wayback Machine, but it sounds like if you can find a free video on Amazon Prime Video, you should get an indication on if your setup supports HDCP. If that's not an option, looks like installing a program as suggested by the other answers would be the alternative.

[Matthew Herbst]

I wonder how they do it though. Clearly there is some JavaScript running in the browser that's checking right?

[James Skemp]

I don't know if it's JavaScript, or if it's part of the logic that handles video. My assumption was and is the latter. But I honestly don't know.