If you??™re using a laptop, you??™ll need a DVIequipped
video card for your ExpressCard slot (or PC Card, if it??™s an older
model), and these can be very spendy.
Media Center Annoyances | 197
Working with
Media
Now, any modern HD television set will either have a DVI or HDMI plug
(tired of acronyms yet?). If it??™s DVI, then it??™s a simple matter of connecting
your PC to your TV with an ordinary DVI monitor cable. HDMI, luckily,
is basically the same thing as DVI, albeit with audio, and you can get
HDMI-to-DVI adapters readily from small, mom-and-pop computer stores
or on eBay.
As you??™re setting up your nifty, all-digital home theater PC
system, you may hit a roadblock in the form of HDCP
(High-bandwith Digital Content Protection). HDCP is a
nasty form of copy protection imposed upon high-definition
content, such as that from an HD DVD or Blu-Ray drive, or
HD cable signal. (For those interested, there??™s a rant about
this in the preface.) An in-depth discussion of HDCP is
beyond the scope of this book, but suffice it to say, it may be
the reason you??™re getting a black screen instead of the movie
you??™re trying to play.
If your TV has no digital video inputs??”or if they??™re already being used??”
your next-best option is to use a DVI-to-composite adapter (also available
on eBay). Although your TV??™s composite inputs are analog (not digital), they
do support 16:9 wide format and progressive-scan video, which will still
look a lot better than S-Video or (gasp) RCA connectors.
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