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Need HDCP-recognizing Bootcamp Windows driver for MacBook Pro's screen

I need a Bootcamp Windows driver for my MacBook Pro 15/Retina (MBR) that recognizes that the MBR's built-in screen in HDCP-compliant. The current Bootcamp drivers for Windows do recognized HDCP on an external HDMI-connected display, but do not recognized HDCP on the internal display.


BTW, I've read some statements that Windows drivers don't recognize HDCP via DisplayPort connections, so I wonder if Apple is using internal wiring that acts like it's a DisplayPort connection?


Please do not suggest things that only enable disabling DRM HDCP protection from Blu-Ray discs. I need a solution that to cooperate with DRM HDCP protection for content from live tuners, not from a Blu-Ray or DVD disc.


My application is using Windows Media Center (WMC) to play streaming content from my Silicon Dust HD HomeRun Prime (HDHR3) cable TV tuner on my MBR's built-in screen. This works fine with an external HDMI-connected (HDCP-capable) display, but I also want to get this working on my laptop's screen for when I'm stuck in bed (illness, bad back, etc.). The only application Silicon Dust offers for viewing HDHR3 tuner output on Windows (or any platform, as far as I know) which supports all protected cable channels is WMC, and WMC relies on the Apple-provided Windows NVIDIA drivers for HDCP capability. The NVIDIA Control Panel explicitly recognizes my external HDMI-connected monitor's HDCP capability, but does not recognize the MBR's internal screen has having any HDCP. This causes WMC to prevent the display of any TV channels at all from the HDHR3 when the only screen is the internal one (and it blocks DRM-protected channels if both screens are active in parallel).


I'm thinking that the best solution would be an NVIDIA driver for the built-in GeForce GT 650M for Windows 8 (or 7) which recognizes HDCP capability via DisplayPort. Is there anything like that? Or, alternately, some add-in driver that adds a layer of HDCP capability recognition to the standard drivers?


Is there any currently-available solution? . . . something that will enable the internal screen to play all the tuner's cable channels including DRM-protected ones (either on Bootcamp'ed Windows or on the OS X side)?


P.S. -- FYI, the only other potential app I've read about for using an external tuner with a MacBook is an OS X version of MythTV, but (a) that requires an excessively long list of geek tweek steps (install an SQL application, create an SQL database, do lots of command-line tweaks, add & configure a backend app and then a frontend app, ... ) and (b) even then it seems it doesn't support channels that aren't marked "copy-freely", i.e., HDCP-enabled DRM protected content.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Windows 8

Posted on Jan 11, 2013 6:22 AM

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6 replies

Jan 11, 2013 11:42 AM in response to saturnotaku

sig & saturnotaku,


Both very good suggestions.


I'll definitely try the newer drivers from NVIDIA first, but not until I've made my next full backup in a few days, just in case something gets messed up.


It looks like some moderator unilaterally moved this discussion over to the Bookcamp forum for me. I might need to move a copy of my question back to the MacBook Pro forum later, though, since the specific problem is about drivers for the built-in screen which desktop Macs don't have.


Thanks.

Jan 21, 2013 6:09 AM in response to macimby

Strange -- sig's comment seems gone now. I wonder why.


Anyway, I did try the latests NVidia drivers yesterday, afterall they explicitly say they added HDCP over DisplayPort, but no joy. In the NVidia control panel (for Windows), external displays via HDMI have a left-menu section for HDCP that explicitly shows it's working, but there is still no such indication for the internal display, and I am still unable to use WMC with HD HomeRun Prime cablecard tuner to play anything on the screen except channels that the provider marks "copy freely" (e.g., Bloomberg news channel 722 isn't playable, but MSNBC 723 is playable).


My guess is that maybe laptop internal displays don't explicitly have internal DisplayPort and HDCP technology but have some kind of exception that normally allows playback?


As an alternative I wish there were cablecard tuner playback software on the OS X side that could play more than "copy freely" cablecard-tuned material, but there doesn't seem to be anything comparable to Windows Media Player that supports that. (Now it should be clearer why this discussion belongs under MacBook Pro and not under Bootcamp where the moderators moved it.)

Need HDCP-recognizing Bootcamp Windows driver for MacBook Pro's screen

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