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Pro broadcast use of ATV (HDCP)?

R

Ragnar-Kon

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2011
41
0
I am trying to setup an AppleTV-based pack for use in a professional broadcast market. Reason why is many of our clients would like to use their iPads/iPhones to share content. Our solution is to use an AppleTV with AirPlay, but we are running into a variety of issues regarding HDCP.

At the moment we are running an AppleTV into an AJA FS2 (http://www.aja.com/en/products/fs2/#/overview) to convert it from HDMI to SDI. The FS2 does NOT support HDCP, which is perfectly fine as the content we are sharing is not protected.

However, whenever we play video from any source the dreaded HDCP screen flashes for a couple of seconds and then the screen goes blank. The video we are playing came from a variety of sources (Sony camera, Panasonic camera, Android cellphone) all of which do not have any HDCP protection. We even recorded a little video using the iPad's camera, and yet the HDCP error is still triggered.

I am under the assumption that AppleTV does not activate HDCP until it plays a video that has HDCP. Am I incorrect?

Also, has anyone attempted to convert the ATV's HDMI to SDI using the AJA HA5 or the BlackMagic equivalent (http://www.aja.com/en/products/mini-converters/ha5/#/overview)? For some reason it does not work.
 
C

CPD_1

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2007
283
1
South East Texas
Are you experiencing this only on AirPlay? I could be wrong, but I think AirPlay looks for HDCP compliance on everything it sends regardless of source.
 
B

Bfarmer38119

macrumors regular
May 27, 2012
110
27
Memphis
Ragnar-Kon said:
I am trying to setup an AppleTV-based pack for use in a professional broadcast market. Reason why is many of our clients would like to use their iPads/iPhones to share content. Our solution is to use an AppleTV with AirPlay, but we are running into a variety of issues regarding HDCP.

At the moment we are running an AppleTV into an AJA FS2 (http://www.aja.com/en/products/fs2/#/overview) to convert it from HDMI to SDI. The FS2 does NOT support HDCP, which is perfectly fine as the content we are sharing is not protected.

However, whenever we play video from any source the dreaded HDCP screen flashes for a couple of seconds and then the screen goes blank. The video we are playing came from a variety of sources (Sony camera, Panasonic camera, Android cellphone) all of which do not have any HDCP protection. We even recorded a little video using the iPad's camera, and yet the HDCP error is still triggered.

I am under the assumption that AppleTV does not activate HDCP until it plays a video that has HDCP. Am I incorrect?

Also, has anyone attempted to convert the ATV's HDMI to SDI using the AJA HA5 or the BlackMagic equivalent (http://www.aja.com/en/products/mini-converters/ha5/#/overview)? For some reason it does not work.
Click to expand...

What cabling and connectors are you using and what are your output display devices?

Are there are any other components/converters/adapters in the chain?
 
R

Ragnar-Kon

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2011
41
0
CPD_1 said:
Are you experiencing this only on AirPlay? I could be wrong, but I think AirPlay looks for HDCP compliance on everything it sends regardless of source.
Click to expand...

Well the idea is to use AirPlay with the pack, that way a customer can just come in with his or her personal iPhone/iPad. I haven't tried non-protected movies without AirPlay as that more or less ruins the entire idea behind the pack. But perhaps I will try it just for kicks and giggles.

And if you are correct with HDCP compliance on everything through AirPlay... that's dumb :p


Bfarmer38119 said:
What cabling and connectors are you using and what are your output display devices?

Are there are any other components/converters/adapters in the chain?
Click to expand...

The display is an Ikegami 8" HLM-910R professional display, but I've also used other displays as a test. The cabling chain goes somewhat like this:

AppleTV --HDMI--> FrameSync (FS2) --SDI--> Ikegami

Both cables are professional quality cables, and I have tested the path with other HDMI devices, such as a Panasonic camera, Sound Devices PIX240, and a Sony Bluray recorder. All of those devices work with non-protected content.

The only path that didn't work was coming directly out of the iPad using the digital AV adapter, but I expected this since the iPad doesn't output a traditional HD resolution.

So I guess the question is... does the Apple TV apply HDCP to all video files through AirPlay, regardless of whether the files themselves are protected or not?
 
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