question re: screening blu-ray

[Steve Guttag]

How to bypass EDID handshakes and to also verify HDCP compliance? Use one HDMI cable (allways the best you can get), from your source to the projector, but with an extra HDMI to DVI-D converter at the end, and connect it to the projector. You get a perfect digital image without black screens because it cannot check any EDID and HDCP compliance. Works every time and the player recognise the projector. Make all connections before power up, because the system verify all inputs in use when powers up. Later is possible but is more difficult and stressful till it works.

Minimizing the signal path is indeed one's best chance at minimizing EDID and HDCP's influence. However, that would preclude cueing up the movie ahead of time...th OP's topic. Furthermore, a source (e.g. Blu-ray player) checks HDCP compliance regularly. It is not a 1 and done. There are devices that will send whatever EDID you want, if that was the issue.

As to cables, when I can, I use an HDMI to DVI cable, when possible...rather than have the HDMI to DVI adapter. the HDMI cable and DVI adapter really cause it to hang out and sag.

What is starting to look very promising is AV over IT (AOIT) solutions like those from Visionary Solutions. They tend to take the differences out of the system and allow it to expand to exactly fit the complexity of the system...like a perfectly sized matrix switcher. The down side is the cost of the endpoints. You'll easily spend more on an encoder than the Blu-ray player that plugs into it. But, the transport mechanism for AOIT is standard CAT5e/CAT6 and high bandwidth managed switches (Netgear has a line up that seems to be the favored brand for most of the AV world). This allows one to put the endpoints right where the devices are and everything is a sink and source...so no HDCP or EDID issues, per-say. I've noted that the Visionary Solutions modules I've used are also capable of scaling and frame rate conversions. So, if the Blu-ray player is outputting 1080/24p, the projector will play it at that rate/resolution and the preview monitor will get a frame-rate converted (and scaled, if necessary) version for cuing. Additionally, since it behaves like a matrix switcher, you can cue things up without even sending the Blu-ray to the projector. While AOIT is more money (a lot) than just connecting a player to a projector, they are cheaper and more versatile than traditional HDMI infrastructure. They are also, typically PoE devices so they can also be mobile and move from theatre-to-theatre, as needed with only low-cost CAT cable as the permanent installation.