How to fix "not HDCP compliant" issue?

[unclebun]

Have an HTPC that has been running Windows 7 64 bit Media Center perfectly fine for a year. On Dec 11, a Windows Update pretty much crashed the computer, leaving it booted to a desktop containing a message that Windows was non-genuine. Fortunately, I have a Windows Home Server, so did a bare-metal restore from the day before, and everything worked fine. The next morning it had successfully done the Windows Update, but the telltale popup windows saying a program was unable to be recorded in the wee hours of the morning were there. Tried watching live TV and got the message about non HDCP display.

Anybody have a straightforward method of fixing this?

The computer uses an A8-7650K, using the onboard video. It is connected via HDMI cable to an LG 43" HD Smart TV that is less than a year old. Nothing in the hardware has changed since two days ago when everything worked fine.

[unclebun]

Just an update. I can still record programs and watch them. But it won't let me watch live TV. Any thoughts?

[Space]

A bare-metal restore (which I had to look up) apparently is like reinstalling windows (it is not an image restore). So if that is the case, any copy protected recordings you had made prior to the restore will no longer be viewable. If you don't have a disk image of your system disk that can be restored, then there is no way to ever view these old copy protected videos.

The best way to fix this is to restore a backup of the imaged system disk, but if you don't have that, then you have to live with not being able to watch any old copy protected recordings you may have.

Now for your other problem, I am not clear what the problem is. You first say that you had a recording fail, but did no mention why it said it failed, then in your second post you say that recordings are fine. Are you able to record copy protected (copy once) recordings? Or are you saying that non copy protected recordings are working but copy protected ones are not?

If your problem is no longer with recording, but just with playback, then that is a separate issue.

If you are unable to watch live TV and also are unable to watch copy protected recordings that were made after you did the restore/reinstall (but non-copy protected recordings play back fine), then the problem is WMC not recognizing your TV as HDCP compliant.

You can read this post to see if anything there can help. I had a HDCP problem in the past that had me doing all kinds of things to get it to work (reinstalling graphics drivers, etc.), and in the end it turned out to be a bad/flaky HDMI connector on the TV, so I would verify that the HDMI cable/connector are good before doing anything else.

[jachin99]

I would look through the forums to see what others have done about that message. Space mentioned HDMI cable weirdness, and I have seen this happen a few times before. What it basically boils down to is tiny variations in voltage I believe. I have to disagree about the bare metal restore though because I also have homeserver, and use it for backups. You should have just restored your machine to the same state it was in when the backup occurred, correct? I would guess that would include playready keys and all. Try running the restore again. I have had to perform a few do-overs to get homeserver backups working correctly.

[Jeeshman]

I get this about once per night or so. For me, it's the HDMI cable. The system occasionally checks to see if there's a true HDMI digital connection between the computer and the TV, and my cheapo HDMI cable will sometimes fail the check. If I turn off the TV, wait for about 20 seconds and turn it back on again, I get the TV signal back.

[unclebun]

Just to clear things up, jachin99 is correct. A bare metal restore with a home server restores a backed up image from a previous backup (which is automatically performed twice a day). So when I restore back to a date when everything worked fine, it should put everything back exactly the way it was.

I seriously doubt the HDMI cable is at fault. It's the same cable that I have been using since I built this particular computer a year ago, and until the failed Windows Update on 12/11/18 caused Windows to crash and give me the "not genuine" warning on the desktop, I have been able to watch live TV perfectly well. I know for a fact that on the afternoon of 12/10 I watched Velocity channel while riding my exercise bike.

As I said in my addendum, it is recording programs according to the same schedule it has had previously, and it lets me watch them without problems.

To test it, I turned on the Guide and chose a program to watch live. I got the message that "you may not have an HDCP compliant display, yada, yada. Stop the playback, hit the record button on the exact same program it just refused to show me. It records just fine. While it's recording, I can go to Recorded Programs and start watching it. It plays the recording back just fine. Stop the recording, go back to the Guide and try to watch the exact same program live, it gives me the HDCP error screen again.

[jachin99]

If that is the case I would stop backups on your server for now so no good backups are overwritten with bad ones. I would then try the restore again. Maybe even pick a different backup.

[Space]

If it was a full image backup and restore then I would still say you have a bad HDMI connection, either the cable has gone bad or the connector on the TV. If you have another cable and/or another HDMI port on the TV, then what harm is there in trying a new cable and port? At the very least just check the connection to make sure it is secure.

A bad physical connection doesn't explain the failed recording, but you never mentioned why it failed and it may not be related to this problem at all.

The symptoms you describe in your latest post are exactly what would happen if WMC thought you had a non-HDCP complaint display, ie: you cannot play live TV for ANY channel, even channels that are not copy protected (however minimizing the window and then maximizing will allow you to view live TV if the channel is not copy protected), however you can record them fine (both copy protected and non-copy protected channels) and you can then watch the program you just recorded fine (unless it was copy protected, then you will get the same error message as you did watching live TV).

So essentially, with a bad HDCP connection, you cannot watch any channel live and you cannot playback recordings that are copy protected.

You can see someone with a similar problem here and I gave the same advice, unfortunately he never came back to tell us if the problem was resolved: viewtopic.php?t=10916

I haven't run windows update on my Win7 WMC machine in a very long time, so it is also possible that an update is causing this, but then I would assume many others would also be reporting this problem unless it is specific to your system for some reason.

[unclebun]

I swapped the HDMI cable with the one that connects the cable box to the TV. I was able to watch live TV. Then I swapped them back. And I can watch live TV now on the same cable that before was associated with the "not HDCP compliant" screen. So though I can now watch live TV, there is no rational reason why I could not before. I am using the same cable that gave me the error message.

If I had to guess, what really happens is that once Media Center has the error message about HDCP non-compliance, it will not reset it until some hardware changes. Then it will actually recheck for HDCP compliance. In this case, I believe that somehow the restored backup doesn't have things quite right with digital rights and so throws the error message, but will not actually check the hardware.

It is probably analogous to the problem which happens with some regularity where it will say no tuners are available for a recording. Once it has said that, you cannot get it to record or display TV until you restart the computer, and then miraculously everything works fine again, when in reality nothing changed.

[Space]

Some HDMI cables can be finicky. If a cable is going bad, it may work sometimes and at other times not. But it could also just be a loose connection to the port (or the port is flaky).

When I was having my troubles, I thought swapping cables fixed the issue, but then it came back some days later. It turned out to be a problem with the HDMI connector on the back of the TV. The connection was "loose" and I assume vibrations caused the cable to lose some of the needed connectivity. I have stabilized the cable now (it was a heavy cable pulling down on the connector), and have not had a problem in a long time.

If you want to read about my adventure with this issue it is here. Warning, it is long and goes in to some detail, but may also give you some insight as to why I was so strongly advising you to check the connection before you started doing anything else with the software on your system.