I was an awkward teenager when the movie "Tango and Cash" came out. There was this girl, who was also a teenager, but awkward is NOT a word that applied to her (even though "hottie" wasn't part of the vernacular yet, she defined it). I asked her to see "Tango and Cash" with me because I knew she liked Kurt Russell. I also thought she would hold my hand and think I was cool. She said no. I felt bad.

I feel worse now;HDCP is preventing me from buying a new 23 or 24'' monitor. You know the drill by now. I won't mention the Dell 2407 in this post...well, more than once anyway.

So your present monitor is capable of high-def display, but certain content will be downgraded because your GPU and/or display is not HDCP compliant ("compatible" and "compliant" are two different animals). The content producers, such as Big Hollywood, demand protection like HDCP, but it renders exisiting PC equipment somewhat obsolete.

Now you need to "upgrade", and it's not because of technology (we've established that your equipment may already be capable of such resolutions), but because ideas for content protection have lagged woefully behind existing electronic products. One group of people have oodles of ideas, others remain essentially clueless.

The tango between consumer and the "big" executives goes on. We spend (lots of) cash, in this case because implementing HDCP is "their" foot solider in the piracy battle. The equation involving existing PC monitors and early adaptors seems to add up as "we'll hobble their present gear and force them to buy new stuff."

a PC monitor should last a very long time and frame the rest of your system. When technology outpaces decent ideas we get HDCP and this whole PC monitor fiasco.

By the way, in the Battle Of Ideas, some "consumers" seem to be fighting back...

Anyone Remember DVD-Jon?