Learning (too late) about HDCP

[muckymuck]

I just got my new internal LiteOn 401S this week ($119 at NewEgg - great deal). The installation went well enough, but that was pretty much where the fun stopped. I'm not sure how I missed it all, but I guess I didn't realize everything that would be required to play BD on a PC.

The PC itself should be no problem. Core 2 E8400, clocked at 3.6GHz, video card is a GeForce 8600GTS. First it was the issue with the monitor. I got an error about my display not being HDCP compliant. I'm using the bundled PowerDVD "BD Edition", an LCD monitor connected via DVI, and apparently, neither my 20" Samsung nor my 19" FujiPlus (no suprise there) monitor is HDCP compliant. I've had to resort to an analog VGA connection for the monitor. With that I can play some BD content, but never the feature movie itself. Once I get to the main menu, I can't get beyond it. And what material I can play, plays only in a small window - full-screen playback causes the bottom section of the screen to turn into a vertical blur that looks like a watery reflection of the bottom section of the picture. Oh, and I'm running XP Pro.

This stinks! It looks like I'll need a new monitor, but would even that allow me to play the actual movie? Full-screen? Is this a software issue? I'm thinking about returning the BD drive back to NewEgg and sticking to my Panasonic BD player.