Problem with a new Blu-Ray player

[carlb]

I just purchased a Samsung BD-C6500 Blu-Ray player. I’ve got it connected via HDMI to a 2-1/2 year-old Samsung LN-T5265F LCD TV (the player is connected directly to the TV for video; audio is via optical cable through the receiver). Everything seems to function as it should, except that when watching anything off the Blu-Ray player I will periodically see a brief flash of white on the screen (most often only on the bottom half of the screen). It is very brief. If this were an actual film I would say it was only one frame’s worth of time. There does not appear to be any consistency in terms of frequency of this “flash.” Sometimes I will get several in quick succession, other times they are few and far between.

I have tried all three HDMI ports on the TV with the same result. I will try a brand-new HDMI cable tomorrow. I did some web searches, and have seen the suggestion that this could mean my TV is not HDCP compliant. I checked the owner’s manual for the TV, and didn’t see anything one way or another regarding HDCP.

So, I guess I have a few questions:
[ol]
[li]Has anyone else had this problem and, if so, how did you fix it?[/li][li]Anyone know how I can determine whether or not the TV is HDCP compliant (I’d rather not call Samsung if I don’t have to; their product support people have not impressed me)?[/li][li]If I am unable to resolve the problem with a new HDMI cable, can I use the component connections and still get a 1080p picture? One web site I found during my searching seemed to suggest that I would, but that some special features on some discs would not be available to me.[/li][/ol]
Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

[Valgard]

1. I have an older Samsung 720p DLP set and a PS3 as my BluRay player, I haven’t seen this problem.

2. If you look at the instruction manual for your set (available at Samsung’s website in PDF if you need a copy) (Page Not Found - SAMSUNG), on p10 where it describes how to connect a DVD player via HDMI it states that “The difference between HDMI and DVI is that the HDMI device is smaller in size and
   has the HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection) coding feature installed” (bolding mine); to me this indicates that this particular set plays nicely with HDCP (or they probably wouldn’t even mention it at all). Isn’t HDCP just part of the HDMI spec? Everything with an HDMI port speaks HDCP, so to speak.

3. I thought that 1080p requires the use of HDMI and that this was done specifically by the groups that came up with the standards to ensure that a full HD picture would only flow via a copy-protected link.

[carlb]

@Valgard

2. If you look at the instruction manual for your set (available at Samsung’s website in PDF if you need a copy) (Page Not Found - SAMSUNG), on p10 where it describes how to connect a DVD player via HDMI it states that “The difference between HDMI and DVI is that the HDMI device is smaller in size and
   has the HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection) coding feature installed” (bolding mine); to me this indicates that this particular set plays nicely with HDCP (or they probably wouldn’t even mention it at all). Isn’t HDCP just part of the HDMI spec? Everything with an HDMI port speaks HDCP, so to speak.

That’s what I thought as well, but I’m not as current on A/V technology as I’d like to be.

@Valgard

3. I thought that 1080p requires the use of HDMI and that this was done specifically by the groups that came up with the standards to ensure that a full HD picture would only flow via a copy-protected link.

My understanding is that component has the “bandwidth” to handle 1080p but, like you said, doesn’t accommodate the copy-protection the content providers wanted.