Another twisty maze of Windows error messages

UPDATE: 8/20/2008 - finally after eight months it seems the latest G33 drivers from Intel have fixed this problem for me, or at least I think that is what did it. While investigating some other issues (actually HD audio support of the new G45 boards) I discovered that there were new Realtek ALC889A audio drivers. Of course I've since learned that those have nothing to do digital output, only analog out and analog in. But while I was looking at those I noticed there were new G33 drivers on the Intel site. Although the 14.34.4.4964 release notes say nothing about HDMI issues I installed those - but I think actually installing the Realtek drivers also installed the latest Intel HD Audio drivers - my control panel says its Intel HD Audio HDMI 5.10.0.1044 (6/13/2008) - so I think I got them one way or the other. Anyway initially there appeared to be no change in Netflix behavior - same old error when I went to digital output path (HDCP capable DVI), but then I tried a trick for a similar problem suggested in a thread at AVS Forum which is to set speakers to stereo in the control panel. I did this, tweaked some other settings and restarted IE and the Netflix player - low and behold it worked, and kept playing. I then went back and set my speakers to 5.1 again, untweaked the other settings I'd messed with and rebooted and it still worked. As far as I can tell changing the speaker setting must have reset something and cause Windows Media Player to get past its remembered DRM blockage - but I'm pretty sure the new driver update from Intel was what really allowed things to work. If anyone reads this and needs to compare settings of my working system I'll be happy to post them.

So yesterday it is Christmas day and after an unusually quite day I'm looking for something to watch, having running out of NetFlix movies I decided to bust out the NetFlix "Watch Now" option. I've used this before on my old system and it was okay - had a few problems with connectivity and also my system new could keep up with full screen mode. So with great expectations I pick out "Helvetica" a quirky documentary about the Helvetica font (actually if you have any interest in design its pretty darned interesting). After checking the first couple of minutes the quality looks great - better than DVD even, and full screen works a charm. So I invite my gf over and we sit down to watch.

10 minutes into it "boom". Well not literally "boom", but up there on the screen is an error message saying "Windows Meida Player has experienced an error" and goes on to give the details "WMPError (C00D1052) Windows Media Player cannot play the protected file. The player detected that the connection to your hardware might not be secure."

This immediately smacks of trying to get protected content over a non-HDCP capable link. But I figure I'm only using DVI and I thought DVI doesn't do HDCP so why would this be a problem - I mean I used DVI before on my old system and didn't have this problem. I just figured I would automatically get lower quality video without HDCP if the link wasn't capable. Anyway I try playing the movie again and this time it fails after a few seconds of playback. Then I try looking at the NetFlix link for information and that has nothing about this error or HDCP. It also seems to have no way to electronically file a bug report, only a phone number. I call the number not expecting anything - it is Christmas after all, but it does say until 2am EST so what the heck. It answers after the first ring but I end up with hold music for several minutes and give up.

Next day (today) I start Googling the error - turns out the ONLY page mentioning C00D1052 is a blog post from someone early in 2007 saying they got the error but could find nothing on Google. Now I guess there is on more page... this one. There's a few more links with Microsoft search, none of them indicating what the bug is, but interestingly this error code doesn't even appear on their support site. There's a C00D1053 but no 1052. Nada, zip, zilch - what the heck happened and am I cursed or what?

So I call up NetFlix and within seconds I'm talking to a very helpful support guy - there's no escalation required, he knows his stuff, isn't reading from a script and can answer any questions I ask. He gets me to bring up dxdiag and verify my display adapter and driver versions. Then he asks me to do a drmreset which involves downloading a tool from the NetFlix site. At the time I say that this makes sense because I migrated my system over to a new motherboard - writing this I realize that wasn't the case and hence I'd never used NetFlix on this computer image before.

Anyway I do the reset - it fails the first time and I have to reboot. Then I try again and it succeeds. So we try playing video and it has me install some DRM code before playing but then I get green flashing. The tech has me adjust some Windows Media player display settings to disable the video mixing render (he knows exactly where to send me) and then we try again. Boom! I get a new error message - this time is C00D11B1. So the tech has me do the reset operation again and this time it works first time (no reboot) but on trying to play content again I still get the same error.

Eventually the tech informs me that I probably do need either an HDCP capable monitor, to find a way to disable HDCP over DVI via some adapter specific configuration which understandably he couldn't help me with, or to watch the movie via an RGB connection, not DVI. Begrudgingly I agree to try RGB and hang up - although I have to say I was very impressed with the NetFlix tech support experience especially considering I wasn't transfered a single time. Maybe over the holidays they have their own tech guys answering phones directly and I just got lucky?

So I went and tried looking at my GMA-3100 settings and couldn't find anything about disabling HDCP, in fact there is no mention of it, just standard stuff for single vs dual monitor modes. Anyway I plug in the RGB cable and select Twin View mode, switch my monitor to RGB input and start watching the movie again. This time it plays although the quality is noticeably more blocky. It looks like I got the lower quality version of the video this time - after about 10 minutes I switch the monitor to DVI and the video looks the same and keeps playing. After watching the entire thing I try unpluging the RGB cable and playing again - the quality is high again but after a minute or so the C00D11B1 error appears again. So it definitely looks like having RGB monitor output forces the Windows media player to disable HDCP and give me the lower quality unprotected media even though I can switch to DVI afterwards. At least this is a workaround.

But... I'm still puzzled as to why it is trying to give me the HDCP protect stuff in the first place. My Dell 2407WFP supposedly isn't HDCP capable - well I assumed that because I thought HDCP required HDMI. I do some Googling and quickly find that several threads on Dells support forums stating that it is HDCP capable - you can do it over DVI and all the way up to 1080p. But then I look at my G33M-S2H mobo and according to its specs it only does HDCP over the HDMI output, not the DVI output. But it has a note that it can't yet do BluRay/HD-DVD over HDMI due to driver limitations. So really now I'm still wondering what the problem is... is there a driver problem, a cable problem, a resolution problem or some other setting I didn't set or maybe just a plain old bug?

To be sure I've put in an order for an HDMI to DVI cable from NewEgg - there's a nice 10' Rosewill 1080p capable one for only $12 and being 10' it will save me using an extension on my current DVI cable (hmmm, maybe that is the problem?). In the mean time I'm hoping this information may be of information to anyone else who gets the obscure and so far undocumented Windows media player error C00D1052 - I feel honored to be the first to post any information about it, including Microsoft!

UPDATE: I've started to notice hits from web searches on the ellusive C00D1052 and I wish I had some solution by now. Unfortunately my HDMI to DVI cable arrived and had no effect at all - the error C00D11B1 came up right away from the NetFlix player. So I'm back to concluding it is some Windows or driver bug. Bugger!