Passively Monitoring Between A Source And Sink Device; Running Hdmi Tests Using The Pass-Through Mode - Quantum Data Gen 2 980 User Manual

980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer User Guide Rev. A1

9 Passively Monitoring between a Source and Sink Device

This chapter describes how to use the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer to passively monitor protocol, metadata, timing
and auxiliary data between an HDMI source and an HDMI sink. There are two configuration modes, the
Pass-Through mode and the optional Encrypted Link Analyzer mode. These are described below.
9.1.1 Pass-Through
In the pass-through monitoring configuration the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer HDMI Rx port is connected to the
source device under test and the 980 HDMI Tx port is connected to a sink device. The pass-through mode enables
you to monitor the HDMI traffic passively between an HDMI source and an HDMI sink device. If the video content
from the source device is unencrypted you will be able to see all the data through the capture period. If the video
content from the source device is encrypted with HDCP you will be able to see all the data and the incoming video
up until encryption is enabled. Once encryption is enabled, you will be able to see the HDMI DDC and CEC
transactions and the timing parameters but not the HDMI data islands. The HDCP transactions that you will see
are the transactions that occur between the source and the sink device. In pass-through mode the 980 passes
through the EDID of the display to the source device under test. The 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer does not function
as an HDCP repeater.
9.1.2 Encrypted Link Analyzer
In the (optional) Encrypted Link Analyzer configuration the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer HDMI Rx port is connected
to the source device under test and the 980 HDMI Tx port is connected to a sink device. The Encrypted Link
Analyzer configuration enables you to monitor and analyze HDCP encrypted protocol data transmitted between an
HDMI source device and sink device. Note that you will not be able to view the HDCP transactions between the
source and the sink. With the Encrypted Link Analyzer you can investigate HDMI interoperability while the content
is encrypted by viewing the metadata in real time and observing the behavior of the downstream sink device. The
Encrypted Link Analyzer enables you to capture the encrypted metadata and store it for detailed analysis. With the
capture operation, you can monitor the downstream HDMI sink device for particular symptoms and then initiate a
capture when the symptoms exhibit themselves. This ensures that the relevant data—data related to
interoperability—is captured.
9.2

Running HDMI tests using the Pass-Through Mode

This section describes how to use the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer Pass-Through feature in the Capture and Store
mode. The Pass-Through mode enables you to monitor the HDMI traffic passively between an HDMI source and
an HDMI sink device.
In the Pass-Through mode the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer Rx port is connected to the source device under test
and the 980 HDMI Protocol Analyzer Tx port is connected to a display device. The source device can be used with
HDCP authentication and encryption but you will not be able to see the encrypted data or video once the data is
encrypted. If the video content from the source device is encrypted with HDCP you will be able to see all the data
until encryption is enabled. Once encryption is enabled, you will only be able to see the DDC, CEC traffic and the
timing parameters.
Note: Pass through on the Tx port is limited to 165MHz.
The setup is depicted in the illustration below for HDMI testing.
Page 202 December 19, 2012