The display is hard to read from much more than 5 feet. The display area is about the same as my NAD AVR (1.25" tall), but the dots are much smaller, and the 970 displays text on several lines, where my NAD displays text on only one line. It is like having a smaller font size in MS Word - you get more characters in the same space, but it is harder to read. Also, the 970 text is verbose, and does not use Icons (everything is written out in text, where my NAD uses Icons for things like Dobly and THX).
The display is one of my very few complaints. However, this isn't much of an issue now that I programmed my universal remote to work the 970, and have everything set up and configured.
I don't think HDCP comes into play with the 970's DVI switcher - it simply makes connections between the input and output (i.e. the source components don't see the 970 in the chain). I could be wrong on this. However, I am switching a HDCP compliant Motorola Cable Box via DVI w/o issues.