Systems and methods for filtering to comply with copy-protection regulations set forth for HDTV signals by the Motion Picture Association of America ("MPAA") are presented. A copy-protection filter constrains the resolution of the HDTV signal when copy-protection bits are present in a video signal. The copy-protection filter may be placed in an analog data stream before the video signal is converted from a digital to an analog signal. A second copy-protection filter is optionally placed in a digital data stream. The copy-protection filter may be combined with other filters in a video encoder, or with a scaler before the input video data stream enters a compositor.