Displayport V1.2 To Take Giant Leap Over HDMI

An anonymous reader writes "With HDMI becoming increasingly common, Displayport has been slow to emerge as a widely used connection interface, but a plethora of new features in the new v1.2 standard could see that change. As well as doubling the data rate of the existing v1.1a standard to 21.6 Gbps, the update allows for multiple monitors to be connected to a single Displayport connector and adds support for transporting USB data at up to 720Mbps, enabling embedded webcams, speakers and USB hubs over a single cable. Ethernet data is also supported. The improved data rate will allow for richer, larger and higher resolution displays, and the new version is also backward compatible with the current display technology, so all the ports, cables and devices will be interchangeable, although they will revert to the lowest common denominator."

Comments

no no no no no!

[cybrthng]

HDMI is fine
Ethernet is fine

No more "super cables" for the sake of another super cable so i have to replace everything i own just to run a damned super cable.

Thanks.

Re:no no no no no!

[Fred_A]

OTOH Less cables is good as well. The cable mess is getting old pretty quick.

Re:no no no no no!

[Anonymous Coward]

um, hdmi is not fine.

hdmi doesnt have the bandwith, flexibility, or raw power computer users are going to need, and may need now.

Re:no no no no no!

[mad_minstrel]

Well if you're worried about security that much, I recommend duct tape over the lens.

Re:no no no no no!

[bennomatic]

So it may not seem like a huge advantage to do ethernet over your display cable, but the way I see it, that allows for a really nice consolidation of cables into a simple hub. If you've got a hub with an ethernet cable, a couple of USB's and a couple of these display port dealios, then you could have your whole desktop setup waiting for you when you get to your office/home with your laptop, and with one plug, you're wired to your network, keyboard, mouse, printer and display.

For my setup, I use wireless for printer and network, and I tried to do wireless (bluetooth) for keyboard and mouse, but it just wasn't quite the same, so when I get to my desk, I have to plug in power, monitor and USB to get going. Not a huge deal, but sometime in the not too distant future, I'm sure that'll seem archaic.

Re:no no no no no!

[b0bby]

Except that one cable to rule them all requires a ridiculously expensive cable to replace

I bet monoprice will have them cheap ;)

Re:no no no no no!

[Jeremy Erwin]

It also makes a very fat cable that is generally harder to bury somewhere so that it isn't visible.

Nonsense. Suppose I connect a bluray player to my receiver. The analogue route would involve 3 75 ohm video cables, and six analogue cables, A professional quality video connection would probably involve RG-6 coaxial cables, preferably with BNC connectors. Think CATV lead-- quarter inch think. A comparably over-engineered audio solution would probably involve balanced interconnects with XLR connectors.

The digital route would be one HDMI cable. It doesn't have to be all that thick-- perhaps the diameter of a single RG-6 cable. If you wanted to you could probably get a flat version with similar transmission characteristics.

9 cables versus one. Your choice.

Doubt it

[lyinhart]

DisplayPort seems like one of those technologies that have great mind share, as well as some advantages over the competing technology, but will never gain mainstream adoption (See: Firewire).

Argh!

[Jason daHaus]

All my cables are obsolete again!

Stupid answer

[FranTaylor]

My "Display" has a webcam and speakers. It is not some futuristic device.

It would be nice if it only needed one cable instead of three to hook it up to the computer.

Cable wars

[michaelmalak]

How is it that VGA was good for 15 years (1987-2002) and now we have, counting conservatively, three standards in 8 years (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort)? DVI itself has multiple incompatible sub-standards. Before VGA, CGA/EGA was good for 6 years.

Is it a lack of engineering foresight, or is it a cable war with companies jockeying for position?

I've noticed that new Dells are now coming with DisplayPort, and discovered that Dell was one of the instigators.

Another unrelated observation: this could obsolete USB, and thus USB thumb drives, and thus yet another data storage format becomes oprhaned. This was inevitable. USB has had a good 14 year run so far. It couldn't last forever, despite what people thought about USB "being different this time" regarding being able to access old data -- that somehow it was going to be different from floppies and tapes.

Re:Cable wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would a display cable obsolete USB? Because the cable carries USB data? That's just a feature to facilitate monitors with built-in USB hubs, which improve access to USB ports (if your computer is under your desk or somewhere else inaccessible). That wouldn't obsolete USB, it would improve its prevalence.

Re:So, they've created a docking station cable?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does that mean? If you create a high-capacity cable that isn't thicker than a pen and only requires a small end component, does it matter if you call it Docking Cable, Slowass Port, or Instamatic Teleportation Transfer? Maybe I'm missing something.

Re:Encoding and decoding for DRM

[tepples]

DRM is a defect and needs to die in the marketplace.

But unfortunately, the proponents of this defect own the incumbent news media. This makes it more difficult for free culture advocates to get the message out that DRM is a defect.

Re:Every VESA connector since VGA has been a failu

[j_sp_r]

Most projectors in offices take VGA, so if you have place/money for one connector on your laptop you put VGA on it.

Re:Migration path?

[petermgreen]

You forgot to mention that you're legally blind. I'm typing this on a 24" LCD at 1680x1050, and it looked like absolute crap with (good) VGA cables. Pixels were ghosted and there was no such thing as a single-pixel-wide vertical line. I have astigmatism and even I could tell that it was artifacted all to hell.
Sounds like something in the chain was shit, most likely the input circuitry in your display (i've noticed sucky VGA inputs seem to be a particular problem on HDTVs, haven't had the problem on a monitor myself but it wouldn't surprise me if there are some shit ones out there).