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3D HDMI Specification Is Set Free

Posted by kdawson on from the seeing-double dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The licenser of the HDMI specification has announced the intent to 'secure the application of 3D' by making the 3D portion of the HDMI 1.4 Specification available for public download, as well as extracts from the upcoming HDMI 1.4a. While the spec includes a 3D component, apparently not everyone has decided to sign up to adopt it. Given the developments happening in DisplayPort v1.2, the next year in displays looks like it will be an interesting one."

28 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Displayport not a threat by iCantSpell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People are just now using HDMI. No one is moving anytime soon.

  2. Truly by Lorkki · · Score: 3, Funny

    2011 will be the year of DisplayPort on the desktop!

    ...what?

    1. Re:Truly by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, it has already been the year of displayport on the desktop for a year or two now. The basic cheap dell business boxes we buy as bulk word processing/web/email/light other stuff machines all come with it(soldered right onto the motherboard, not some option card).

      Curiously, the year of DisplayPort on the Monitor does not seem to have arrived yet. The monitors that come paired with these machines are VGA/DVI only, and you have to go a fair ways higher up the line before you get a displayport option. I don't know if Dell just refreshes their desktops much more often than their monitors, or whether they have some dream that everybody is going to start buying 22' widescreens for their office drones...

    2. Re:Truly by Ost99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      22" widescreens are practically free.
      No matter the size of your company, if your buying new displays smaller than 22" for people you pay to work for you; you're wasting money. Big time.

      The difference between a Dell 17" and a 23" wide screen is about $20 (not US prices). Increased productivity will pay for that $20 the first hour/week/month (depending on officedrone wages).

      --
      ---- Sig. gone.
    3. Re:Truly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Don't forget that the 23" widescreen will consume significantly more power than the 17" monitor.

      I worked at one place where they somehow got a deal on converting 4000 or so 15" LCD monitors to 20" LCD monitors. So a bunch of us spent a long weekend switching everyone to the new 20" monitors. A month later, the company's power bill had fucking skyrocketed. They had us transition back some users to the old 15" screens, to save money...

      The difference in energy consumption is probably quite minimal for a typical home or small business user with a couple of monitors, but it can become a huge burden when you're dealing with thousands at a single location.

    4. Re:Truly by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nothing to do with the fact that your staff could have two windows side by side, thereby probably doubling CPU load?

      The only time I've felt that my 24" home monitor could be used effectively as a work tool (and not just for games, at least without fiddling with windows sizes all the time) is with Win7. Drag the title bar to the side of the screen and it automatically maximises to one-half the horizontal width.

      That's just begging for widescreen TFTs in the workplace.

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    5. Re:Truly by davester666 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Welcome to the Mac experience circa 1986.

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  3. 3D HDMI Specification Is Set Non-Free by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure you can download part of the spec. But it has a restrictive license (and only valid 1 year, after that it will self destruct), and it is actually quite useless without the rest of the HDMI spec.

    1. Re:3D HDMI Specification Is Set Non-Free by mb1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      and it is actually quite useless without the rest of the HDMI spec.

      Unless you order the Professional Edition Deluxe Diamond Tipped Laser Nanotube 9000XT HDMI Spec Reader Cable available from Monster.

      Then you're golden.

  4. Free to read != Free to use by l2718 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Very nice of them to allow us to read the spec. Now what about the patents? the rest of the HDMI spec on which this piece depends?

    If you can't implement the standard, what good will it do you to be able to read it?

    1. Re:Free to read != Free to use by Sehnsucht · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not only that, but what they need to do is drive consumer interest. Consumers don't care about openness, they want shiny stuff cheap. Might appeal to some of the more tech savvy of us, but its not like you can go and implement your own HDMI gear to tinker with it.

    2. Re:Free to read != Free to use by Twinbee · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Although patents can be bad, isn't adding a HDMI port to a device very cheap for manufacturers to do?

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  5. Set free by PCM2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Slashdot editing is so inconsistent. Is that set free as in "turned loose"? Or set free as in "nobody owns one"?

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  6. Stereoscopic, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    not 3D. You insensitive clods.

  7. Re: what good will it do...? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'll be able to have a massive nerdgasm imagining owning your your very Blu-ray copy of Avatar as you read it.

    They won't release the 3D version right away of course. Oh no... First it will be the 2D theatrical version, then the 2D extended version, then the 3D theatrical version, then the 3D extended version ...the 3D director's cut where Jake and Neytiri plug their hair together in the love scene {ooooh!} and *finally* the R-rated 3D extended director's cut with topless Na'vi. All versions will also be sold as boxed sets with collectible blue plastic dolls.

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  8. HDMI mess by timmarhy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    yes because the consumer is going to know the difference between HDMI 1.1,1.2,1.3 and 1.4

    between DLNA, HDMI and the 3d crazy that's comming i'm predicting lots of ripped off people. consumer electronics in 2010 is going to be a mine field.

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    1. Re:HDMI mess by timmarhy · · Score: 3, Insightful
      yes, have you trying anything to do with DLNA. at first look it seems to be file sharing reinvented in a crappy way, but then you realise it's actually slow ass file sharing, which doesn't work very well and a lot of the time you can't FF or RW during streaming.

      i've got 2 DLNA devices, both of them behave in totally different ways and neither one is what i would call satisfactory. the only saving feature of DLNA is transcoding, but since that is hit and miss it doesn't save it.

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    2. Re:HDMI mess by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Someone hand that guy an insightful mod.

      2010 will be the year of a lot new buzzwords and add-on-words to various standards. Watch out for "enhanced", "empowered", "true", "extended" and whatever other buzzword the markedroids will come up to sell their outdated past standard not-quite-anymore-compatible junk. I'm still struggling with "HD ready" and "full HD" and HD...whatever the buzzword of the day is.

      *whimper* I just wanna watch TV!

      Waitasec... why? There's nothing on worth my time.

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    3. Re:HDMI mess by ledow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have a hard enough time convincing people they need to re-buy cables (and peripherals) for their new TV as it is.

      "You need an HDMI cable"
      "But I already have this SCART thing and this composite thing"
      "Yeah, but you only have HDMI on your new TV"
      "Is that because it's HD?"
      "Well, no, you can send an HD signal over SCART or composite just the same, but they just don't want to let you. They want you to buy HDMI leads and TV's and equipment with HDMI."
      "Who's they?"
      "The people who license the HDMI technology."
      "Er... so I have to throw away my DVD player unless I pay extra to get legacy ports too?"
      "Or buy a Blu-Ray with HDMI or a newer player with HDMI. The new ones upscale the DVD so it *looks* like HD but isn't really."
      "Mmm..."

      And then add an hour of conversation as you explain the various *revisions* of HDMI and everything else, and why they can't just buy a £10 signal-splitter or cable-switcher without it potentially interfering with their recording of HD programmes, or why some models just won't negotiate a HD signal with some other models, or why the cheap, shit imported versions of DVD players and Blu-Ray let you just use a composite output, or why all this was to stop pirates when you can find and download HD-anything online in the same time as you used to be able to download SD content.

      Call me when consumers get bored of this crap. Then I might have a look and see if there's a *standard* (i.e. unchanging, common, open, useful) cable set I can use to watch TV and record the stuff I want. To be honest, there already is - it's called "ADSL over a phone line from a widescreen laptop".

    4. Re:HDMI mess by Arcady13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have a hard enough time convincing people they need to re-buy cables (and peripherals) for their new TV as it is.

      It wouldn't be hard to convince them to buy the HDMI cable if stores would stop charging $50-$100 for something that nobody tells them costs $8 online.

    5. Re:HDMI mess by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't have a console or a TV. My PC plays DVDs, games, and TV shows just fine on a 24" TFT.

      FWIW, I've had higher-than-HD in almost all of my games for around two years, for significantly less price than an HDTV and a console.

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    6. Re:HDMI mess by Ant+P. · · Score: 2, Funny

      Last year I found a case where someone had already been "convinced" they needed to buy a £60 cable for their new HD setup. It was a SCART cable. They had a HDMI cable plugged in which had never been used until I asked why they had two A/V connections between the same things.

  9. "Free"? by perrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The document has an EULA. While that is bad enough on its own, in it you find this gem: "The term of this Agreement is one year. Agent in its sole discretion may terminate or extend this Agreement at any time and without prior notice. Upon expiration or termination of this Agreement, You shall immediately destroy and cease all use of the Specification Portion and all materials and information related to the Specification Portion." To add insult to injury, they also slap an indemnification clause to the document's EULA.

    So, you agree to not distribute it and to destroy the document after one year. If they are sued for whatever reason, and they can blame it on you, you agree to cover all their expenses. Yay for openness!

  10. More important for gaming than Hollywood? by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Despite the success of Avatar, this may be more important for gaming than Hollywood, or? Didn't gaming bypass Hollywood in turnover some time ago?

    1. Re:More important for gaming than Hollywood? by aflag · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Let's see how this "3D hype" goes. I remember when VR was the hype. It was the future of the game! Heck, the future period. I'm in the future, where's my virtual world where I can live a better life along with my virtual friends without ever leaving home? Where's that world of wonder where everything is possible and I'm a superman? Where's -- oh, wait, nevermind.

    2. Re:More important for gaming than Hollywood? by delinear · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know, what you're describing as "virtual reality" is really just the interface. It's like calling your monitor a first person shooter. The actual virtual reality is the programmed world, and sure we were promised virtual reality immersive headgear which didn't really transpire (augmented reality is the new virtual reality, it seems), but the promise of an interactive world certainly came to pass in any number of online multiplayer games.

  11. Bwuh? Only ONE input???? by sgtrock · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Am I the only geek on the planet who checks for multiple inputs before buying a TV? While I realize that video- and audio- philes will probably disagree with me, I'd say that the TV is the best device to act as the central hub for 99% of consumers out there. It's simple and straightforward for them to figure out where to keep plugging stuff into. Why would anyone ever buy a TV with only one (type of) input?

    For example, I recently replaced my 10 year old Sony WEGA with a 55" Samsung LCD (half price off a Best Buy floor display). My old Sony had S-video, 3 or 4 sets of composite inputs, and a cable ready jack. I ended up with DVI, VGA, composite, component, S-Video, USB, Ethernet, cable in, OTA, and HDMI options on the back of my set. I've got a MythTV box, a DVD player, DishTV, an OTA antenna, and a WII plugged into this thing. I still have 4 or 5 ports open in case I really want to go hog wild. :)

  12. How about displayport WITH Audio by HockeyPuck · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just want displayport implementations in laptops to transfer audio as well? Even the current Lenovo W500 laptop, which comes with a displayport, does not transfer audio over it. Even if you buy the bluray option for the laptop. It just pisses me off that there's no way to get high quality audio out of this laptop. Even lenovo admits this.

    I'm just sick of these ever evolving home theater standards. There was a time when most home receivers didn't support DTS and dolby digital and so if you had a DVD which was only encoded in one, and your receiver didn't support it, you were out of luck.