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HDMI Labeling Requirements Promise a Stew of Confusion
An anonymous reader writes "In many ways HDMI has revolutionized the way we connect devices. By unifying video and audio into a single cable manufacturers have been able to make their products easier to set up than ever before. Until recently there hasn't actually been much difference in HDMI cables. But things are about to get confusing with the introduction of HDMI 1.4. By the 1st of January 2012 manufacturers of products with HDMI ports won't actually be able to call HDMI 1.4 by its real name. In fact, come November 18 this year those selling cables won't be able to use HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 1.3 to delineate between different products. Instead cables that support version 1.4 of the HDMI standard will have to use one of five different labels. The new labels? Well, as this story explains, they're going to cause a new level of confusion for anyone hooking up a home cinema. Add to this the fact that the HDMI organisation keeps the details of its specifications secret, and translation between version numbering and marketing-speak will be well nigh impossible."
Will my $600 gold-plated monster superconductor cable support the new standards?
and so will your coathanger.
...just jizzed all over his monitor.
I once feigned ignorance (not much of a feat for me, in most things) and asked a Best Buy employee what was better about the $100 HDMI cables. He said two things that I thought were amazing*.
1) My Playstation3 was not going to look as good on the $20 cable, because all the colors could not go through the cheaper cable fast enough.
2) The more expensive cable uses a better conductor metal for "better frequency".
*I don't really fault an employee that's making $8 an hour with no commission for talking out his ass, I just thought this was funny.
I can live with confusing names if they get around to supporting closed captioning data like they are supposed to. They misinterpreted the legal requirements for closed captioning as it being something which is handled by set-top boxes rather than TVs and elected to not transmit the data. HDMI's own FAQ makes this position clear. However, the law is quite clear that the TVs are required to render captions. Unfortunately, people use devices other than set-top boxes to push content to the TV. If you need captioning, you can't use HDMI with Blu-ray disc players or other devices.
In a few years presumably some even higher bandwidth specification will come along - no problem if they used version-numbers, but once you have labelled the first generation "standard" and the current generation "High Speed" what're you going to be left with to use next and not end up looking stupid?
"new higher speed", "max speed", "ultimate speed", "super more ultimate than ultimate speed", "I Can't believe its not high speed... speed"?
Ludicrous Speed
Hell, as far as I recall, HDMI was the one that locked down everything with DRM and would no longer work with older devices.
Please, please stop spreading this bullshit, and start correcting people when they repeat it.
How hard is it to tell the difference between HDMI and HDCP?
HDMI -- DVI plus audio, maybe plus ethernet, in a neater form factor.
HDCP -- encrypted video signal, which works over DVI just as well as over HDMI.
If you're currently using DVI instead of HDMI because you're afraid of the DRM, you're a moron. Again: It's just DVI which is easier to plug in. It doesn't do DRM unless your video card, OS, and monitor all agree to do so.
I'm sorry if I'm overreacting, but EVERY FUCKING SLASHDOT ARTICLE that mentions HDMI, there's at least two people who confuse it with HDCP. That's like refusing to buy a DVD burner for backup because you're afraid of DRM on DVDs.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I'm gay, and my A/V system is better than yours. But my cables came from Monoprice.
I worked at Best Buy in highschool. We had an ongoing competition of: -Whenever someone was interested in a ps2, try to get them to buy an XBox. -Whenever someone was interested in an XBox, try to get them to buy a ps2. Good times.
I would have asked him how a passive cable knows which bits in the stream are the colors.
A prism's also passive, and it knows how to separate colors. The wires just do the same thing, right?
I am not a crackpot.
Don't forget the all important "playing games" category where retailers try to come up with the most outlandish explanations for the premium widgets and compare stories in the breakroom. I understand it stems from the unending boredom of the job.
Ha! I used to work part time at the electronics section of a big box retailer during college. Obviously we weren't individually commissioned, but our store manager would reward us with food and free crap if the department posted good sales numbers. We used to really enjoy pulling off outlandish justifications for fun and profit. We would even refer distrusting customers to our "cabling specialist" for more information. At the time, we felt like we needed to have fun with it to stay sane.
Now grown up me wants the chance to meet up with the smart-ass 19 year old me and punch me right in the face for trying to sell me junk.