Infomation About HDMI

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. It is the first and only industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. By delivering crystal-clear, all-digital audio and video via a single cable, HDMI dramatically simplifies cabling and helps provide consumers with the highest-quality home theater experience. HDMI provides an interface between any audio/video source, such as a set-top box, DVD player, or A/V receiver and an audio and/or video monitor, such as a digital television (DTV), over a single cable.

HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It transmits all ATSC HDTV standards and supports 8-channel, 192kHz, uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby Digital and DTS), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new lossless digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with bandwidth to spare to accommodate future enhancements and requirements.

The Standard

HDMI is the de facto standard digital interface for HD and the consumer electronics market: More than 700 companies have become adopters, and nearly 200 million devices featuring HDMI are expected to ship in 2008, with an installed based of nearly one billion HDMI devices by 2010 (conservative estimates by In-Stat).

HDMI is the interface for convergence of PC and consumer electronics devices: HDMI enables PCs to deliver premium media content including high definition movies and multi-channel audio formats. HDMI is the only interface enabling connections to both HDTVs and digital PC monitors implementing the DVI and HDMI standards.

HDMI is continually evolving to meet the needs of the market: Products implementing new versions of the HDMI specification will continue to be fully backward compatible with earlier HDMI products.


The Market Adopts HDMI

HDMI has become so successful, so quickly, because it meets the needs of all facets of the Consumer Electronics and PC ecosystem. Manufacturers now have an all digital pipeline from the source material to the display; content providers have an interface that protects their intellectual property; and consumers have and easy-to-use, high quality, plug-and-play interface for their home entertainment environment.
HDMI Benefits

Quality: HDMI maintains the audio in its pure digital form all the way to the amplifier. Analog audio connections are more prone to losses depending on the cabling and other electronics of the audio rendering device. Compared to SPDIF connections, HDMI has significantly more bandwidth, allowing it to support the latest lossless audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HS Master Audio. These formats can not be supported over SPDIF connections due to their very high data rate requirements that exceed the capabilities of SPDIF. Please also see section on HDMI 1.3 for further details on Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats.

Ease of Use: HDMI combines video and multi-channel audio into a single cable, eliminating the cost, complexity, and confusion of multiple cables currently used in A/V systems. This is particularly beneficial when equipment is being upgraded or added.

Intelligence: HDMI supports two-way communication between the audio source (such as a DVD player) and the audio rendering device (such as an A/V receiver), enabling new functionality such as automatic configuration and one-touch play. By using HDMI, devices automatically deliver the most effective format (e.g. Dolby Digital vs. 2-channel PCM) for the A/V receiver that it is connected to - eliminating the need for the consumer to scroll through all the audio format options to guess what is best and properly supported.
A New Interface

With the advent of high-definition content, analog interfaces were becoming increasingly limited in their ability to deliver the highest quality, high-definition content.

HDMI has no conversion or compression of signals:

With the delivery of 1080p content, analog interfaces are nearing the end of their ability to deliver high-definition content without highly compressing the signal, which can result in loss of data and signal quality. HDMI has the bandwidth to send uncompressed video so there is no loss of data or signal quality

Content Protection allows access to HD content:

Content providers, including all the major movie studios, have been clear that much of the studio content will not be released in high-definition over unprotected analog interfaces. They have designated HDMI and/or DVI as the only interfaces that will be allowed to carry this new HD content.

HDMI Digital allows two-way communication:

HDMI supports two-way communication between the video source (such as a DVD player) and the DTV, enabling new functionality such as automatic configuration and one-touch play. By using HDMI, devices automatically deliver the most effective format (e.g. 480p vs. 720p, 16:9 vs. 4:3) for the display that it is connected to - eliminating the need for the consumer to scroll through all the format options to guess what looks best.