In with The New 2

In With The New

By Siddharth Bhatia

It's no doubt that HDMI has changed the lives of videophiles, home theater enthusiasts, gamers, and basically everyone who needs to send a AV signal between a source and a display. But few really know that HDMI is more than a cable and plug standard, it's a complete architecture for handling and transmitting digital audio and video, with many extra features including copyright protection. Thus, HDMI is not constant, but undergoes upgrades just like other hardware—and can cause the same kinds of headaches! Over the years HDMI has been widening its bandwidth, allowing more types of data to be encoded and transferred etc. The current widespread standard is version 1.3. Sometime in mid 2009, HDMI 1.4 was officially announced, and a couple of products are already sporting it. It's a real solid upgrade, with some nice features added to it, so if you are one who enjoys your audio video gear here is an exhaustive list of what is new in HDMI 1.4

It is now possible to connect to your network via your HDMI cable. The HDMI 1.4 specification adds a data channel to the connection, enabling high-speed, bi-directional communication. Connected devices that include this feature can send and receive data via a 100 Mbps Ethernet channel, making them instantly ready for any IP-based application. This saves the need for yet another extra wire, and opens up home networking and media streaming capabilities for Blu-ray players and the like. Also the new spec will have an audio return channel, which means that now audio can be sent back and forth between, say, an AV receiver and an HDTV, that too in full DTS and Dolby formats, basically eliminating the need for a separate S/PDIF wires for different applications.

The 1.4 version of the specification also defines common 3D formats and resolutions for HDMI-enabled devices, enabling 3D gaming and other video applications. The specification standardizes the input/output portion of the home 3D system, facilitating resolutions of up to dual-stream 1080p.

Another big jump is 4K resolution support. 4K is a term used to describe displays with resolutions that are essentially four times that of a 1080p device – or roughly 4,000 lines wide by 2,000 lines high. Now HDMI 1.4 devices can support extremely high HD resolutions, effectively four times that of a 1080p device! The 4K res support enables HDMI to transmit video data at the same resolution as the state-of-the-art Digital Cinema systems used in many movie theaters. Nice!

Then there is new color space support. By supporting sYCC601, AdobeRGB, and AdobeYCC601, HDMI display devices will be capable of displaying more accurate, life-like colors when connected to digital cameras. HDMI now supports color spaces designed specifically for digital still cameras, enabling more accurate color rendering when viewing digital photos.

A new type of connector is included called the HDMI Micro Connector (Type D). The HDMI Micro Connector is a significantly smaller 19-pin HDMI connector supporting up to 1080p resolutions for portable devices such as cellphones, portable media players and digital cameras. This new connector is approximately 50 percent smaller than the existing HDMI Mini connector.

Last but not least, for the auto industry, the HDMI 1.4 specification provides a solution for the environmental issues commonly found in automobiles, such as heat, vibration and noise. Using the Automotive Connection System, car manufacturers now have a viable solution for HD distribution within a vehicle.

The good news is that all HDMI 1.4 devices will be backwards compatible with older ones, but the bad news is no current device can simply be upgraded. You’ll have to go in for all-new hardware, most importantly a new TV, to take advantage of any of these features. Yes, even the gorgeous new slim LCD TV you just bought for over Rs 1 lakh is basically obsolete already. 

– siddharth@tech2.com