Silicon Image jumps on HDMI 1.3
By Ryan Block 
posted Jun 16th 2006 4:09AM
posted Jun 16th 2006 4:09AM
We've been hearing about the upgraded HDMI 1.3 spec for a little while now, but it looks like Silicon Image announced support for the standard. We can expect up to 48-bit color depth (that's more color tones than any human being can hope to count, let alone tell the difference in), xvYCC color standard support for LED backlit TVs, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio, and increased bandwidth and refresh rates, just in case you all of a sudden decide to start running a Super Hi-Vision 7680 x 4320 TV.
really do u think that we really need such hi-def imagery. weren't movies supposed to be bout their story lines and games bout their gameplay. now half the time people spend just taking in the glorious surroundings than payin attenhtin to playin the game. 1 st post yay
Here's hoping for 1.4! This sounds good. They've got high-end audio covered as well. Yes there's DRM. So much for iTunes HD :(
What the heck is the point. Home theatre buffs are totally out of the loop.
Apparently the point in showing colours that humans can't see the difference between is so gradients look more smooth.
If you take pure red and grade it to black, there are only 256 shades of colour inbetween with a 16.7 million colour palette. This can be seen as a very banded gradient, especially if you spread it over a 42" plasma display.
Hence the revised spec for HDMI 1.3.
yjs, why are home theater buffs 'out of the loop'?
With HDMI 1.3 not official, all those Blu-ray and HD-DVD products already made might be dated already unless their firmware affords them an upgrade path.
Max is correct. 24-bit color is not enough if you're looking to reproduce the full tonal range of film.
The 16.7 million color palette is fixed and contains only 256 levels of brightness per hue, which is a huge limitation when displaying large gradated elements like skies and clouds.
Is it just me or are there anyone else that's puzzled over the fact that someone is saying that a device outputs more colours than a human can pick up. How does he know that device actually does that? Did a eagle tell him or what?
^^^ Uhhh, maybe because we have highly-accurate optical instruments capable of measuring such things.
The universe doesn't just turn into a big question mark at the threshold of human vision.
Does anyone know if the version upgrade will affect the cable? I've seen "handshake" problems between compenents utilyzing the HDMI cable that couldn't figure out what to do with a Non-HDCP compliant device (TV or DVD player), but the cable wasn't the issue, it was the device (to the best of my understanding). With a new upgrade to 1.3, does that mean firmware, software, hardware, what exactly??? AND, as side note, has anyone seen any evidence one way or the other to support that USB 1.1 cables are NOT capable of transmitting USB 2.0 speeds? I've seen 2.0 cables sold for more because they were labled as 2.0 and, thus, "faster." But, is it actually any defeciency of the cable, or is it all in the devices at the ends of it and the price difference just hype? Thanks.
No doubt Sony will wax lyrical about the PS3 having it as standard (on the high end 60GB version of course) ^_^
How will the higher bandwidth affect ghosting, motion blur, macro blocking, etc. on LCD and Plasma panels? Should we wait yet another year to purchase a new HDTV? Will the (potentially) improved frame rates make a huge difference, or is the HDMI 1.2 standard more than adequate?