We
already heard that HDMI 1.4 was just around the bend, and now HDMI Licensing has come forward with all of the official details surrounding the specification. Unfortunately for AV enthusiasts, it seems as if we're taking
two steps forward and three back, and we get this sinking feeling that HDMI 1.5 will be here before we know it. At any rate, the main additions to the format are an Ethernet channel, audio return channel, 3D over HDMI, 4K x 2K resolution support, a micro HDMI connector (around half the size of the existing HDMI Mini plug) and an automotive connection system. All fine and good, right? Sure, until you get to the part about having to choose between
five different HDMI 1.4 cables, something that the
suits at Monster just
had to have a hand in. For a detailed look at what you'll need to study up on before buying your next HDMI cable, clinch your fists and hit the read link.
posted May 28th 2009 11:21AM
Expect the ULTIMATE MONSTER PACK coming to Best Buy soon for $499!!! Get 3 feet of ALL the cables for this sweet low price! You won't have to go home and find out you had the wrong cable!
Are you serious? That's a great deal! Give me 5, make it 10.
(My sarcasm meter is broken)
Extended warranty? How can I lose?! :D
actually, i was thinking about starting up a company called Monsta cables...
do you think they would have any problem with that?
Just look at the quality boost you get with these Monsters. I saw it compared to other HDMI cables in Best Buy!
Sorry to stick a bit of seriousness in the levity going on here, but I really wish Engadget would collectively man up and make a call for ALL manufacturers to drop HDMI support because of this and go to DisplayPort. DisplayPort was created by VESA, which also made the VGA and DVI specs; both of those have stood the test of time. The HDMI Alliance is controlled by big players in the home theater consumer electronics field, who would really love for you to have to buy a new receiver / disc spinner / cables / hell, an entire new home theater system every year to year and a half.
It needs to stop. Vanilla HDMI before it was even known as HDMI 1.0 was a bad idea; nobody wants their video beside their audio in a standard interface. It was a ploy to force receiver and monitor upgrades on early adopters. Each new HDMI spec since has come out regularly and added some other new features that we don't need. Digital video at 1080p should be one cable, audio a separate cable, and if you want ethernet then build a damn jack into your component. Anybody want to bet that they want ubiquitous ethernet shared between components for some new form of even-more-draconian DRM? Pretty much ALL automation schemes right now use the RS-232 standard for control, and there's literally nothing else you should need access to the net for that a really cheap home theater PC wouldn't do better.
Engadget can have an opinion. Call the HDMI Alliance out on this crap, don't just make snarky jokes!
Will the current PS3s support 1.4?
No existing device will suddenly sprout 1.4 features, including the PS3. It will connect to a 1.4 device just fine.
Yea. They just have to send down the update that will make the hardware on it's motherboard morph and create new components.
Does it need 1.4 support?
If the cost to produce the "high speed" cable is so little on top of the cost to produce the "low speed" cable, why even bother creating the "low speed" and "high speed" cable standards. Just have 3 cables.
Automotive
"High Speed" (which is basically the same thing as HDMI 1.3 cables are now)
"High Speed + Ethernet"
Or is there a need for "Low Speed" so that manufacturers who have existing stock of cables that aren't good enough for the HDMI 1.3 spec can get rid of them?
Fricken' idiots. Just make one cable that works for everything have done with it. All we'll end up with now is tons of useless bundled "standard, non-ethernet" cables gathering dust and everyone buying their own (overpriced) "high-speed, ethernet" cables. Plenty of confusion too, of course, as you never know which cable you have or need or ...
I say again, fricken' idiots.
One cable to rule them all?
I think the future is probably cables with little processors, you'll be able to update the firmware for new specs, but you'll have to pay for the update (of course).
The "standard" cable (1080i/60) isn't really much of a factor. Right now, nearly all cables are HDMI 1.3 (1080p/60, DeepColor, etc.) spec. The same will probably happen for the ethernet variants. So that's down to 3 cables, which is still too many, but better.
It kills me that the ethernet spec is 100mbit and not GigE. Ugh.
I think I see another stupid issue. They have two cables that support Ethernet channels, one low speed and one high speed. I cannot imagine a device that would be built on the 1.4 spec and not support a high speed controller thus rendering the slow cable ever more pointless.
The only reason I can think of producing slow speed cables is to help offer customers some savings options... and even then wtf.
And if you are connecting an HDMI device to an HDTV... chances are you aren't going to be thrifty with a single cable... I know some people might, but the majority will want to make their brand new HDTV have the best of the best. The whole point of a television boils down to "My TV is shinier than your TV"
What I want to know is how a frickin cable gets to choose between high and low speed. It should just be the same number of wires from here to there in a small(only for devices that require a small plug ie. PMP) and large plug (everything from a netbook and larger). I can run 10/100/1000 Ethernet over the same Cat5e cable the chip in the device should determine that.
That is why I like USB. There are way too many different types and sizes of types of cables!
There should be HDMI period.
http://jamesmsingleton.com
Hmm at this rate that new spec with using ethernet cables as the connectors for video /audio/and internet all in one is looking better and better.
Too bad they have to tarnish that success with their cornucopia of cables types. It's a damn shame.
Yes, there should be just two types of cables: 1Gbps+ ethernet cables and power cables.
Get Internet over power lines working and you'll only need one.
*one size HDMI cable
WTF........................
So confused....
Am I missing something here?
Right now, I can get a HDMI cable that supports 1080p@60fps, deep color, and all the other features of HDMI 1.3 all for the whopping price of....$7 via Monoprice.
But soon, I'll be able to buy a "Standard HDMI 1.4 cable" that doesn't support 1080p, doesn't support 60fps, doesn't support deep color, and doesn't support any of the other features that HDMI 1.4 has. Um. Why? Doesn't this mean this is actually an INFERIOR cable? No doubt, they'll charge a small fortune for the "standard" cable. After all, 1.4 > 1.3, right?
I can understand a special cable for automotive equipment. I can understand having separate cables with and without ethernet. But could someone PLEASE explain to me the idea between "standard 1.4" and "high speed 1.4"? To me the choices seem to be "get ripped off buying a cable that's not even 1.3 compliant" and "a real 1.4 HDMI cable".
Either that or folks will realize that you can use a "standard 1.4 HDMI cable" and still get the same features and performance that a "high speed 1.4 HDMI cable" meaning the whole "high speed" label is just another scam to get people to buy into yet another overpriced premium buzzword.
Whatever happened to the idea of trying to make things EASIER? No wonder the morons at GeekSquad can charge hundreds of dollars...
Expensive cables are definitely a scam. At least to some degree. I cut apart my monster and found it to be shielded twisted pair, 24awg, stranded cable. Not even copper. Monster claims that they cant go over 5-10 feet, or something like that without noticeable degredation. I spliced my monster to two Cat5e cables, spliced with standard telecom b-connectors (beans), and I am running 33 feet. I've had this for over a year with ZERO artifacts/glitches of any sort. For a long cable, use solid core copper cable!
I also cut apart a $10 cable and found it to be IDENTICAL except they actually used copper.
Dear Internet,
If I buy a 1.3 cable now, and the next gen Xbox 1080 outputs in HDMI 1.8, will my 1.3 cable still work on it?
Love and kisses,
Me
You forgot to ask all of the Internets out there. You probably won't get an answer now.
You can spend hundreds on the next Xbox, but not a few tens on a cable?
Or do you always buy Monster?
This is bullshit.
The standard and "high speed" cables should be all in one. What's the point of a future cable supporting only up to 1080i? Money.
"Sir, I'm sorry. Yes your tv does support a 4k x 2k resolution. But you bought the standard HDMI cable so it is artifically limited to a 1080i screen resolution."
Now we have a bunch of flavors of HDMI 1.4 to go with our Windows Vista and Windows 7!
I'll take an HDMI 1.4 High Speed with Ethernet for Windows 7 Ultimate but I think an HDMI 1.4 Standard with Ethernet is more to your liking, Windows 7 Starter.
You know what HDMI needs that still has been overlooked? A simple signal that is sent along with the datastream that will inform your television that you are viewing latency sensitive content (like a game). That way your television can switch in and out of game mode dynamically instead of you manually having to setup game mode in a menu.
I think you guys got it all wrong!!!
High-speed is for the HDMI not the Ethernet
Standard HDMI Cable – supports data rates up to 1080i/60;
High Speed HDMI Cable – supports data rates beyond 1080p, including Deep Color and all 3D formats of the new 1.4 specification;
Standard HDMI Cable with Ethernet – includes Ethernet connectivity;
High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet – includes Ethernet connectivity;
Looking better now hum??
So you would only buy the 1.4 version if ur equipment can received data above 1080p
Capich!!!!
That makes no sense at all. Why build a cable for 1080i at all when almost all television being made now support 1080P. Just make one cable that does it all with Ethernet and one that doesn't and charge $10 less.
You are correct. The Ethernet spec in HDMI 1.4 is 100mbit, there's no high speed and low speed ethernet.
The high speed and low speed is the video, and again, it's not a big deal since low-speed cables already died a silent death, nearly all cables sold right now are high-speed (1.3 spec). There's no reason to think there will be many low-speed+ethernet cables offered for sale.
And for anyone who asks, the difference between a low-speed and high-speed cable is capacitance. You need to use a slightly better wire and insulator/dielectric to make a high speed cable. But it's not that much more expensive, which is why it's already tough to find low-speed cables.
could of would of should of had IEEE 1394.
Not sure why people are getting their knickers in a twist over this cabling issue. It basically comes down to three simple questions. Are you using this in a car? Probably not. Do you care about ethernet capabilities? And are you using an el cheapo "720p" TV or one that supports 1080p resolution or high color depth or 3D or some combination of those technologies? The latter issue, at least, is simply a matter of whether the cable can handle higher data rates, and within reason, one should expect that a higher quality cable (supporting a higher bitrate) would cost more than one that can only manage the standard 720p/1080i 24-bit HDTV standards.
I like how I will have the opportunity to go buy a new Receiver for $3000, a new TV for $4500 just to use their new HDMI spec for about 6 months before they change the plug to something newer and better. Sounds like a great deal to me.
Are these different cables actually wired differently internally? For example, does the cable that supports ethernet have additional wires inside? If not, then there's a chance that even current cables will support this stuff. Not being certified doesn't mean it won't work.
The whole concept of HDMI is to have a single cable...no fus...no confusion.
I mean sure, I get it. I know what's going on. But what about grandma?
Maybe display link will take over after crap like this. Just should just cut the lower 3, and keep the highest end version and call it HDMI 1.4
It can't cost much more...
Now that HDMI eliminated the previous resolution cap, would Apple consider adopting it?
HDMI has to be the most fubar'ed standard in history. There should be only one HDMI 1.4 cable and it should be fully backwards-compatible with existing components.
This tiered approach is just setting the stage for price gouging and consumer confusion.
Before we get into more details, let me state some things:
1) Newer features are OPTIONAL, nobody needs to support ALL of them. The device with the least features will be the one dictating which features to use. So keep your equipment for the time being.
2) 4k screens have 4 times the size of 1080p. Does it mean it needs 4 times the bandwith? I do not think so! 4k formats as stated in the press release are half the frame rate of 1080p. And I suppose that at the beginning,4k formats will be in our traditional 24bit format. So, HDMI Bitrate of 1080p@60Hz with 48bit DeepColor = Bitrate of 4k formats. The big difference would be inside the players and TVs, as they need to support 297MHz pixel clocks instead of 148.25MHz ones.
3) With half the refresh rate, are the 4k screens interlaced? I hope NOT. Normally, all refresh rates that around the 30Hz frame rate are interlaced.
And people, just be aware that your media at the moment is only 720p (better than 1080i!) for cable TV and 1080p for BluRay. And in both cases DeepColor does not make you feel anybetter: there is no media that I know that is 30bit, and even worse, your TV might be only 15bit!
And by the way, it would be half year until we see HDMI 1.4 devices (thanks to Silicon Image et al. that create the spec AND create a device at the same time), and three years until HDMI 1.4 is the norm in typical devices.
I like the idea of audio return. It gets rid of that optical cable going back to the receiver. Damn shame it requires a new tv and a new receiver.
Oh Good... another version comes out and they expand their "planned obsolescence" by adding a another connector that we all know will only work so many times before breaking—let me guess the motherboard it's attached to.
HELLO!!!!! HDMI Licensing Comity !!!! you wanna work on spec 1.5 that addresses Quality of parts?
thanks!
Sometimes people just enjoy confusing the consumer as much as the can...having 4 different cables will be very amusing.
Tell me when HDMI 2.0 comes out and has:
4k resolution at 60fps in 3D (so actually 120fps)
1Gb ethernet
Power, so you don't have to run power cables
Oh and the real kicker is that it is wireless so you don't have to buy any cables!
It seems what they're trying to do is create a spec for docking a mobile device to your home entertainment system through a single connector. Regardless of whether the device connects first to a receiver, TV, car dashboard, whatever, the important thing is that you drop it in a dock cradle or plug in one cable and you're done. For big, stationary boxes like Tivo or PS3, you only have to connect multiple cables once, but for a mobile device you have to connect them every time you walk up, unless you've got a docking cradle big enough to have all the plugs on the back.
Think about what's in the iPhone/iPod docking connector today - now scale it up to 1080p digital video instead of analog, digital audio, Ethernet, DC power, etc. Apple may create their own proprietary DisplayPort-based connector anyway, but MPAA would sure rather they use HDMI so the signals are encrypted between devices.