8 Basic Facts About HDMI
It can be pretty difficult to keep up with all the new acronyms coming out these days! Upgrading your technology is one of the few times that you will be forced to learn all of the new ones, if only to make sure that you know what you are buying! HDMI is one that is definitely worth learning about though. The technology is the new gold standard in multimedia connections, and is here to stay. Today we are looking at what that little length of copper and plastic known as a HDMI cable opens your home theater system up to, with a few basic facts about HDMI.
1. What is HDMI?
HDMI utilizes digital technology, rather than analog video signals, to get a picture from its source, to your television … and from there to your eyes! The letters stand for High Definition Multimedia Interface.
2. The advantages of HDMI lots
There are tons of advantages to HDMI technology – one of the reasons that the HDMI cable you buy today will be a solid decades-long investment. The advantages include:
- Gives better picture and sound quality by eliminating the need to convert a signal from digital, to analog (in the S-Video or other cable), back to digital
- Compresses up to 8 channels of audio into a single cable.
- No data is ‘thrown away’ in order to fit an audio or visual signal into the cable – this occurs with Toslink optical and digital coax connectors.
- Upgrades to the technology don’t mean you have to replace your cables (more on that later)
3. HDMI and DVI are not the same
HDMI is capable of carrying both audio and video signals – DVI is capable of carrying video signals only. However, both DVI and HDMI cables are all-digital interfaces and have the same high definition capacity.
4. HDMI and DVI are compatible with a converter
HDMI technology is actually based on the DVI concept, and HDMI cables are fully backwards compatible with DVI. You just need a converter to make the plugs fit together. There are a couple of HDMI-specific features that you lose with this method – automatic screen size conversion and universal remote control applicability are two.
5. HDMI has different technology versions
HDMI has undergone several upgrades since 2002, when it was released. Upgrades have included adding Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support and DVD-audio support, adding Super Audio CD support, etc – basically doing away with ever more cables.
6. Upgrades do not render HDMI cables obsolete
However, an important thing to note is that future upgrades will not render your HDMI cables obsolete.
7. Different cable lengths require different thicknesses
Just as with traditional speaker cables, the longer distance you intend to run your HDMI cable over, the thicker the internal wire gauge needs to be. Joining two thinner cables together with a connector doesn’t give optimal sound or video – and in some cases gives no sound or video!
8. HDMI and HDCP go hand in hand
HDMI cables will only connect your devices provided they are compliant with the High-def Digital Content Protection (HDCP) scheme. HDMI and HDCP go hand in hand – and non-HDCP compliant devices won’t be able to ‘talk’ through HDMI cables.
