What is HDMI?

High-Definition Multimedia Interface

It seems everything is high definition nowadays. The big screen television, the DVD recorder, Blu-ray player, sound system… their predecessors are fading into oblivion as hi-def and HDMI offers ultimate impact.

• Audio Visual Equipment
• Audio and Home Theatre
• Distributors

You’ve probably got a sound understanding of what high definition technology is, but there’s a new buzz acronym taking centre stage with home theatre distributor experts and arm-chair critics alike: HDMI.

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, which is now the global standard for connecting high definition consumer electronics and audio visual equipment such as home theatre systems. HDMI connectivity is already standard on a wide range of products, including high definition televisions, Blu-ray disc players, multimedia PCs, gaming systems, digital camcorders, and more.

Let's start from the beginning...
HDMI came about as a result of a combination of industry giants (namely Sony, Hitachi, Thomson (RCA), Philips, Matsushita (Panasonic), Toshiba, and Silicon Image) putting their heads together to create a high performance digital connection that could be standardised across all HD technologies. The uniform plug for all HDMI devices is designed to allow easy installation and to reduce consumer confusion.

Standard HDMI comes in two types: a Type A HDMI connector with 19 pins, and a Type B HDMI with 29 pins. While the 29 pin HDMI is specifically targeted to support the movie industry, the compact 19-pin plug and cable resembling a USB wire, is capable of carrying a bandwidth of 5 gigbits per second (Gbps) for home users.

Not only is HDMI is High-Definition video and multi-channel audio-capable, but it is also an uncompressed, all-digital signal, offering better clarity than outdated analog interfaces.

How HDMI is a superior technology?
The problem with analog interfaces is that a clean digital source is translated into less precise analog, sent to a television, then converted back to a digital signal to display on screen. During translation the signal reduces in quality, which results in distortion of picture integrity.

Where analog has in the past failed, HDMI succeeds: preserving the source signal and eliminating analog conversion to deliver the sharpest, most unspoiled image possible.

Formerly popular video interface technology also required separate audio cables, but HDMI technology, with its abundance of bandwidth, carries not only video but also up to eight digital audio channels for uncompromised surround-sound. Replacing the tangle of wires once found behind every home theatre system, HDMI means a single cable greatly simplifies the entire setup process while delivering the highest technological performance.

Some of the other benefits of HMDI include:

• HDMI offers higher data transfer speeds, and transfers uncompressed all-digital audio and video, eliminating losses associated with analog quality and ensuring image quality is of the highest degree.

• It also supports a special format type known as Deep Colour. This is the brand new colour space used in video electronics. It can support 1.8 times as many colors as RGB (Red, green, blue colour schemes), which helps it to show all the various colours found in nature, taking the HDTV palette from millions to trillions of colors.

• The low cost of the HDMI is another significant benefit for consumers, since a single HDMI connection replaces three video connections for high definition video, and six audio connections for high-resolution audio.

• HDMI eliminates the complexity of using several multiple cables since it combines audio and video onto a single cable.

• More than 800 manufacturers have adopted the HDMI standard, including some of the world’s most trusted brands, and by 2010 there will be an estimated billion HDMI-enabled devices worldwide. As an accepted industry standard HDMI will reduce confusion over compatibility between devices.

• Integrated Control. With an HDMI connection, it’s easy to integrate all your home theatre devices into a single remote control. HDMI has built-in sensors that automatically recognise and configure your AV devices on demand.

• PC Compatibility. HDMI PC-compatibility makes it easy to connect your PC to your HDTV, so you can display PC gaming or PC entertainment content.

• Devices connected with HDMI have the ability to scan each other’s capabilities and automatically configure certain settings. An HDTV and a DVD player can auto-negotiate settings like resolution and aspect ratio to correctly match the format of the incoming content to the highest capabilities of the TV.

To find a local HDMI supplier check out electronics distributors in the NZS.com directory.

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Technology images from Flickr: hdmi cable, Microchip and Cable.