HT025-HDMI Cables and Standards Set

Episode #025

Host:  Mike Deckys

Guest: Steve Venuti – President– www.hdmi.org

Topic:  HDMI Cables and Standards Set

Download Full Transcript here

Mike:  On this episode of the Smarter Home Theater Show we welcome Steve Venuti.  Steve is the president of HDMI Licensing LLC.  As a quick refresher HDMI is the one cable, one standard of future ready cable of HD.  And HDMI licensing is, for lack of a better term, the governing body that sets the standards to which all manufacturers who produce HDMI components must adhere.  But Steve will get all into that in a little bit.   So, I’d just like to take this opportunity and welcome you to the show Steve.

Steve:  Thank you very much.

Mike:  On today’s show I’d like to discuss HDMI.  We have talked a lot about it on past episodes but Steve is going to help us by explaining exactly what it is and how it can improve our home theater experience.   So, how does it do that Steve?

Steve:   Well, first of all lets go over some basics in case anyone doesn’t know.  HDMI – the letters stand for high definition multi media interface.  This came onto the market about 7 years ago (6 or 7 years ago).  A group of large consumer electronics companies got together and said we need a new way to connect our devises.   We need an easier way.  We need something that is going to have higher band width.   And we need something that is simple and we need something most importantly this – digital.  This is a digital world we are living in.  And all the way we connect most of our consumer electronics devises in the past has been through analog connections.  So you have a digital DVD, let’s say, and you have a digital screen at the other end there is no reason to have an analog connection.   So HDMI was the result of this group of consumer electronics companies getting together and saying we need to solve this problem.  It is essentially a single cable that sends the highest quality (audio and video) so now you don’t have all these cables going to the back of your sets.  Audio and video all over one cable from your DVD, or set top box, your game console through your AV receiver to your TV.  Whatever consumer electronics devise you have in your home theater.

Mike:  Now, I know HDMI obviously is pretty complex but as you said it is a single cable.  It is plug and play.  So it is just really focused on the consumer to make it as easy as possible to hook up your devise.

Steve:  That is the magic of any technology I think.   And in the world of consumer electronics where we are getting these big beautiful displays, highest resolution, all this incredible technology, what you really want is to turn this thing on and watch your football game or watch your movie.  That is really what you want.  So HDMI is really in that same world.  There is so much data going through this it is amazing.  The speed that goes through there.   The commands that go back and forth and tell devises what to do, what is the best resolution, all these things.   But to the consumer they don’t care.   You plug this thing in, everything is working.  But as you say incredibly advanced technology that is really just masked by this simple plug it in and it works.

Mike:  You had mentioned very high speeds on HDMI and I know I have seen high speed HDMI advertised and then just HDMI advertised.  And I have seen different versions – 1.2, 1.3.  Does the version number have a bearing on it?  How does that all play together?

Steve:  There are two types of cable out there that really are designated by band width.  As you said high speed is the fastest cable out there. And then there is a standard.  Those are the two cables that are out there.  And just to make it very easiest essentially a standard cable has been rated to go as fast as a 1080i TV.   So if you have a 1080i or 720p TV or lower, in terms of resolution, a standard cable will do it.  But if you have got a 1080p or higher resolution TV or any devise that sends information you need a high speed.  High speed is the very highest HDMI can go.  Now the version numbers HDMI is a specification.  What that means is it is constantly looking out at the market and saying we need to add certain things to this specification to allow manufacturers to build bigger and better features into their products.  And so each time there is a new revision, which happens maybe every 2 or 3 years, we call it REV 1.1 – 1.2 – 1.3 (HDMI started at 1.0).  So what does this mean?  It really is not meaningful to the consumer.  Even though we are all trained to say 1.3 must be better than 1.2, what it really means is that in our latest version of this specification (which really means the bible of how you go about building around HDMI) we have added additional options.  So for example with 1.3 we added the ability to go faster, to support deep color.  Which means more colors!  Now you don’t have to do that in 1.3 but it just gave you that option.  So from the consumer point of view really the most important thing to look at is, as always, what are the features in specific devise that I am buying.  I’ll just give an example, we talked about the deeper color in 1.3, if you want a TV that does billions of colors and you want this thing called deep color look for that.   And then you will know that 1.3 technology is supporting it.  But you don’t need to look for 1.3, because again it is a menu of options. So when we say the specification of 1.3 it means a host of 10 different things that are now added to the specification that are not required but are added as options for manufacturers.  So I always tell consumers look for the features then you will know that you are getting what you want.  And the underlying technology doesn’t need to be something that you need to think about in deciding what components to buy.

Mike:  If I see device that is marked 1.2 and a cable that is marked 1.3 they will play nice with each other but it is really not about the version numbers but more about the feature sets that accompany each release or version number that is out there?

Steve:  That is absolutely correct.  Every version number is backwards compatible.   So anything that is 1.3 will work with anything from the past.  That is something that the consortium, the group of consumer electronics makers who manufactures this, are absolutely adamant about.  We can’t have these things not work with each other.   However, this is not unlike any technology.  If you have a DVD, the basic example, if you have a standard DVD player that is only capable of outputting 1080i and you have a 1080p TV you are not going to get 1080p source material on that TV.  You will get 1080i – you will get standard definition.   It is the same thing with HDMI.  HDMI will always function at the highest level of common functionality.  So it says, ok what does everybody have, how fast can you go, what features do you have, whatever you guys can do and play nicely together because you all share that, we will transport that.   So HDMI is not a limiting factor.  It just looks at the highest common, shared functionality and serves up the data that way.

Mike:  Now, as far as the HDMI, you said that the devices will talk to each other and figure out how to play nice together.  That all happens in the background with the HDMI technology right?

Steve:  That is correct.  So I will give you a basic example when you have a digital connection, and this is one of the advantages of digital, it can be two way.  Analog is one way.  This can be two way.  So, for example, every TV out there has in it a little profile chip.  And in that profile chip it says I am a ‘x brand of TV, I’m capable of 1080p, I can show different aspect ratio, different ways of framing the content, I have this many inputs that are HDMI, etc., etc., etc’.   And every time you turn on your home theater that information is shot back upstream.  You don’t know about it but it is all going over the cable up to the DVD player for example.  So when you say play on that DVD player, that DVD player knows exactly what the destination for the content is and automatically makes adjustments based on resolution, based on aspect ratio, based on everything, based on input to make sure that that content is delivered in the best way possible.   So that is one of the many things that is going on in the background that you don’t know as a consumer.  And you don’t need to know.

Mike:  Right!  You just want it to work!

Steve:  You just want it to work and you want it to work at the highest quality it can.

Mike:  Is there a distinction between HDMI cables and HDMI devices.  And I mean that in the sense that those cables will support everything up to that version but the devises may only include some of the features?  Like you had mentioned deep color as a feature of 1.3, but if the device is 1.3 it may only include deep color and not some of the other features that are included in the standard?

Steve:  So that is correct.  And it is probably the most confusing thing for consumers.  So what we have done is we have stated that for all manufacturers who build HDMI products, if you say a version number, if you say 1.3 you also need to say what is it about 1.3 that I have included in this product.   Because previously you’d say 1.2 and you didn’t know what was in there.  So that is one thing that we had done – you are absolutely correct.  If someone says that this is a 1.3 device it really doesn’t mean anything because there could be many things or it could be just one thing about the 1.3 specifications that are included.  That is why we tell consumers focus on the features.  Now in terms of cables, it really doesn’t matter.  Cables and version numbers are almost not related.  Anything that HDMI can transport can be transported over a high speed cable.  So if you buy a high speed cable that can do everything that HDMI can do.  And if you buy a standard cable that can do everything up to 1080i.

Mike:  Ok, so basically if you have all the bells and whistles and a 1080p TV, you have to look for a high speed cable and it should be all set?

Steve:  And I really would recommend, I wouldn’t have recommended this two years ago, but the difference between the standard and HDMI cable on the marketplace now is so small it really makes no sense; you just go ahead and buy a high speed cable to make sure you have all the band width you need for any applications.

Mike:  Now, if I have a 1080p TV, a high speed HDMI cable and a high definition satellite box can I be sure that I am experiencing the best quality picture or is there going to be exterior factors in the sense that it depends what my satellite company is transmitting to me?

Steve:  There are always external factors.  But from an HD from my point of view HDMI itself is going to perform and give you the highest quality.  You are not going to have a problem there.  So now you have issues related to what kind of devices you have on either end.  Which we can’t really speak to.  Some people make great devices, other people make not so great devices or the quality is subjective.  So from an HDMI point of view it really is a kind of digital signal so whatever is transferred from the set top box or the DVD player, it doesn’t matter, ends up in its pristine digital form on the other end and it is now displayed by your display.  So really external factors are the source of the content and the display but from an HDMI perspective it really is a transport at this point.  It is not even able to manipulate that data in any way so you are not going to have any difference.  You are getting the highest quality there.

Mike:  Ok so it will just communicate back and forth what is on either end but it doesn’t actually have anything to do with changing what is on either end.

Steve:  That is correct.

Mike:  Well, you know what Steve, I am looking at my list of questions I have here and there is no way I am going to get through all of these in the time that we have allotted.  So if you wouldn’t mind you can come back and we can do another episode.   But in the mean time if somebody wants to find out more about HDMI and the standards and what it all means, what’s the best way for them to go ahead and do that?

Steve:   I think the best thing is to go to HDMI.org, www.hdmi.org and that has information for some people who do this for a living or installers who are building home theaters or for just the general consumer that wants to find out some basic stuff about this technology.

Mike:  And I’d like to take this opportunity to remind our listeners to please support the Smarter Home Theater Show by supporting our sponsors.  You support of them helps to support us.  Just go to www.smarterhometheater.com and click on ‘Support the Show’ to learn more.   And please don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for insider tips, cool contests and more.  Just go to www.smarterhometheater.com and learn more.  Thank you very much Steve.

Steve:  You are welcome.

Mike:  We will talk to you next week.