There's No Such Thing as 'Wireless HDMI' 199
An anonymous reader writes "CE Pro magazine interviewed Steve Venuti and Les Chard of HDMI Licensing, LLC to get a preview of all things HDMI at CES. The duo addressed some of the more controversial issues surrounding HDMI, including 'Wireless HDMI' (There's no such thing); Consumer Electronics Control (There will be interoperability); competitor DisplayPort (No traction in CE); and the complications of HDMI ('It is not an HDMI problem. It's a digital issue.')"
Re:what it is (Score:5, Informative)
Movies have been copy protected for a long time. VHS had Macrovision, DVD had CSS and HD formats have AACS. They've all been broken though.
HDMI's copy protection has been broken, it's actually the weak point in the chain, HDCP strippers are available. and the encryption is much simpler than what the HD movies have.
Re:what it is (Score:5, Informative)
HDMI is only a link-level protocol, electrical, cable and plug/jack specification much like 100BaseTX. HDCP is the actual DRM introduced along with HDMI and it has been adopted by both DVI and DisplayPort.
HDCP (be it over HDMI, DVI or DisplayPort) is only required for playing back DRM-infested media at full resolution on DRM-infested OSes like Vista.
Re:what it is (Score:5, Informative)
The HDCP DRM functions by way of a system called the image constraint token. You can plug an HD-DVD or blu-ray player into a tv via analog component (RGB), but the manufacturers of those discs have the ability to activate the image constraint system on the disc if they wish. Unless the player reports that it's connected via HDMI (and thus has the ability to encrypt the signal), the output resolution on the video is reduced to 1/4th the original (960x540 vs. 1920x1080). As far as I know, no disc currently shipping implements the constraint token, and the studios stated that they planned to hold off on activating it until 2009.
In the computer world, the OS as well as your computer hardware has to support the system if you want to playback video that requires HDCP encryption for full resolution. Many video card manufacturers are currently shipping cards with DVI that has HDCP capability, but you'll need Vista to enable it as far as I know. You'll also need a monitor or television with HDCP support. This usually means purchasing a monitor with HDMI inputs, but there are many that use DVI and support HDCP over DVI. One manufacturer I know of, ASUS, is currently shipping a mainboard based on the NForce chipset that has an HDMI output that actually combines the onboard video and audio into the single cable, but for everyone else you'll generally have to run the audio over coaxial or optical digital and the video over HDCP-eqipped DVI or an HDMI connection that isn't transmitting audio.
The comical part, of course, is that they've spent so much time locking down the video stream when it's far more likely that people will crack all of the DRM at the disc level. HD-DVD has already been mostly compromised, and Blu-Ray discs have an extra level of DRM that hasn't yet been implemented but is theoretically supported in all Blu-ray player. Of course, I'm sure it will be just as foolproof as all the other DRM systems...
At the end of the day, the principle complaint that people have with HDMI is that the need to handshake for encryption sometimes gets screwed up, especially when switching inputs. So, for example, most people who plug their PS3 straight into the TV do fine, but if you plug it into an audio receiver and plug the receiver into the TV, people may experience a blank screen when they switch back to the PS3 input because the system is convinced that the link has been broken. In this situation, you have to go unplug and replug the HDMI cable to re-establish the link and get your video signal back. Highly annoying, but nothing like the ridiculous "We're closing our online video store so your purchases are now worthless because they can no longer be authenticated." In my opinion, the benefits of the single cable digital audio+video outweigh the minor and occasional annoyance, although it sucks that the annoyance only exists because of the asinine requirement for DRM on the cable.
Re:terrible connector (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bah humbug (Score:5, Informative)
My set-top box is an older one, so I used an expensive SCART cable to route the vid to the TV. This provides a nice enough image, although some programs appear to be a bit pixelated. This was already the case on my 29" CRT though. The image quality however, is very nice. All audio runs through my receiver, this includes the Set-top box.
Then I connected my Wii and my DVD player to my receiver using component video, which is ample for support of 720p (or in the case of both devices, the 480p they provide). Now the image quality is still very nice, and the sound also gets routed (optical from DVD, stereo-jacks-to-Dolby-PLII for the Wii) through my trusty receiver.
As far as the Laptop is concerned, I connect that with a standard issue VGA cable to the VGA input connector on the back. The TV gets seen by the system, and images are crisp and clear at 1366x768 resolution. Possibly, my laptop gives the best image quality using that connection. Cable costs 5 Euros at the local HW store. Sound gets (again) routed through my trusty receiver.
You can tell me that none of this is a "true HD" setup because I "should be using HDMI with an HD DVD player at 1080p", but in the mean time I'm watching TV and playing games and movies on a nice size screen.
What I'm trying to say with all of this is that HDMI doesn't even need to enter the picture if you want a flat screen and a DVD player. 25 Dollar component-to-component cables will do you fine on the back of a normal DVD player. I promise.
Re:"It's a digital issue" (Score:4, Informative)
2. Can I use my coupons to purchase any TV converter box?
No. The government will provide a list of coupon-eligible converter boxes and participating retailers here. You may also ask participating retailers whether TV converter boxes in their stores can be purchased with the $40 government coupon.
18. Can coupons be used toward the price of an upgraded converter box (for example, a box that includes a DVR)?
No. Coupons are only valid for eligible converter boxes. The intent of the program is to allow consumers to continue to view TV over-the-air on the same TV they used prior to the transition, not to enable upgrades in technology.
No, the problem *IS* HDMI (Score:3, Informative)
HD-SDI lets you have 100m runs over standard 75ohm cable, terminated in standard BNC connectors.
Compared to HDMI or DVI which can't be terminated, so it can't be run through walls, and running it through a wall would probably exceed the maximum run anyway. The only way to make a long DVI run is to use expensive extenders [gefen.com] that require power on either side. And even then
If the guys who designed HDMI had copied HD-SDI instead, there would be no home theater installation issues.
dom
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bah humbug (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the problem. When you go long, the cable diameter increases as the wire size increases. My cable is 1/2" in diameter. It doesn't bend well, and you can't do much of a bend by the connector due to stresses. This makes it a bitch to plug in to the set.
HDMI sucks. Pro gear doesn't use it, it uses a HD version of SDI which only uses coax cables and has a MUCH longer distance capability without repeaters. Love your HDMI all you want. I hate it with a passion.
I want optical. Optical is future proof and doesn't have a distance issue (within reason.) It uses standard connectors which are MUCH easier to terminate than they used to be. It isn't reasonable to terminate your own HDMI cables in any case, so concerns about termination are moot. Prebuilt optical cables over a certain length are less expensive than HDMI too. Thinner, better capacity, etc.
The HDMI folks can take their spec and shove it. Idiots.
Re:"It's a digital issue" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bah humbug (Score:4, Informative)
Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. I have had trouble with every HDMI setup I have ever touched and 100% of the problems without a single exception have been with the HDCP handshake. It hasn't seemed to matter if it's low end, high end, old, or new gear it simply doesn't work reliably 100% of the time and therein lies the real problem.
You know, while the HDMI people were ripping off the DVI standard to make some extra money they should have done something innovative to improve upon it. The physical connector of HDMI is worse than DVI, the audio channel is very limited in the bitstreams it can transport, and the data channel is a complete and total joke. On top of this they didn't bother to make HDCP any more robust than it was with DVI, leaving everyone with a horribly broken "standard" to adhere to. To add insult to it, they keep changing the thing because they couldn't get it right to begin with.
Re:If not Cu, then what metal? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:PulseLINK has wireless HDMI (shhhh dont tell TF (Score:3, Informative)
But I guess it's better than nothing, where the rest of the system is HDMI and wireless is required, and evidently it will interop with the other HDMI links in the signal path. And later, when when someone uses H.264 to compress only 20-30x, they'll have to replace only that link in the path.
Re:"It's a digital issue" (Score:1, Informative)
Re:If not Cu, then what metal? (Score:3, Informative)
Hint, "wiring" != "wire". And neither equal "cable".
24awg copper wire goes for about 1.25 to 1.5 cents per foot per conductor; I'll grant you that's about three times the commodity price for bulk copper, but if I can buy 6 feet of HDMI cable (19 conductors) for less than the price of a Happy Meal, (plus $2 each for the connectors) I don't regard it as expensive.
Your economic situation may vary.
Re:Bah humbug (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ [bluejeanscable.com]
Re:what it is (Score:2, Informative)
YPbPr is as follows: Y=luma, Pb=different between blue and luma, and Pr is difference between red and luma.
Re:Bah humbug (Score:3, Informative)
In contrast, look at network cable. Twinax, cat3, cat5, cat5e, cat6, shielded and unshielded, etc. etc. Each time there is a speed / technology upgrade, they usually need to upgrade the wire spec. Why do you think cable companies and telco companies are upgrading all their systems to optical? Oh yeah - it's because they are actually downgrading, right???
Sheesh.