New standards that want to replace DVI/HDMI
As if the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD mix wasn’t enough, now new digital panel connection standards arrive to make consumers’ life even more difficult. In the last couple of years we have reached a nice state of equilibrium. As things stand now, we know we need DVI for our PC monitor and HDMI for our flat panel TV. The use of HDMI for computer monitors is not worrisome as DVI and HDMI are fully compatible.
Two new standards were developed as DVI/HDMI replacements. DisplayPort supported by VESA and UDI of the UDI Special Interest Group (UDI SIG). UDI does not seem to progress very well as Intel has withdrawn from the consortium to embrace DisplayPort. Some DisplayPort equipped products, mainly PC monitors, now start to trickle in the market. Unfortunately, DisplayPort and HDMI are not compatible, in other words new products carrying it will also need HDMI for an indefinite amount of time, with the customer paying one more time for the extra socket… Given that both HDMI and DisplayPort offer the same qualitative result and that HDMI is now so widely available, it is highly unlikely that the average consumer would choose the new format. In the computer field, because of the incompatibility, things for DisplayPort are more difficult as most cards still use DVI and standards will again have to be offered in parallel… And there is now news of yet another ambitious standard from the USB Implementer’s Forum, so we have to see how this will develop.
Flat panel TVs, XBox 360s, PS3s, DVD & HD players, projectors, everything now uses HDMI so it will be a bloody battle for anyone wishing to dethrone the king. Some would argue that new standards are necessary because of higher bit rates, but why could this not be achieved with an HDMI upgrade that is backwards compatible? USB is now moving to its 3rd generation and has repetitively proved that careful evolution combined with backwards compatibility are necessary conditions for economies of scale, creativity on the manufacturer side and peace in consumer brains…
Link 1: Engadget
Link 2: Wikipedia – DisplayPort
Link 3: Wikipedia – UDI
That is more adapters, I thought mini HDMI was goin to take over..
January 26th, 2008 at 19:07