Frequently Asked Questions

While there have been some concerns about the cable staying plugged in, you should not worry as the HDMI terminal requires the same pull strength as the USB cable.

Yes, HDMI is Video (no audio) backward compatible with DVI.

Category 1:
Clock Speed: 74.25 MHz - Resolution 720P/1080i - Refresh Rate 30/60Hz
Color Depth: 8 Bit

Category 2:
Clock Speed: 340 MHz - Resolution 1080P - Refresh Rate 120Hz
Color Depth: 16 Bit

This has been a great source of confusion for both product resellers and the consumer. Many assume that the alpha designation refer to the performance level of the product. This is not the case, the alpha designation refers only to which test procedure was used for that series of product.

Picture: HDMI transfers uncompressed digital video.
Audio: HDMI supports multiple audio formats, from standard stereo to multi-channel surround-sound.
Simple to use: HDMI combines video, multi-channel audio, data and control into a single cable.
Intelligence: HDMI supports two-way communication between the video source and the display.

HDCP is a content protection technology available for use in connection with HDMI that was developed by Intel Corporation. HDCP is not licensed by or part of HDMI Licensing, LLC. It does however ride on the same interface.

HDMI [High-Definition Multimedia Interface] is the first and (so far) only industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. HDMI provides a single cable interface between any A/V source and the display.

Deep Color increases the number of available colors within the boundaries defined by the RGB or YCbCr color space, while xvYCC expands the available range (limits) to allow the display of colors that meet and exceed what human eyes can recognize.

HDMI will support existing high-definition video formats 480P, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p.

Higher speed: HDMI 1.3 increases the single-link bandwidth from 165 MHz to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps) to support the demands of higher resolutions, Deep Color and high frame rates.
Deep Color: HDMI 1.3 supports 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification, for stunning rendering of over one billion colors in unprecedented detail.
Broader color space: HDMI 1.3 adds support for “xvYCC” color standard, which removes current color space limitations and enables the display of any color viewable by the human eye.
New mini connector (type C): Small portable devices such as HD camcorders and still cameras are demanding seamless connectivity to HDTVs, HDMI 1.3 offers a new, smaller form factor connector option.
Lip Sync: When dealing with HD digital signals it takes longer to process the video than the audio (there are also added variances in each brand of display).
To make sure that the picture and sound match HDMI 1.3 has a proviso where the source and display determine the amount of delay that must be added to the audio.
New HD lossless audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby® Digital and DTS®), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new lossless compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™.

The HDMI 1.0 specification was released in December 2002.
The HDMI 1.1 specification was released in May 2004.
The HDMI 1.2 specification was released in August 2005.
The HDMI 1.2a specification was released in December 2005.
The HDMI 1.3 specification was released in June 2006.
The HDMI 1.3 specification for Cables was released in July 2007.

The HDMI Founders include leading consumer electronics manufacturers Hitachi , Matsushita Electric Industrial, Philips, Sony, Thomsom, Toshiba, and Silicon Image. Digital Content Protection, LLC is he providing High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection format (HDCP) for HDMI. HDMI also has the backing of the major motion picture studios and broadcast networks.