By now most of us have at least one HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable somewhere in our home and are getting used to no longer having the 3 other cables to carry audio and video between our TV room devices. However, the next generation HDMI cable is on its way and it takes more than just a few strides forward.
First a quick introduction to those who are not entirely sure what an HDMI cable is… a few years ago, in order to carry a high resolution image from your DVD player to your TV, the best option that you had was a composite cable: one cable with three connectors on either side. Each connector would carry a colour for the image and the three colours would be joined at the screen. Then if you wanted decent audio, you would have 6 RCA cables joining the DVD player to the amplifier. Each cable would carry one audio channel to the amp: Front left and right, back left and right, front centre and subwoofer.
Well this is where HDMI came in; one cable would carry an image to the same resolution (clarity) as the composite cable and would carry 8 channels of audio, all in one cable.
The resolution of the current HDMI 1.3 is 1920×1080 (known as HD [High Definition] or 1080p). What this means, basically, is that the image has 1920 columns down and 1080 rows across. Compare this to standard TV definition of 640colums by 480 rows.
Now that you know what we have at present, allow me to blow your mind a bit by letting you in on the near future:
Many new TV’s are able to link to the internet and show web based programs, but of course you will need an Ethernet (network) cable to carry the internet connection to the TV, the next generation HDMI 1.4a is able to carry a network signal allowing you to plug your computer or play station 3 into your TV and the HDMI cable will carry the connection to the TV… there goes another cable!
Also if we take a look at a real life situation, your DVD player plugs audio and video into your amp which passes the video onto the TV and sends the audio to the speakers, but then you will also send the audio from the TV into the amp to play the audio. Well HDMI has an answer for that as well, one cable can carry audio signals in two directions, which means that there is only one cable between the TV and the amp.
The new cable also carries 3D signals for that real life movie experience.
Above all these, the biggest leap forward is in the area of resolution; HDMI 1.4a carries a signal of 4096×2160! That is roughly 2 times the current HDMI standard and puts your home theatre in line with a commercial cinema!
So before you rush off and buy that brand new LED TV, you might want to ensure that it is HDMI 1.4a enabled, and if you are wondering where next to take your Home Theatre system, watch this space for the Home Theatre PC…
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