AfterDawn: News

HDMI vs. DisplayPort heats up

As the consumer electronics industry moves toward high definition video content, we must also remember the upgrades that PC equipment will receive, which inevitably means there is room for a new display interconnect standard. High-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) provides higher bandwidth than the Digital Video Interface (DVI) and also support for audio content.

The Video Electronic Standards Association (VESA) is promoting its own display interconnect called DisplayPort. Video-wise, it can match what HDMI boasts about, and also supports the studio-backed High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) and also has its own optional DisplayPort Content Protection (DPCP).



Like DVI however, DisplayPort does not support audio content. VESA however, would not see this as a problem since it didn't hinder DVI's performance in the market. On Monday, the group behind HDMI announced that more than 50 Desktops, Notebooks, Motherboards and Graphics cards are shipping with the HDMI technology on-board, sending a message to VESA that it plans to fight to become the standard.

DisplayPort has many advantages over HDMI however and is very powerful. It performs with relatively low power-consumption, has a low pin count and can transmit data at 10.8 Gigabits/second, supporting resolutions up to 2560x1600 (WQXGA) and possibly beyond. It can perform properly over a length of cable up to 15 meters in length, which many see as a great advantage over HDMI.

Source:
Reg Hardware

Written by: James Delahunty @ 13 Feb 2007 14:27

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• 9 comments

• Spenman91

  Great all we needed was another DRM enabled cable. And another war similar to the HD-DVD and Blu-ray war. And on top of that it doesn't seem to be any better than HDMI (with the exception of it carrying good signals over long distances).

  13.2.2007 14:46 #1

• lxfactor

  this been going on for a while.. and actually DVI was around before people even heard about HDMI.. i say HDMI..

  13.2.2007 15:47 #2

• Spenman91

  I'm fine with DVI, it's pretty much compatible with HDMI anyway. I just can't see this new DisplayPort beign very useful.

  13.2.2007 17:44 #3

• hughjars

  This is getting ridiculous, which version of what is supposed to be worth getting now?
  
  HDMI?
  What a sad joke that is turning out to be.
  Would that be version 1.1 or 1.2 or 1.3 or 1.3a or the rumoured to be imminent version 2.
  
  Future proof? Dream-on suckers.
  
  As has been pointed out, this is about installing yet more DRM control and taking ownership away from us the consumer.
  
  The answer is simply, stop buying the cr@p and stick to technology that is perfectly sufficient but free from this nonsense and cracked software that doesn't need it.

  14.2.2007 06:35 #4

• BludRayne

  Has DRM just like HDMI, but doesn't support audio, which means I need more cables. NO THANKS!

  14.2.2007 07:21 #5

• Rikoshay

  It sounds all right. Just drop the Content Protection at the end and it's good to go.

  14.2.2007 08:25 #6

• borhan9

  Sounds good. But i would need to see the two and compare the diffrences.

  14.2.2007 14:18 #7

• matt5112

  What advantages? For extended runs just use an HDMI cable with a repeater. Sure its slightly more expensive BUT! It can carry EIGHT channels of uncompressed audio. That is why people are upgrading to HDMI is for the audio and the video capabilities. No one would go for JUST the video if they were looking for home theatre. Most people do not even use HDMI or DVI, so what is the point of forcing ANOTHER digital connection that may not even be accepted by all manufacturers. This is something that we DON'T want. A non-standardized connection.
  
  To hughjars,
  
  If the reciever can accept 7.1 uncompressed over HDMI then its futureproof untill new audio standards come out ( such as 9.1 which is going to take a LONG time) The only benifit of HDMI 1.3 that is acually useful is the support for extended colour pallets BUT no material right now or even in the near future supports this. Also nothing is futureproof. IF you bought a 720p tv, you're now screwed for BD and HD DVD which are both 1080 formats.

  16.2.2007 02:49 #8

• Jotacon (unverified)

  Originally posted by Spenman91: Great all we needed was another DRM enabled cable. And another war similar to the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray war. And on top of that it doesn't seem to be any better than HDMI (with the exception of it carrying good signals over long distances). It actually has a lot of advantages over HDMI. displayPort actually offers up to 3840x2160p resolution which is Quad HD. HDMI supports this as well but only at a maximum of 30hz whereas displayport can do this at up to 60hz, twice the frames per second which will be awesome for gaming. Also what this article doesn't mention is that under rev. 1.2 displayPort can actually do audio and video at 17.2 Gbits per second. HDMI's latest revision caps out at around 10.2 Gbps. It's still in early phases and it already smashes HDMI. It's a good thing to be progressive and move forward. We all saw this coming. You didn't expect HDMI to last forever did you?

  1.4.2010 19:25 #9