Is HDMI Finally Ready?
Supporters say most problems that slammed industry are in the past
August 2007 By Janet Pinkerton
HDMI supporters claim the worst is over for the relatively young specification, so if dealers and their customers want 1080p and the newer audio and video features coming down the pike - like Deep Color and Dolby TrueHD - it might be time to approach the technology with new confidence.
But it’s not going to be easy to convince an industry singed by early HDMI and High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) compatibility issues and complexity-not to mention HDMI plugs popping off during and after system installation-to forsake familiar, stable DVI and component connections.
High HDMI return rates slammed the industry, cable manufacturers and dealers, with some retailers reporting return rates of 20 percent. Monster Cable’s Noel Lee said the reasons behind the returns ranged from the simple, such as choosing a cable that was too short, to the more complex, such as consumers not knowing they had to use a component’s on-screen menu to enable HDMI outputs. That’s not to mention interoperability issues.
Supporters said many of those early problems are in the past. Return rates are down, they said, and there are concrete reasons to support the HDMI market.
Hagai Gefen, president and CEO, of Gefen, contends the latest HDMI specifications and the pro-active product testing required of licensed HDMI adopters have greatly reduced compatibility issues. “Most people have moved into the newer specifications,” he said. “They’ve learned from their mistakes, and all the new product is much more robust and communicating at a higher level.”
Many other industry watchers are touting the improved reliability of products made under the HDMI 1.3 specification. But Simplay Labs President Joseph Lias stressed that it’s not the spec that’s improved with revision; it’s the manufacturers’ improved implementation of the HDMI specification as a whole.
When SimplayLabs, a subsidiary of HDMI co-founder Silicon Image, began its HD testing program roughly 90 percent of HDMI products failed the first time through; now that first-round failure rate is down to 40 percent, Lias said. “It’s not a specification that you can just willy-nilly put together, Lias said. “You’ve got to go through the testing.”
Les Chard, president of HDMI Licensing LLC, said one of the key factors in resolving HDMI interoperability issues was the release of the HDCP test specification and requirement for HDCP testing. HDCP accounted for the majority of HDMI interoperability problems reported in the initial versions of products, he said.
But it’s not going to be easy to convince an industry singed by early HDMI and High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) compatibility issues and complexity-not to mention HDMI plugs popping off during and after system installation-to forsake familiar, stable DVI and component connections.
High HDMI return rates slammed the industry, cable manufacturers and dealers, with some retailers reporting return rates of 20 percent. Monster Cable’s Noel Lee said the reasons behind the returns ranged from the simple, such as choosing a cable that was too short, to the more complex, such as consumers not knowing they had to use a component’s on-screen menu to enable HDMI outputs. That’s not to mention interoperability issues.
Supporters said many of those early problems are in the past. Return rates are down, they said, and there are concrete reasons to support the HDMI market.
Hagai Gefen, president and CEO, of Gefen, contends the latest HDMI specifications and the pro-active product testing required of licensed HDMI adopters have greatly reduced compatibility issues. “Most people have moved into the newer specifications,” he said. “They’ve learned from their mistakes, and all the new product is much more robust and communicating at a higher level.”
Many other industry watchers are touting the improved reliability of products made under the HDMI 1.3 specification. But Simplay Labs President Joseph Lias stressed that it’s not the spec that’s improved with revision; it’s the manufacturers’ improved implementation of the HDMI specification as a whole.
When SimplayLabs, a subsidiary of HDMI co-founder Silicon Image, began its HD testing program roughly 90 percent of HDMI products failed the first time through; now that first-round failure rate is down to 40 percent, Lias said. “It’s not a specification that you can just willy-nilly put together, Lias said. “You’ve got to go through the testing.”
Les Chard, president of HDMI Licensing LLC, said one of the key factors in resolving HDMI interoperability issues was the release of the HDCP test specification and requirement for HDCP testing. HDCP accounted for the majority of HDMI interoperability problems reported in the initial versions of products, he said.
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