Supporters say most problems that slammed industry are in the past

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.

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