What is HDMI ?

HDMI, HDMI and HDMI around the globe…. What exactly is HDMI and what is the association of HDMI support with HDTV and other electrical consumer products that are related? Before this, I had some part-time working experience at Sony Style, so I did learn some stuffs about HD and SD format. Together with my own personal interest of doing researches and surveys about the field of Science and Technology, I come up with this simple piece of info about HDMI. Actually, HDMI is the abbreviation of High Definition Multimedia Interface which is a standard of transmitting HD (High Definition) signals from one source to the destination or output. I believed that all of us came from the SD (Standard Definition) world, which means that we had watched long hours of movies on CRT TVs ( Cathode Ray Tube TVs ). In our traditional CRT TVs( hopefully it isn’t ancient yet ), the standard which is employed on the TV screen is SD ( Standard Definition ) meaning that our TV receive analogue quality signals from the VCR or LD ( Laser Disc ) to the TV itself to be broadcasted on the TV screen. Analogue signal is whole lot different than the Digital signal in terms of the data transfer speed and the definition ( quality ) of it. To simplify this phrase, to turn on the PlayStation 1 or 2, we need a supply of cables mainly comprised of Yellow, White and Red which are classified into L&R (Left and Right Stereo) and a Video cable. These colourful cables are known as analogue cables and they transfer signals from the input ( PlayStation ) to the output (TV). However, day by day the technologies around the globe continue to bloom and grow in massive manner, which also led us into a more digitalized entertainment universe. As a result, the new PlayStation 3 is unleashed and offers the HDMI support. In other words, our analogue cables of PS 1 and 2 are evolved into a single digital HDMI cable which holds and transfers the signals in both audio and video formats in the same route. HDMI is much improved and the technology of HDMI is implemented in almost every digital electronic product including the BluRay Player, HDTV, Camcorders (Handycam), Laptops, DVD Players and the most popular gaming console, PlayStation 3. Every single item stated above is capable of displaying High Definition image and sound quality.

In the historic moments, our electrical products are connected via L/R Stereo where we found them most on the Mini Hi-Fi ( Mini Compos ) where the signals are sub-divided into the left and the right sound. So, this explains why there are two speakers which are attached to the amp of the mini-hifi. Later, the Video cable is transformed into a higher degree of engineering science, which is the S-Video. This S-Video cable looks like a rectangular head connector where people intended to show the display of cellphone or laptop on the TV screen. Later on, Composite/Component cable of RGB ( Red, Green and Blue) cables are invented in the aim of digitalizing the output of the AV (Audio/Video) source. These cables are quite pricey if you have the interests of buying Monster Cable THX RGB Cables. I am not quite sure about the price tag in the other countries, but in Malaysia, they usually cost about RM250 and above merely for the component cables. Monster Cable is renowned for its capabilities of producing extremely high sound quality due to the state-of-the-art technology and the 22K Gold plated tip of the connection. This is the main reason why Monster Cable bagged numerous prestigious awards from the editors’ reviews. Subsequently, Optical cable was announced to be released which holds the sound signals in a single optical cable which is built using the technology of Fiber Optics ( Wow, we are dealing with lots of cash now…). Fiber Optics are invented and implemented in the medicine and human health industries in the hope of scrutinizing the organs of a particular patient in order to do medical analysis and interpretation without further operations. So, in an Optical cable, Fiber Optics is employed to transfer the signals optically from one end to another end. My Father bought home 3 different kinds of Monster Cable products earlier ago namely, RGB, Optical and Subwoofer cables. I remembered that was the first moment in my life of laying my hands to grab the cables with full of curiosity. My Father taught me that the cable is optically-designed and he took a torch light to shine the light on one end of the cable and he asked me to observe that emitted light actually passes through the cable optically and escape out from the other end. From that point onwards, I knew that these cables couldn’t be curved or twisted as it would damage the optical materials internally.

HDMI is advantageous when it comes to the friendliness of the product. This is because the product is very user-friendly when it comes to cable connection for TVs. Before this, we need to read or skim through the installation manual of either DVD or PlayStation manuals before connecting the wires into the wrong inputs to avoid the unnecessary consequences from happening. With the new interface of HDMI cable, every audio and video signal regardless of how many channels are bundled into a single digital cable. So, plugging the one and only HDMI cable from the DVD player to the TV will be a piece of cake. Secondly, HDMI offers extremely high bandwidth roughly 4.85 or 5 Gbps of data transfer rate. This implies that regardless of how many DVD, BluRay or PS3 players we had connected them to the HDTV, we still have plenty of bandwidth to be spared for more HD products in future. Thirdly, HDMI can support up to 8 channels of audio (7.1 – 7 Speakers and 1 SubWoofer) in the purpose of activating the HD DTS to obtain the cinematic sound quality with full surround so that the viewer will never spend more money to visit to the nearest cinema. Plus, with the co-operation of JAVA Sun Microsystem, the BluRay DVD titles will include a very special high-end interactive menu for the user to do more beyond just watching the movie only. With the technology of BD-J (BluRay DVD Java support), the viewer can enjoy the goodies of the extras such as HD movie trailers, mini games, commentary video clips, sound clips and a lots more.

Many consumers could hardly find the point of getting HDMI DVD player since that they couldn’t afford to get another brand new LCD TV with HD ready. If that is the case, getting a brand new HDMI DVD player doesn’t really affect the decision of getting a new TV. This is because, a HDMI DVD player is capable of upscaling/upconverting the signals of a normal DVD movie in order to achieve near 480p (640 x 480 Progressive) so that the image quality can be improved. I need to rephrase this, I didn’t say that we can get HD image quality, but we emphatically can see improvement on the TV screen. Last but not least, changing everything from SD to HD requires a lot of investment, so we are opt to change it at our desired pace.