June 3, 2009 by Jeff Boccaccio
Last week’s pre-dawn announcement by HDMI Licensing, LLC of a new specification for the HDMI™ interface – Revision1.4 – reinforces exactly what DPL has been preaching over the course of the last few years by way of articles, presentations and interviews. That message was that DPL Labs was in favor of the creation of a new digital era connectivity solution that would have the ability to aggressively drive an unlimited expansion of technology for Consumer Electronics. That solution was the High Definition Multimedia Interface or HDMI™.
This new HDMI™ Rev. 1.4 spec. is clearly designed to provide additional features such as a reverse audio path allowing for audio back feeds from the television set, provision for better video resolutions @ up to 4K X 2K and 3D technology, Ethernet capability, and for the first time…automotive applications…which will allow for HDTV content in automobiles.
However, this announcement has also spawned hundreds of phone calls and countless emails pouring into the DPL Labs offices – mostly integrators and installers expressing F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). There is absolutely nothing here to panic over. Rev 1.4 will not affect your day-to-day activities for some months…perhaps up to a year. Go ahead with your existing installations and don’t worry about your existing proposals. Don’t let all the hype confuse you, this information has been available in some form since the Consumer Electronics Show this past January.
We also strongly recommend that you use caution when attempting to get information about this revision from the blogoshpere. There has been a lot of commentary by various industry-related blogs discussing the pros and cons of Rev 1.4. In my opinion all of these reports and discussions have been speculative at best. We will not know all the details of this important revision until the final 200- to 300-page HDMI™ specification document is released at the end of this month! There is so much the industry does not know. For example, nobody seems to have recognized or at least failed to report on the issue of the backwards compatibility of this new revision.
When the final specification of Rev. 1.4 is finally released, then and only then will we have a clear understanding of the changes to the interface and the resultant improvements it will bring. At that time, DPL labs will release a complete report explaining, with a high degree of detail, exactly what the impact of these features are to its DPL member companies. Shortly thereafter, we will also report our findings to the public. The DPL Labs analysis will fully explore how the Rev.1.4 changes will effect future generations of HDTV.
Until then…stay out of the F.U.D. Zone!
