DisplayPort and HDMI square off in uber-thorough comparison
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 19th 2008 11:48PM
posted Sep 19th 2008 11:48PM
posted Sep 19th 2008 11:48PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
ok blu ray vs hd dvd was enough, we dont need another cable format right now. HDMI is spectacular and is fine for now. I dont see how display port could benefit the market in any way right now
It may be fine for plugging one source to one display, but it's miserably lacking for the most part when it comes to whole-home integration. DisplayPort is sure to be just as bad on that front, though.
I don't have a Macbook, but I think that magnetic power connectors on them are really neat. Although I have seen a few images of them catching on fire, I'd still think that they would make a neat video connector.
Right, so the magnetic field can completely distort the video signal, sounds great
Static magnetic fields can't, and thus don't, affect signals.
What about HDMI vs Optical HDMI aka DLI
i'm waiting for wireless versions of these, actually, i'm waiting for wireless everything
I agree with Byrdman we don't need another freaking cable.The death of Blu-Ray is coming soon also funny war price hardware out of reach so people can't buy you.
If Sony was smart they would start slashing prices on players so people can buy them. Having PS3 prices so high is giving Microsoft a win you think Sony would learn a thing or two.
I just want to say I love the new feature that "grays out" low ranked comments. They just fade silently into the background...
Look, if we settled into the comfort of wire-phobic connectivity, we'd still be using a BNC connector for Ethernet. Standards are in nature evolving beasts. They have to to keep up with signal integrity, data rates, and user needs. If we didn't have contentious standard battles, the TV manufacturers wouldn't have an excuse to sell you a new TV with the "newer-better" input. And all those standards engineers wouldn't be able to write-off the golf trips ;).
As far as HDMI being "spectacular", good grief man, go no further than an interoperability event or trying to design HDMI product and get it to work together with other vendors. I won't even bring up that nasty little mandatory Simplay certification history.
And lastly, we are going to need to buy some time anyway while the wireless versions roll out...uh, oh, did I just hear the room go silent, like I said a naughty word. More on that subject later.
-A
Simplay certification isn't mandatory...what do you mean?
I don't think this will be a format war. Are VGA and DVI having a format war? Or component-HD and HDMI? I think we'll see set-top boxes, PCs, and TV/monitors with both of these ports in the future.
Yes, absolutely component and HDMI are in a format war. HDMI will ultimately win, since content providers are currently legislating analog video out of existence (google "analog sunset" if you're not familiar with Component's imminent demise).
Older devices had only component. Then they started included both HDMI and component. Now they are moving towards only HDMI. I would say this points to a trend that HDMI is slowly REPLACING component, but they were never competing. HDMI is more of an upgrade.
I think that the meaning of a format war is having two sides actively campaigning against each other about the benefits of their respective formats for the money of consumers, and I don't see anyone on the component side of things at work trying to keep the "format" alive. It's being replaced. Just like DisplayPort may eventually REPLACE HDMI, like HMDI replacing component and DVI, etc...
If HDMI and Display port both launched simultaneously to replace an existing standard, like HD-DVD and Blu-ray trying to replace DVD, then I would be more inclined to call it a format war.
Unless they try to keep "upgrading" HDMI to compete with DP, from 1.3 to, say, "HDMI-EX 2.5" which includes a 16000x9000 resolution, 24 channel sound, 32-bit colour, etc.
The last thing I have to say is WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE KILL OFF VGA! Thanks.
HDMI SUCKS!!!
I just spent $$$ trying to get the magic "One cable to rule them all"
guess, what... I have spent days trying to get it to work, I still get no audio from my HDCP-compliant video card.
Is it the receivers fault?
Is it the projectors fault?
Is it the cards fault?
Is it the driver?
Is it the OS?
If i can get a reliable, efficient system that is actually plug and play and also allows me to daisy chain...... WOW!!!!! sign me up.
ready the article, it will really open your eyes as to how horrible HDMI is.
some argue that Display port isnt ready... well neither is HDMI.
Seriously? You dont get audio from your video card kid. What yo uare getting as output is normal. You need to output from your sound card to whatever sound setup you have..but I suggest you just return everything and save yourself teh headache.
@Jah:
How do you know he doesn't have one of these ?
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/desktop/chrome_530gt/
" Built-in HDMI transmitters with Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio controllers allow seamless audio/video HDMI connectivity."
I don't know that he does, but, I'm just sayin'...some vid cards actually DO output audio through HDMI...
DisplayPort is a ROYALTY-FREE alternative and successor to DVI. Sure, more computer displays have HDMI inputs as opposed to DisplayPort, but manufacturers know how to cut corners and DisplayPort might ultimately win.
DisplayPort will probably replace the D-sub connectors that ship on some flat screens because they're going to be harvesting those components to reduce prices, but they will still need the DisplayPort components to drive the panel.
All in all, I got the sense that while the person who wrote the article either had a thorough technical grasp of the subject or a very good reference, they weren't very capable of actually communicating their knowledge effectively.
My only question really is that the VESA people seem to indicate that they think that DisplayPort is going to be the one ring that rules them all on PCs, but when I look at any PC these days, they've still got D-sub on them, as do pretty much all aftermarket cards.
The grail is going to be replacing those.
The PC space is not very good about scrapping things that are probably obsolete from their designs. Does you PC still have a parallel port connector? How about a serial port? PS-2 connections for mouse and keyboard? Can you flash the BIOS of your PC with a non-USB keyboard from boot? Still got ISA connectors on your board? If you have optical audio out, do you still have mini-stereo connectors as well?
My suspicion is that except on very small form factor systems, this isn't going to replace so much as add.
No royalties, less cables, simpler architecture... yeah sounds fine, but if the best solution would always win the day we will all be using Linux by now.
BUMPING the "i'm waiting for wireless everything"
DITTO
Jah wrote: "Seriously? You dont get audio from your video card kid. What yo uare getting as output is normal. You need to output from your sound card to whatever sound setup you have..but I suggest you just return everything and save yourself teh headache."
Um, instead of bashing someone with a problem, maybe you should do some research before blathering on about stuff you don't know.
Just for the record. Most HDMI video cards have audio pass-through. This means you plug your sound card into the video card and it passes the audio out through the HDMI plug.
So you are wrong.
Don't you just love how the next step in high def is always released before the hardware capable of supporting it is? For instance, they were selling Blu-Ray Burners before they started selling blu ray burnable media, they added the "mini-dvi" port to macs, no one likes your proprietary shit Apple, and we don't want to pay 20 dollars per adapter for this crappy format either, and there aren't many, if any at all, tvs or displays that support DisplayPort, heck, how old is HDMI anyway? a year or two? Why do we need to replace it with a new one so soon? Heck, so we have any players or consoles or graphics cards capable of outputting the new resolutions this thing supports? Do we even have the displays capable of handling that resolution? Why don't you people put this to rest for a bit until we actually have stuff that supports 2160i resolutions? Two versions of an almost identical product is only going to limit compatibility.
Technology is advancing faster than ever and we have to get used to it - we don't have to subscribe to it but never a good thing to be in denial either! What is proprietary one minute can become an industry standard the next. A good example is FireWire. Apple originally invented FireWire to speed up the data transfer for colour printing as a replacment for RS422. To think that it never got used for that purpose. I remember the presentation - it was a long time ago!!
As a consumer, it is annoying that things change so quickly and early adopting can be expensive. Years ago I bought a Panasonic 42" with HDMI and nothing works without annoying video interference and audio dropout. I have many HDMI sources but not one works with the TV properly even with highgrade cables without knocking the resolution right down which kinda defeats the object. So I'm never going to see Hi def on my TV until I buy a new one which is probably a quarter of the price now too. If DisplayPort does everything it says it does it will make HDMI look like a transitional 'standard'. I can't wait.
I've read the excellent EDN article, and as someone with an electronics degree since 1976, and who has followed the development of interfaces ever since, it's obvious to me that DisplayPort will replace HDMI at some point in the next few years. It's cheaper, more capable, more expandable, requires fewer wires, smaller connectors, etc.--it's all the stuff that manufacturers like.
HDMI is a licensed and proprietary standard that is currently available on most new home-theatre equipment. It allows for the combination of digital audio and video signals onto a single wire simplifying installation (theoretically, HDMI audio is notoriously difficult for end-users to configure) It's favored by the companies responsible for its development, which include Sony, Philips, and Panasonic among others as they own the rights to the specification and are not forced to pay royalties and licensing like outside vendors.
DisplayPort is an open standard created by VESA that is favored by most outside hardware vendors because its use is free substantially lowering the cost both of manufacture and to the consumer.
Both schemes include support for content encryption, which is why you shouldn't use either one. DVI provides adequate visual quality, does not support content encryption, and doesn't give content providers the option to obsolete your display at any time via HDCP.