The next-generation HDMI connector, HDMI 1.3, is nearing approval and will be fitted first to Sony's November-arriving PlayStation 3, according to US trade magazine TWICE.
Back in January at CES, HDMI Licensing outlined what the new standard will offer:
New mini
connector: With small portable devices such as HD
camcorders and still
cameras demanding seamless HDTV connectivity, HDMI will offer a new,
smaller form-factor connector option. Since HDMI offers the highest
quality digital audio and video on a single connection, such devices
will be also benefit from a reduced connector count.
Greater PC/CE convergence: HDMI will be enhanced for easier integration into low voltage, AC-coupled PC graphics controllers, cementing HDMI’s position as the de facto standard digital multimedia interface enabling true convergence across PC and CE platforms. The HDMI Founders also support compatibility between HDMI and the Unified Display Interface (UDI), the HDMI-compatible digital video interface for PC displays announced recently by a group of leading PC technology makers.
Lip Sync: CE devices are employing increasingly complex digital signal processing of high-resolution video and audio formats to enhance the clarity and detail of the content. As a result, synchronization of video and audio in user devices has become a greater challenge and could potentially require complex end-user adjustments. HDMI will incorporate features to enable this synchronization to be done automatically by the devices with greater accuracy.
New compressed audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby Digital and DTS), HDMI will add additional support for new compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.
Higher speed: Though HDMI has more than twice the bandwidth needed to support all HDTV formats, HDMI will increase its single-link bandwidth to support the demands of future HD display devices, such as higher resolutions, deep color and high frame rates.
Deep color: HDMI will support 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit color depths for stunning rendering of over one billion colors in unprecedented detail.
Greater PC/CE convergence: HDMI will be enhanced for easier integration into low voltage, AC-coupled PC graphics controllers, cementing HDMI’s position as the de facto standard digital multimedia interface enabling true convergence across PC and CE platforms. The HDMI Founders also support compatibility between HDMI and the Unified Display Interface (UDI), the HDMI-compatible digital video interface for PC displays announced recently by a group of leading PC technology makers.
Lip Sync: CE devices are employing increasingly complex digital signal processing of high-resolution video and audio formats to enhance the clarity and detail of the content. As a result, synchronization of video and audio in user devices has become a greater challenge and could potentially require complex end-user adjustments. HDMI will incorporate features to enable this synchronization to be done automatically by the devices with greater accuracy.
New compressed audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby Digital and DTS), HDMI will add additional support for new compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.
Higher speed: Though HDMI has more than twice the bandwidth needed to support all HDTV formats, HDMI will increase its single-link bandwidth to support the demands of future HD display devices, such as higher resolutions, deep color and high frame rates.
Deep color: HDMI will support 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit color depths for stunning rendering of over one billion colors in unprecedented detail.
As you'd hope and expect, HDMI Licensing says that products implementing new versions of the HDMI specification will continue to be fully backward compatible with earlier HDMI products.
TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) says that HDMI 1.3 connectors could appear on a wide range of CE products including HDTV sets Blu-ray and HD DVD players, A/V receivers, surround-sound preamp/processors and PCs.
The report quotes Silicon Image as saying that it expects “a number” of HDMI 1.3-equipped products to appear at CES in January 2007, many of which will ship in the first quarter [in the USA].
This and other predictions from Silicon Image have to be taken seriously because the company now wholly owns HDMI Licensing, the body set up by Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba Corporation and Silicon Image itself to license and promote HDMI.
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