Hdmi Cable Versions: What They Are And What They Mean

Many of us are very keen on buying flat screen TVs

, and some of us already know the kind of technology that has gone into these TVs to provide us with the most outstanding viewing. But when it comes to connecting your digital DVD source with your digital TV, we are not sure what kind of cable we should use.

There are two types of cables available in the market besides the analog one, and these two are HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and DVI (Digital Visual Interface) cables. The two are similar as far as transmitting digital video is concerned. However DVI does not support transmission of digital audio to your TV. Let us understand what HDMI cable is.

Till March 2009, HDMI has undergone five version changes, and the new ones, versions 1.3b and 1.4 has been announced and will be available in the market shortly. If you are keen to learn more about the specifications of the current versions of HDMI, the licensing authority allows you to download a copy of the document from their website, which provides you with the full technical specifications of the recent version released. There are versions of documents available for HDMI compliance test specifications, and the recent ones are versions 1.3a, 1.3b, 1.3b1 and 1.3c. These documents are not available to the public.

The HDMI specifications available are as follows -

HDMI Specification 1.1

HDMI Specification 1.2

HDMI Specification 1.2a

HDMI Specification 1.3

HDMI Specification 1.3a

But confusion does remain for the users as well as for the cable vendors. When you buy a HDMI cable you would often find that it has a label stating that it is version 1.3a or 1.3b compliant, while there is no such thing as HDMI 1.3b. On the contrary there is a Compliance Test Specification 1.3b and 1.3b1. There is another which is Compliance Test Specification version 1.3c as well. The compliance test version 1.3c adds new criteria for "active" cables.

What has not changed is this:

With all the confusion about version changes and with connectivity having being tested in relation to one version or the other, the question of compatibility does appear in our minds since the question of compatible systems is too specialised for us to understand. We bank on the re-assurance that we get from experts regarding this matter. All we need to know that the basic function of HDMI cable has not changed, and these are manufactured by the same wire material, in the same configuration that it was designed, having the same USB connector as before.

This should be enough for us to know that, and no matter which version it is, the HDMI cable supports all the basic features including protocols like HDCP. It hardly matters what version you are using and whether it has been tested under CTS 1.1, 1.3c, or any other. If the cable is version 1.3 compliant, it is supposed to support all the features and handle the same job and has all the necessary parts as in version 1.3.

Do not put much thought when a vendor tells you that a specific HDMI cable supports deep colour. This would be confusing for you. You may also be told that a specific version would support new colour-space protocols, or new audio formats. In fact your old cable supports these very well as well. Your vendor may be trying to promote a cable, and, since you are not so much technically oriented, you are told of the great supporting features, protocols and others. Find another vendor.

by: Dan Mason

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