subject: What Is Hdmi? [print this page] High Definition Multimedia Interface or HDMI is an interface utilized for audio/visual equipment like home theater systems and high definition television. With 19 cables wrapped in a cable that looks like a Universal Serial Bus wire, High Definition Multimedia Interface is able to hold a bandwidth of 5 Gigabytes per second. This is more than two times the bandwidth required to broadcast multi-channel video and audio, future proofing HDMI for a time to come. Several various factors make High Definition Multimedia Interface much more attractive than its component video, predecessors, composite video and S-Video.
High Definition Multimedia Interface is an uncompressed signal, while the aforesaid interfaces are entirely analog. With an interface, a digital source is interpreted into less accurate analog, sent to the TV, then changed back to a signal to view on screen. At every translation, the digital signal misplaces integrity, effecting in some twist of image quality. HDMI maintains the source signal, removing analog conversion to send the richest, sharpest picture possible.
Previous video interfaces needed separate audio wires, w/ the large majority of individuals making use of standard RCA R/L audio jacks. High Definition Multimedia Interface, w/ its abundant speed and bandwidth, handles not only video but also up to 8 audio channels for uncompromised sound. It changes the tangle of cables behind the system with a cable, greatly shortening the whole process of setup of the home theater system while giving top level performance.
Though Type A or standard HDMI has 19 cables, Type B will have 29 cables. The last is aimed for the motion picture business and some professional applications. Both assortments are Intelligent HDMI, submitting to the fixed ability for HDMI components to talk to each other using the interface. Auxiliary info could give complete remote functionality and some other special features impossible in previous technologies.
HDMI helps video formats, high-definition and enhanced video. It is backwards compatible w/ Digital Video Interface or DVI as well. High end video cards showing a Digital Video Interface port could link to a HDMI interface using an HDMI/DVI cable. This is just a cable w/ a DVI connector on one side and an HDMI connector on the other side. As a law, HDMI cables shouldn"t run longer than 5 meters or 15 feet, because decreasing of the signal can occur.
