HDMI 1.4 Spec Announced Comments

What's the sodding point if they need different cables, may as well keep the different sockets.

So we need new TV's that support hdmi 1.4?

Does this mean more wires inside the cable? The HDMI connector falls out too much already without adding extra weight.

@ahlan Yeah if you want to be able to use 3D/4K hdmi.. yes you'll need to buy a 3D/4K TV first. Sorry if you feel short-changed that your current TV isn't already 3D or 4K.

@Hugo:

> 'The Standard cables are good for 720p sets only'

Er, I don't mean to be picky, but according to the spec standard cable 'supports data rates up to 1080i/60'. If I don't, someone else (read:Ohmz) will :)

^^ But then again, if you had a 1080 set, why would you limit it to 1080i? Ignore me, I'm being a bit thick.

^^ Hold on, I think 1080 at 60i has a higher data rate than 1080 at 24p, so I think the Standard cable should work fine with 1080p from a Blu-Ray player or just about anything else that's around today.

@Hugo some errors...
There are already "standard" and "high speed" HDMI cables. That distinction was introduced for the HDMI 1.3 spec. This 1.4 spec improvement has nothing to do with that, cables that work with HDMI 1.3 will work with 1.4.... except if you want ethernet. A "standard" cable is just a really crappy quality, I've never seen one on sale, even super cheap ebay jobs work for "hispeed" just fine; unless you make one yourself out of a coat-hanger, I doubt you'll actually experience "standard".

So, there is a single additional cable type to HDMI that we actually use, the 'HDMI+Ethernet' cable. Unless you want to use that, you won't have to re-cable your home cinema for all the other features.

The car one is silly though, they should have just used the D type mini connector for that use as well.

right, I have a question: what's the point of having ethernet built into the HDMI cable? Ethernet needs to be plugged one end into Blu-Ray (for BD-Live) and the other end into network. What's the point of plugging one end into Blur-Ray and other end into TV? Would future TVs making use of this function as ethernet hubs for the 1.4 connected devices attached?

@ChasoD.. I would think any device with the feature would have optional routing and it's own auto DHCP subnet. So one device like the amp/receiver would have a network input and then the blu-ray player, TV, Set-top box.. would piggy back their connection through the main device. Also if the amp/receiver has a wifi connection then only that one device need to be setup for wifi.

@Hugo It looks like a mistake because you'd written it as NOW there are 5 types of HDMI cable they've added with 1.4.. Which isn't the case. Aside from the car one there are the standard and high speed. Standard doesn't really exist. I've never seen it on sale anywhere and it's basically pointless. That leaves "normal 19 pin HDMI 1.3/1.4" cables. Or "normal cables" with ethernet. I don't think that's complicated or stupid. Would it be a better situation to remove backwards compatibility and have "HDMI+Ethernet" only? Of course it wouldn't.. that would be stupid. The ethernet is much more optional than the other features. The devices that support it will still need to supply a ethernet port for a considerable amount of time.

The HDMI nightmare continues .......

HDMI (in my opionion) is a badly thought out standard - not fit for European consumers.

For starters, it doesn't support automatic switching - even the stone age scart could do this. Has anyone tried to connect an HDMI device to a TV and an AV receiver? The receiver receives 2.0 sound only regardless of the HD-audio material being played. So you have to use the optical connector for audio. But then some devices cannot output audio simultaneously to HDMI and optical ...... and on and on .......

How about something revolutionary - ask comsumers what they want. Collate the most requests that are feasible and then release HDMI 2.0 - then stay put for a few years.

If manufacturers think that the contant upgrading is going to tempt consumers to upgrade, then they are wrong. I for one, now will NOT upgrade everytime they discover a bug and then release a whole new standard.

@prem

You can find a small three way auto/manual hdmi switch on ebay for around £10 works fine for me it selects the last source when you decide or you can push the button.

This just dumb and flat out exploitation of consumers. A someone on Arstechncia said, any old CDat5E cable can arry ALL of these signals for about a buck in cost.

This kind of nonsense, will simply drive people back to DVI + optical.

@prem HDMI on my TV has auto switching and auto power on/off. It's called "HDMI-CEC" and it's part of the standard. Whenever I turn my blu-ray player on the TV switches over. I turned off the setting for the TV to power down after I turn off the blu-ray player... No external HDMI switch box required hank.

"a Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) connection. The CEC allows HDMI devices to control each other when necessary, and allows the user to operate multiple devices with one remote control handset."

I have no idea what you are talking about HDMI only carrying 2.0 audio. HDMI contains the equivalent of an optical connection so can do standard DTS or DD5.1. If your receiver can receive PCM it can carry 8 channels of uncompressed 24bit audio. That's for all HDMI connections.. if you want to bitstream DTSHD or TrueHD then you need HDMI1.3 and an amp to decode those formats.

The trouble with the CEC it isn't mandatory. For instance my Samsung TV does as did the Upscaling DVD Player I had. However the PS3 doesn't, nor does Sky HD or Virgin's V+ box