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Displays Graphics Upgrades

HDMI 2.0 Officially Announced 293

jones_supa writes with news that HDMI 2.0 is out. From Engadget "The folks at HDMI Licensing are announcing HDMI 2.0 officially. Arriving just in time for the wide rollout of a new generation of Ultra HDTVs, it adds a few key capabilities to the standard. With a bandwidth capacity of up to 18Gbps, HDMI 2.0 has the ability to carry 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at 60fps. It also has support for up to 32 audio channels, 'dynamic auto lipsync' and additional CEC extensions. The physical cables and connectors remain unchanged." Just like HDMI 1.4, the specification is only available to HDMI Forum members.
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HDMI 2.0 Officially Announced

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  • by MrDoh! ( 71235 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @08:58AM (#44755379) Homepage Journal
    !So we won't see a markup in price on 2.0 cables then. If only.
  • No Mention (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:00AM (#44755401)

    The summary doesn't say...

    Does HDMI 2.0 support new, improved, and even more delicious Digitally Restricted Media? Seems that it must.

    • by alen ( 225700 )

      my blu rays play just fine on my TV. what exactly am i missing?

      • Re:No Mention (Score:4, Insightful)

        by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:35AM (#44755665) Homepage

        my blu rays play just fine on my TV. what exactly am i missing?

        The opportunity to buy a whole new TV which runs at a higher resolution.

        Think of it as the companies who make a/v equipment trying to make sure you replace all of your stuff every 2 years to keep up with the latest market trends.

        But, I'm with you, I don't see myself needing to get even higher resolution any time soon.

      • This is totally unacceptable , you just know that the 1.3 /1.4 is passe and you can't possibly be seen as someone that lives in the dark ages.
        Imagine the humiliation of having a friend come by and seeing you still use old 1.3/1.4 HDMI connections ! The idea is unbearable. !
        And of course you cannot live without the benefits of the new bandwidth limits . So yes .. throw away what works perfectly fine and get on the bandwagon.
        How long do you think you could get away with it anyways ? .. ( end clownish secti

        • I appreciate your vintage gear, but really: there have been a few technological advances since 1967 that are worth upgrading to; not just "novel". Please don't argue that your CRT and VCR are just as good as a Blu-ray player and LCD.
          • Bah! It still doesn't beat my Super8 and a bed sheet.
          • I appreciate your vintage gear, but really: there have been a few technological advances since 1967 that are worth upgrading to; not just "novel". Please don't argue that your CRT and VCR are just as good as a Blu-ray player and LCD.

            DVI had these things sorted out before HDM became popular when Vista came out 5 years ago. It infuriating many users who have spent thousands upgrading only to not be able to watch blurays?!

            Also many conference rooms and expensive projects at work have digital conections that work fine without HDMI and replacing these will be very expensive for no benefit other than forced obscelence.

            Since HDMI is still evolving it means a sunken investment to upgrade as HDMI 2.1 will replace obsoluting the same gear that w

            • Re:No Mention (Score:4, Interesting)

              by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @01:04PM (#44757989)

              Color my cynical but I see all this hype with 3D TV and movies and cable companies looking at these silly things as a way to extort money from $50 a month to $199 for HD. WIth 4K HD here comes $499 a month, now add conference rooms and TV makers, ... oh I guess greenRay DVDs are needed so now Sony can make even MORE $$$ for these etc. Sadly idiots wil pay for these too and then wonder how they are just barely making it with their middle class salaries and how they could have bought a brand new car for the monthly bills they keep paying for such garbage with minor improvements of what they had.

              Just because they make it, doesn't mean wel'll buy it.

              3DTV is probably here to stay, but not a lot of people are upgrading TVs just to get 3D. And 3D media is fairly scarce and largely irrelevant. Even the TV salesmen will admit that 3D is a flop. Nobody with a 60" edge lit LCD from 3 years ago is even slightly interested in upgrading to 3D. The only people buying them are people upgrading from CRT, upgrading from a smaller TV, or who have a older LCDs/Plasmas/DLPs that are dying. And they are buying them because it doesn't cost any more than a TV without 3D.

              4K HD... I'm looking forward to that one with respect to computer displays etc, but I doubt a lot of people care for TV. I doubt it'll gain traction as a must have upgrade, and will instead become like 3DTV... where everyone buying a new TV will end up with it once its no more expensive than buying a TV without it. And half or more of them will never be used with any 4K content anyway for years to come.

              oh I guess greenRay DVDs are needed

              Blu ray launched just in time for the disc market to collapse as people switched to streaming. I doubt a greenRay tech will ever see the light of day as consumer disc media for movies. Most people are satisfied with streaming stuff at lower quality than DVD, nevermind bluray... the content market for 4HD just doesn't exist no matter how badly the gear industry wants one. Meanwhile the broadcasters don't have the bandwidth for it. The movie rental places have nearly disappeared. The movie stores are struggling and diversifying away from movies.

              We'll get 4HD gear sooner than later, and 4HD content eventually, I'm sure, but its going to take some amazing marketing to convince us we need it enough to upgrade.

        • You forgot to tell us to get off your lawn.

          I'm sure your parents thought color was a novelty too.

      • What You're Missing (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        my blu rays play just fine on my TV. what exactly am i missing?

        You're missing the ability to access the HDMI channel, more specifically the HDCP channel, that your Blu-Ray disc is playing across. Many would use this access to record/copy the video stream, possibly for piracy which is what the DRM is designed to prevent. But, many others would like to be able to access the video stream to do things like:

        * Add our own news crawler, or pop-up alerts from our home automation systems.
        * We'd like to pop-up caller ID from our PBX while the video is playing.
        * Allow the home au

      • mostly 4k video. And audio with more than 7.1 discrete channels.

  • by horm ( 2802801 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:00AM (#44755407)
    I am selling platinum-tipped, lead-shielded, kevlar-reinforced Ultra Mega HDMI 2.0 cables for the low, low price of $200/ft.
    • by SGT CAPSLOCK ( 2895395 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:14AM (#44755529)

      Do your cables use oxygen-free copper, though? I'm sick of oxygen messing my pixels up!

      Also, can I give you more money for some gold-colored connectors??? I don't mind throwing all of my money at you and your cables if you add useful features like these.

      • by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @10:27AM (#44756217)

        Do your cables use oxygen-free copper, though? I'm sick of oxygen messing my pixels up!.

        Fool. You don't want that cheap-ass copper. What you need is oxygen-free silver. The following is a quote from a silver speaker wire company. With results like these for a simple speaker wire, just think what silver will do for HDMI:

        When you replace your copper speaker cables (even more expensive copper cables) with our Teflon-insulated, 99.999% solid silver conductor speaker cables, you may think you have just installed expensive new electronics, because of the across-the-board sonic improvements you should experience-

        The highs sounding less harsh and more delicately musical. The bass, less "bloated" and more revealing of instrumental textures and specific notes. The all-important mid-range (where most of the music resides) should sound more natural and warm, with human voices sounding more like real people, and musical instruments more convincingly "live."

        A new, "liquid" and flowing quality should reveal more of the intrinsic beauty of the original musical event.

        The stereo sound stage becomes more specific, with instruments and voices each appearing from a smaller localized area in the stereo image. There is a more distinct "layering" of the sound, with the ability to retrieve the original recorded "depth of field" to a greater extent.

        With results like this applied to an HDMI cable, you will feel like you have been "sucked into" another world, rather than just viewing it on television. In fact, I bet you will be able to interact with the characters in the movie. You may even be able to stop that jedi from saving Jar-Jar. Or smack the shit out of Bill Paxton and tell him to grow a pair in Aliens. And of course there's the porn.

        Did I mention the need for teflon insulation?

        • Teflon? No, you didn't... but when your house burns, you won't be poisoned by smoke from the Teflon-insulated cables, just from the components connected by it.

          Not having seen the maximum resolution supported by HDMI 2.0 anywhere outside of an IMAX theatre, I have to say that I only want that when my telescreen, er, TV is 10' wide.

          FCC never had any business approving the use of a "standard" whose specs were not freely available to everyone (and yes I know they did it multiple times in their existence). Of co

    • by JustOK ( 667959 )

      But they attract alligators. Not crocodiles, for some reason, but they do seem to attract alligators. My sister's head-dresser's cousin's dog-walker's boyfriend's chaffeur said he heard someone say this was true.

    • by pla ( 258480 )
      I am selling platinum-tipped, lead-shielded, kevlar-reinforced Ultra Mega HDMI 2.0 cables for the low, low price of $200/ft.

      Wow, really undercutting Monster by a good margin there! Can I order a palette now and beat the rush?

      Oh... Hey, waitasec... I see your game now, Mr. Scam Artist! You didn't mention "low oxygen"! Fraud! Charlatan! Senator! Cad!
    • I am selling platinum-tipped, lead-shielded, kevlar-reinforced Ultra Mega HDMI 2.0 cables for the low, low price of $200/ft.

      Fool! I am selling $1 store HDMI cables painted bright green with gold painted connectors for $200/ft.

      The green stabalises electrons so my cables have 25% more clarity. Electrons moving is what makes the picture fuzzy.

    • Is this the plan for saving Best Buy. If so, I'm not so sure it is going to work.
  • by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:01AM (#44755415) Homepage

    Given that HDMI is all about DRM, how many new ways have they come up to limit what we're 'allowed' to do?

    And as far as yet another HD 'standard', I can't say I'm in a big rush to get this. The media companies seem to think we'll replace all of our equipment every 2 years or so when they come out with the new hotness.

    But replacing my TV, my Amp, my DVD player ... well, I'll get around to it eventually. Since my current stuff is only about 2 years old, I don't see caring about this new spec for some time.

    Though, for a computer monitor, those resolutions sound pretty awesome.

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:03AM (#44755435)

      No, HDMI is all about audio and video on the same cable. HDCP is the DRM you are talking about.

      • But isn't HDCP a mandatory part of HDMI?

        In which case there's not a lot of difference between the one and the other as far as DRM is concerned.

        • by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:45AM (#44755787) Journal

          No it is not manditory.

          However, operating systems like Windows 7 will degrade video quality if they detect a non HDMI cable for blue-Ray content in the RC releases so this way MPAA can make people think DRM HDMI is better.

          I use HDMI on my machine due to convenience of less cables and I hate the sound on my mobo. Not because I believe it is better video quality.

          But it is just a cable and nothing else. The DRM HDCP is dependent on OS support.

          • Windows 7 does nothing at all with Blu-ray content. It doesn't understand how to play it. All it does in relation to any of this is provide a method for programs to inquire to drivers if everything is (supposedly) secure. A Blu-ray player can inquire as to the encryption status of the links and make sure things aren't being captured and so on. For that matter, so can other programs. It isn't Blu-ray specific, however only the media companies give a shit so that's all that really does it. Games don't mind at

  • by Teese ( 89081 ) <beezelNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @09:37AM (#44755707)
    Have they fixed the lack of closed captioning in HDMI? I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.
    • by quetwo ( 1203948 )

      HDMI is meant for end-user equipment, not transport. Whatever is your "tuner" (CATV STB, Satellite STB, DVD, Bluray, etc) that you are using to generate your picture is the one will melt in the closed captioning. HDMI only supports MPEG audio and MPEG video steams, and does not support text/data streams.

    • HDMI is video and audio transport. Closed captioning works fine over it, since it comes from the video source. Be it your cable, DVD, Blu-ray, whatever, the CC information is processed on the relevant device, and then sent out as part of the video.

      Asking HDMI to do closed captioning is like asking Ethernet to do packet filtering: You are looking at the wrong area.

    • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      HDMI supports FULL closed captioning, It has supported it since it supported video.

      • by Teese ( 89081 )

        HDMI supports FULL closed captioning, It has supported it since it supported video.

        HDMI supports NO closed captioning, and it hasn't supported it since ever.

        • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

          Yes it does. I suggest you learn something about HDMI and digital video in general.

          • by Teese ( 89081 )

            Yes it does. I suggest you learn something about HDMI and digital video in general.

            And yet, for years I'm unable to get closed captioning to work across an HDMI cable between various tv's, cable boxes, and DVD players.

          • http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#117 [hdmi.org]

            Officially HDMI supports closed captioning by deferring it to the set to box creating the HDMI signal. So HDMI supports it by not supporting it.

  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @10:04AM (#44755997)

    Still limited to 60Hz? Disappointing and annoying.

    • If it can carry 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at 60fps, then it can carry 1080p at 240 fps.
      • Yes, but I'd like it to 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at 120 or 240fps.

        I imagine that technology adhering to this 2.0 standard will be obsolete by the time it hits the shelves. Maybe that's the plan. I'll hold out for 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at 120/240fps, thank you.

        • How, precisely, would you propose to build something backward compatible with the current spec that can push that kind of bandwidth, and be built for a reasonable cost?

          The reason for these limits aren't arbitrary. It gets rather difficult and expensive to generate these real high bandwidth signals. Same reason why 10 gig ethernet costs so much more than gigE and needs better cabling to boot.

          It isn't magic, as technology advances (particularly smaller lithography) it becomes possible to do higher clock rates

        • by AdamHaun ( 43173 )

          Yes, but I'd like it to 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at 120 or 240fps.

          You realize that's 24 gigabits/second *minimum* just for 4K 120fps raw video, right? (With 4K's better color, it might be 32 Gbps, I'm not sure.) That is not a trivial challenge.

  • ...downstream device limits.

    It's not a bad idea until some as*holes like Comcast limit the number to 2 instead of 8 or 16 like most other cable boxes.

    This, of course, means Comcast thinks I'm stealing my own cable when it goes to my receiver (1 device) then my wireless HDMI transmitter (1 device) into my projector (1 device.) Bang, green "you're stealing this signal" screen.

    Jerks...

  • Hopefully they dont change that so it stays broken.

  • When I replaced my TV with an HDMI-capable model I moved all my components that supported HDMI to HDMI, and have HDMI links between my TV (Sharp), Tivo, Receiver (Pioneer) and BluRay player (Panasonic) and AppleTV.

    If I leave on the HDMI communication option on my components, turning on the TV is supposed to turn on the receiver. In theory without a smart remote, I turn on my TV and I'm watching TV with audio through my stereo.

    But it doesn't work like this. Invariably when the TV comes fully on, it switch

  • We're producing the finest interconnects which leave pure metals in the dust. They're made of high-temperature superconducting materials. Our package includes a rigid rack on which to mount your components (these interconnects are not flexible, so components must not move relative to each other), a dewar, and a discount on your first purchase of liquid nitrogen (necessary to keep the interconnects within their superconducting temperature). If you wish for the absolute best, we also offer oxygen-free AAAA li
  • by Medievalist ( 16032 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @12:02PM (#44757211)

    HDMI is a pure digital signal, with error checking. But since there's no means of retransmitting a broken packet (and thus no valid reason for buffering) in actual practice it's less capable of error checking and bit regeneration [wikipedia.org] than methods used by scribes in the ninth century [wikipedia.org]. You can know you lost more bits than you can regenerate, but you can't do anything about it.

    I think this is because HDMI is not really a method for clean digital signal transmission, but rather a way to stealthily carry HDCP into the consumer mainstream. The feature set is primarily aimed at preventing users from doing things (like making backups) rather than providing the maximum benefit to end users.

  • It came with a reliable screw or clip on connector for the ends.

    The current situation with the slide in connectors doesn't work worth shee-it.

  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @12:21PM (#44757487) Journal
    Someone explain to me again why 1920x1080 resolution is so horribly inadequate that we need 3840x2160 (4 times the resolution)? Are we all expected to have Jumbotron-sized televisions in our living rooms now?

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