Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/13/hdmi_pitches_for_pc_mindshare/
The battle to determine which PC display interconnect will dominate the market has begun in earnest. Yesterday, the organisation that licenses the HDMI port claimed more than 50 desktops, notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards and monitors are now shipping with its technology on board.
HDMI is a logical successor to the rather more bulky, lower bandwidth and audio-less DVI port that's currently found on most computers and monitors. The rival technology is DisplayPort, developed by VESA, the organisation behind the original VGA technology. Unlike HDMI, DisplayPort doesn't do audio, figuring if an absence of sound was no barrier to DVI, it won't be second time round.
Both HDMI and DisplayPort support the HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protecion) anti-rip technology and provide the bandwidth to support higher colour depths and larger colour spaces than previous display connection technologies.
Which technology a vendor supports will be determined by how they feel about whether displays need to be fed with sound data or not. Indeed, some observers suggest HDMI will become the standard for home and media-centric systems, while DisplayPort will find a home in business-oriented systems.
Room then for happy co-existence? HDMI Licensing's decision to shout about how many PC systems are now supporting its offering suggest it at least is willing to go on the offensive to win market and mind share.
DisplayPort to incorporate USB (8 January 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/08/ces_displayport_to_support_usb/
AMD readies DirectX 10.1, DisplayPort GPU updates (10 September 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/10/amd_readies_gpu_updates/
VESA adds anti-piracy tech to DisplayPort (4 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/04/vesa_posts_displayport_1dot1/
DisplayPort to support HDCP? (6 November 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/06/vesa_offers_displayport_update/
CE giants punt wireless rival to HDMI (1 November 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/01/ce_giants_punt_wihd/
Sony adds HDMI 1.3 port to 20GB PS3 (22 September 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/22/sony_20gb_ps3_hdmi/
HDMI 1.3 upgrade finalised, published (22 June 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/06/22/hdmi_1-3_spec_posted/
VESA completes DVI successor (4 May 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/04/vesa_completes_displayport/
PC, CE firms to develop 'unified' display connector (21 December 2005)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2005/12/21/unified_display_interface/
VESA readies next-gen display interface (11 May 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/11/vesa_displayport/