Guide to What's New in HDMI 1.4

With plenty of new features and the promise of better picture quality and more convergence with the web, HDMI 1.4 has a lot to live up to. Has a new era in HD has arrived with HDMI 1.4?

The arrival of High Definition in early 2000 saw vast improvements in picture quality on TVs and other displays across the globe. The basic premise behind High Definition (a.k.a. HD), is an increase in video and audio bandwidth to a ridiculously high 10.2 Gbit/s, with the principal connection method of HDMI cables to carry all of the data.

The special cabling, technically known as HDMI cable, comes in various standards and resolutions. The most common HDMI resolutions begin at 720p (1280 x 720 pixels), and reach up to 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels). The most recently drafted version of HDMI is version 1.4.

Due for release in 2010, with the first commercially available products likely to be introduced at the 2010 CES show in Las Vegas, HDMI 1.4 adds new features to the HDMI specification. The most expected of these is the jump in resolution to a whopping 4096 x 2160 pixels – commonly known as 4K x 2K resolution. This new resolution will allow devices compatible with 1.4 HDMI to display images at the same resolution seen in many of the latest digital cinema theaters.

The other notable changes in HDMI 1.4 include:
- A 100Mb/s Ethernet data channel (full duplex). This is designed to allow any HDMI 1.4 enabled device to share an internet connection with the rest of your home - to find and share content across your home network.
- An Audio Return Channel. Theoritcally, you would no longer need your optical audio cable from a TV or other source component in order to deliver optical audio to an A/V receiver.
- 3D Over HDMI. Defines common 3D formats for HDMI-enabled devices to enable 3D gaming and video.
- Micro HDMI connector. This is a new connector, completely separate from regular HDMI connectors, which is designed to be used with portable devices like cell phones, portable media players, PDAs, etc.
- Automotive Connection System. This is used for in-vehicle HD content.

There are a lot of misconceptions and false information floating around about HDMI 1.4. Let's put some of those falsehoods to rest and clarify some of the true statements.

• The release of the new HDMI 1.4 is going to break my current equipment? Completely false. Your fantastic HDMI 1.3 compatible HDTV and Blu-Ray players will all still function normally next year when HDMI 1.4 is released.




• Will HDMI 1.4 cause my current electronics to become obsolete, and require me to replace everything? In a word – no. HDMI 1.4 devices are fully backwards compatible with previous versions of HDMI and all their features.




• I will have to buy another expensive HDMI cable next year. This is only true if you buy a new HDMI 1.4 device and want to take advantage of the features available in the new HDMI 1.4 specification. For example, if you buy a fancy new 4K x 2K projector you will need to also buy an HDMI 1.4 cable in order to use all of those pixels to reach 4096 x 2160 resolution.




• Older devices can be upgraded to HDMI 1.4. This is false in just about every case. There may be one or two devices which can be firmware upgraded to utilize HDMI 1.4 features, but these will be few and far between.

To sum up, HDMI 1.4 really does offer a lot in terms of new functionality. But with it being a year away from showing up in retail stores, there's no reason to get too stirred up about it yet. My advice? Just sit back, grab a family member of group and friends and enjoy watching a movie on your current HDMI 1.0 – 1.3 DVD player or Blu-Ray player.