3G Cable Shoot Out

Phil Crawley from root6 has published the results of the 3G Cable Shootout. This is of interest to anyone who is thinking of kitting their facility out with new 3G HD cable. For the full report see http://www.threeboys.co.uk/techblog/2009/11/great-3g-cable-shoot-out.html

HDMI 1.4 announced

Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please welcome HDMI 1.4, the latest incarnation of the all-digital interconnect. I blogged some time ago about HDMI 1.3 http://www.kking.co.uk/blog/oldblog/blog.kking.co.uk/blog/_archives/2006/7/31/2181105.html

So I thought it was time to mention HDMI 1.4 which is due for publication by the end of June, the HDMI 1.4 spec's key elements are integrated networking, support for bigger screen sizes, 3D support and a new, more compact connector oh dear not another connector.

The addition of networking is specifically the addition of a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet data channel through the HDMI cable. On Nice wonder what we can do with that....connect it to your PC or you home internet. There are lots of HDMI-equipped devices already have Ethernet ports, the addition of networking is arguably redundant, but it should make for reduced cable clutter - but you will have to buy a new cable with the extra, Ethernet-exclusive wires.

HDMI 1.4's support for resolutions greater than 1080p will stretch to 3840 x 2160 at 24Hz, 25Hz or 30Hz, and 4096 x 2160 at 24Hz . Apparently they say its got enough resolution to transmit two 1080p images, allowing the technology to support stereoscopic 3D.

The Micro HDMI Connector is a significantly smaller 19-pin connector that supports up to 1080p resolutions for portable devices. This new connector is approximately half the size of the existing HDMI Mini Connector, introduced in 2006 when HDMI 1.3.

HDMI 1.4 will support colour spaces sYCC601, Adobe RGB and AdobeYCC601, the better to ensure the telly shows the colours encoded correctly. Alsothe standard will have extra wiring for two-way audio, again with the intention of reducing cable clutter.