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HDMI

HDMI : High-Definition Multimedia Interface

HDMI or High-Definition Multimedia Interface is an interface standard used for audio-visual equipments such as HDTVs or home theater systems. In just a few years it has become some sort of de facto standard for all HDTVs or other audio/video units. All latest DVD Players, Blu-Ray Player, Game consoles, PC and even laptops are likely to have an HDMI Port built into them. They have certain advantages such as ability to carry both high quality audio and video in a single cable in a digital format making the old analog cables obsolete.

Benefits of HDMI

• Provides enormous bandwidth upto 10.2 GBps which is more than twice the bandwidth needed to transmit a 1080p signal such as from a Blu-Ray Player.
• It can protect the data from Piracy using the HDCP protocol. Basically the protocol uses a handshaking mechanism to ensure that the data is transmitted between two authentic devices.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. It represents a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency (RF) coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, and VGA. HDMI connects digital audio/video sources—such as set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles (such as the PlayStation 3 and some models of Xbox 360), and AV receivers—to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, and digital televisions.

HDMI supports, on a single cable, any TV or PC video format, including standard, enhanced, and high-definition video; up to 8 channels of digital audio; and 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. Because HDMI is electrically compatible with the signals used by Digital Visual Interface (DVI), no signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of video quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used. As an uncompressed connection, HDMI is independent of the various digital television standards used by individual devices, such as ATSC and DVB, as these are encapsulations of compressed MPEG video streams (which can be decoded and output as an uncompressed video stream on HDMI).

	New Command Comm. 3PORT HDMI Smartswitch 3 Ports Add Up To Three HDMI Sources To Your HDTV List Price: $208.68 Sale Price: $104.34
	Signaling rates up to 10.2 Gbps, supporting UXGA and 1080p. 8dB Receiver equalization to compensate for 5m HDMI cable losses. 3dB Driver pre-emphasis to compensate for PCB losses. Supports CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) channel. Infrared remote control included.

	Cables Unlimited 6' Pro A/V Series HDMI 1.3 Home Theater Cable - Black - Model PCM-2295-06 02 Meter & 6' Sale Price: $3.97
	HDMI to HDMI

There are different versions of cables with newer versions supporting newer features. Version 1.4 is the latest but you can get a version 1.3 cable which is currently used by most of the devices.