What Do HDMI Cables Support?

The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) products for consumers were first offered in 2003 and since then, this technology has seen a great surge in popularity. Today, you can use HDMI cables with personal computers, Blu-ray Disc and high definition DVD players, gaming consoles, and even the latest digital cameras and camcorders are sold with mini-HDMI connectors. The evolution in the technology has brought a number of new versions and while the oldest, 1.0 HDMI cables, were and are still great for many devices and applications, the latest, 1.4 and 1.4a come with extended capabilities and are likely to offer everything that you might need.

One of the most frequently asked questions, when it comes to this technology is "what do HDMI cables support?" The answer is not straightforward or simple since this greatly depends on the HDMI version - for starters, all versions support sRGB, YCbCr, channel LPCM, 192 kHz, 24 bit audio capability, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD video and audio at full resolution, and Consumer Electronic Control. Each one of these abbreviations stands for different technology or specification - sRGB is standard RGB color space, which is used in printers and monitors, YCbCr is a family of color spaces, which is used in digital photography and video, and the Consumer Electronic Control ensures a minimal level of functionality. As newer HDMI versions were released, each one of them added new features - all cables since 1.2 come with DVD-Audio support, 1.2 added Super Audio CD (DSD) support, and with 1.3 came Deep Color, xvyCC, Auto lip-sync, Dolby TrueHD bitstream capable, DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream, and an updated list of CEC commands. The latest (at the time of this writing) 1.4 version was officially released on May 28th, 2009, and added Ethernet channel, audio return channel, 3D over HDMI, and 4K × 2K Resolution Support. The 1.4 supports a number of 3D formats such as interlaced field alternative, frame packing, side-by-side half, side-by-side full, line alternative full, 2D + depth, and 2D + depth + graphics + graphics depth. Well, if this is not sufficient, then there is the Audio return channel added and the Ethernet channel, which supports 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection between two HDMI devices.

If all you need is a HDMI cable for your home thither, then buying the latest version should normally work like a charm - simply make sure to choose a high quality cable, which you can easily find in any of the electronic stores or online.