HDMI on next gen graphics cards?

[mike_j_johnson]

I heard monitors (at least in the consumer electronics realm) will all be required to have HDMI inputs instead of DVI soon (something to do with copy protection im sure). Not sure if this is an FCC requirement or what, but do you think the next gen cards will have native HDMI outputs as well?

This might be a smart idea if we are thinking to the future. There are HDMI to DVI cables if you still have a monitor with only DVI.

 

[pxc]

I heard monitors (at least in the consumer electronics realm) will all be required to have HDMI inputs instead of DVI soon (something to do with copy protection im sure).

Yay! A late night joke thread.

Seriously, did you "hear" that or just make it up right now? That's so ridiculous.

 

[GoldenTiger]

This is actually for real... and by saying he heard it he meant, I'm sure, that he read it. It does indeed have to do with bs copy protection (aka restricting user's rights).

 

[pxc]

This is actually for real... and by saying he heard it he meant, I'm sure, that he read it. It does indeed have to do with bs copy protection (aka restricting user's rights).

It's not a requirement due to any copy protection on computer monitors (games, DVDs or 2D). That's the part i think is a joke.

TV monitors already do have HDMI inputs and likely PC monitors will have HDMI so that it can plug into devices with HDMI outputs (just like many larger LCD monitors have component video input). Are PC graphics cards switching to HDMI for the primary output? No way.

When someone "hears" something, there's usually a source. Something like this would have had the (nice, lovely) people at /. howling if it were real. I call shens.

 

[shoes]

i have a noobie question for you: what is the kind of input that is neither DVI or HDMI?

(the smaller usually blue one, VGA?)

 

[pxc]

(the smaller usually blue one, VGA?)

Yeah, the HD15 cable (up to 15 pins in 3 rows on the connector) is a regular VGA.

 

[mike_j_johnson]

This is no joke.

HDMI will be standard on HDTVs. DVI will be history because of copy protection reasons in the HDTV world.

Since PCs are becoming more popular in the living room (HTPCs) and HDTVs are becoming more common as PC monitors, I figured that graphics cards and PC monitors would/will eventually go the HDMI route.

Thanks for the flames

 

[amx]

This is no joke.

HDMI will be standard on HDTVs. DVI will be history because of copy protection reasons in the HDTV world.

Since PCs are becoming more popular in the living room (HTPCs) and HDTVs are becoming more common as PC monitors, I figured that graphics cards and PC monitors would/will eventually go the HDMI route.

Thanks for the flames

First off, I dont think you really know the differences between HDMI and DVI.
HDMI is a combination of DVI and Digital Audio signal in one cable. The HDMI cable can carry the exact same signle that the DVI can plus the audio signle. Both DVI and HDMI have HDCP in their specifications. HDCP (high definition content protection) is basically a digital security key encoded into the DVI or HDMI stream. Both connections are equally secure. Do you really think all the latest HD PVR/DVR that sport a DVI or HDMI connection are insecure?
Anyways the point is.. PCs donot need HDMI to protect against privacy and so I dont know where you found out that HDMI will be implemented because of piracy issues. HDMI is better then DVI because it has a much smaller connector. You can have longer HDMI cables then DVI cables and ofcourse it can carry an audio stream which is not required for PCs. HDMI is not a standard in HDTV "world", It is just another way to get digital signal and is become more and more popular.

 

[mike_j_johnson]

I am really sorry you all feel I am making this stuff up. I will try and find the article tomorrow that mentioned HDMI becoming a "required" standard for HDTVs. And thanks for the HDMI refresher course, but I know what HDMI is and what it does/can do. Not all people posting on these forums are idiots.

The only reason I posted this was to see if anyone had heard (read..whatever)about HDMI coming to graphics cards and/or computer PC Monitors.

 

[amx]

I am really sorry you all feel I am making this stuff up. I will try and find the article tomorrow that mentioned HDMI becoming a "required" standard for HDTVs. And thanks for the HDMI refresher course, but I know what HDMI is and what it does/can do. Not all people posting on these forums are idiots.

The only reason I posted this was to see if anyone had heard (read..whatever)about HDMI coming to graphics cards and/or computer PC Monitors.

Hey man its all good, I didnt say anyone was an idiot. This is what the discussion board is for. It is good that you brought it up. We learn from each other.

 

[HighTest]

Yay! A late night joke thread.

Seriously, did you "hear" that or just make it up right now? That's so ridiculous.

Interesting you should suggest "hear" in this thread as HDMI really is an extension of DVI that incorporates "audio" support. As quoted earlier the content protection isn't exclusive of the HDMI specification, but can be utilized by DVI. Many HDMI set owners can simply purchase an DVI-HDMI cable adapter.

See here for one company that sells these: http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI-hdmi_adapt.html

Look at that! Both the ability to go from DVI to HDMI and from HDMI to DVI, tells you something about the similarities hmm?

Since GPU's don't produce audio, what would be the point?

There is one benefit that DVI has over HDMI that is somewhat valuable to GPU makers. When looking at the GPU makers products, you'll find they are using DVI-I. Why? Analog video connections also exist that can be utilized for a DVI to VGA adapter allowing for a single connection type on the card and a dongle thrown into the box for legacy monitor users. Here's a link to one that ATI sells in case someone buys a used card and is missing their adapter. http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2538009 $10.00 isn't too expensive and it's probably less than $2.00 per connector for vendors to bundle in quantity.

HDMI has no provision for a VGA adapter and would hinder sales of a card with HDMI to legacy monitor owners.

 

[HighTest]

This is no joke.

HDMI will be standard on HDTVs. DVI will be history because of copy protection reasons in the HDTV world.

As you can see in my previous posting, there are many reasons a company may choose DVI-I over HDMI. HDMI may become more popular, but I don't think that DVI-I will be the betamax out of this and disappear entirely.

As another posted, the copy protection methods are also available to the DVI spec, so this wouldn't be the driving factor. HDMI will have it's place in the Home Theater, primarily due to it's ability to process multi-channel audio as well. Why have several connections to your Plasma display that supports multi-channel audio?

 

[HighTest]

Since GPU's don't produce audio, what would be the point?

Oh my gosh, I just thought of something and had to come back and post my speculation!

nVIDIA had the "SoundStorm" audio solution in their nForce2 chipset that many have lamented about since it's missing in subsequent chipsets. It had Dolby Digital Live support that allowed live encoding of mult-channel sound into Dolby Digital 5.1 streams, I think only one other add-on card just recently released currently has this feature.

What if, and hold onto your seat, they'll be reintroducing it in a next gen card? Imagine a PCI-E card that has both the GPU and SounStorm solution in one!

This would allow you to create a HTPC setup that has extreme GPU performance, very high-quality audio and allow you to connect it to your Home Theater plasma display, etc through the HDMI connector.

Maybe this is what someone stumbled on but didn't get the full details about.

This would be sweet! The HDMI interface is small enought that a DVI and several audio connections could exist for Legacy speaker and monitor support as well.

w00t!!11

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Since GPU's don't produce audio, what would be the point?

QFT

 

[amx]

Oh my gosh, I just thought of something and had to come back and post my speculation!

nVIDIA had the "SoundStorm" audio solution in their nForce2 chipset that many have lamented about since it's missing in subsequent chipsets. It had Dolby Digital Live support that allowed live encoding of mult-channel sound into Dolby Digital 5.1 streams, I think only one other add-on card just recently released currently has this feature.

What if, and hold onto your seat, they'll be reintroducing it in a next gen card? Imagine a PCI-E card that has both the GPU and SounStorm solution in one!

This would allow you to create a HTPC setup that has extreme GPU performance, very high-quality audio and allow you to connect it to your Home Theater plasma display, etc through the HDMI connector.

Maybe this is what someone stumbled on but didn't get the full details about.

This would be sweet! The HDMI interface is small enought that a DVI and several audio connections could exist for Legacy speaker and monitor support as well.

w00t!!11

Technically what you said can easily happen. But why? Plasmas dont output digital sound. So the digital stream throught the HDMI is quite useless unless you havea A/V receiver that has HDMI switching and you send the HDMI output from your PC to receiver and then from receiver to your plasma. Thats just an expensvice solution. What you are sayying can be done today quite easily. Connect your PC to plasma through DVI-D and optical out from your digital sound card to your amp. I have a plasma TV with HDMI and i dont use the HDMI capabilites, because i dont want the sound to output throught my plasma since its not digital but only stereo.

 

[HighTest]

Technically what you said can easily happen. But why? Plasmas dont output digital sound.

Checkout the specs on this one from Samsung: http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/...p?eUser=&prod_id=HPR4252X/XAA&selTab=Features

It uses SRS Truesound for it's two internal speakers, so while it doesn't provide a full 7 channel configuration it will process audio. But even if you don't have audio in the Plasma display, you may still want HDMI specificially for the high-end. This would be nVIDIA's next gen Media Center product with digital tuner, HDMI output and SoundStorm audio capabilities (in my vision, remember this is all speculation and shouldn't be used to generate threads of "G70's gonna have audio!")

This would be great for HTPC users, which interestingly have a large number that are willing to purchase expensive A/V receivers that could have HDMI switching included, this would be an exciting product release. Sure there are the low end HTPC systems people setup to play with and see what it's like, but many that purchase the high-end HTPC's are going for all the high-end gear.