What Is HDMI?

Date First Published: 12th July 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Hardware

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Advantages and Disadvantages Of HDMI
History

Learn about what HDMI is in this article.

Stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. HDMI is a digital graphics standard used to connect display devices, such as monitors, televisions, and projectors. Due to its very high-quality resolutions, small size, and compatibility with modern computers and other devices, including 4K televisions, video game consoles, and HDTVs, it has become the most common method of connecting display devices to computer systems.

HDMI ports can be found on the back of a computer and display device. The HDMI cable connects to the computer motherboard and the video card of the display device. However, not all computers, particularly older computers have a HDMI port.

On a single cable, HDMI is capable of delivering multi-channel digital audio as well as standard, enhanced, or high-definition video. It transmits each ATSC HDTV standard and supports 8-channel digital audio, with enough bandwidth to take into account upgrades and requirements in the future.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of HDMI

The advantages of HDMI are:

A single HDMI cable transmits an audio signal along with the video signal by carrying the audio and video streams together. This eliminates cable clutter as no separate audio cables are required to connect sound.
It has a very high bandwidth of up to 18 Gb/s. This enables it to output 4K quality video at 60 Hz. This makes it a more suitable graphics standard when watching media at a higher resolution.
Since HDMI cables use a digital connection, they are less prone to interference and signal noise than VGA cables, which only transmit analogue data. Most components process information digitally, eliminating the need for digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital conversion.

The disadvantages of HDMI are:

Unlike VGA cables, they have no locking mechanism to ensure the cable stays securely connected, so cables can accidentally fall out.
They are more expensive than VGA cables as they cost more to manufacture.
Length is limited. Although the length of a HDMI cable ranges from 1 foot (30.5 cm) to up to 50 feet (15.2 m), purchasing a cable over 25 feet (7.6 m) is not recommended as it can lead to signal degradation or loss.

History

HDMI was developed by Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba. The 7 founders started development on HDML 1.0 on 16th April 2002. The goal was to create an AV connector that was backwards compatible with DVI. At that time, a video-only standard could be found on most monitors.