HDMI... now DisplayPort?

[ViN86]

so... it seems that the DisplayPort will now be coming to PC monitors. my question is why did they even bother with HDMI in the first place?

i assume HDMI will still be used for home media...

also, the content protection schemes and bandwidth capability are insane

http://gizmodo.com/340621/giz-explai...ors-everywhere

Originally Posted by Article

As if we needed another display standard, along comes DisplayPort, approved last year and just about to sally forth on graphics cards and monitors everywhere. WTF do we need another standard for, anyway? Bandwidth, that's why. DisplayPort (plug pictured above at left, next to a Dual-link DVI cable) can handle a maximum 10.8Gb per second, carries 8 channels of digital audio as well as all that video, and has a bidirectional auxiliary channel that can also handle 1Mb per second. That's a lot of data. It could turn out to be a reliable, fast and easy-to-use bridge between computers and home theater displays. But DisplayPort is not all sweetness and light.

A touted aspect of DisplayPort is its "security," comforting to those who create content but an unwelcome guest for those who can't stand even the thought of DRM (digital rights management). Carrying HDCP along with it, the standard is designed to protect content from those free-copying, eyepatch-wearing pirates. In addition to that, it also carries an additional DRM can of worms, DPCP (DisplayPort Content Protection).

That gives the standard an advantage over DVI in the eyes of content creators, who have sometimes been known to arm-twist various hardware manufacturers. Speaking of which, the standard has gotten rousing support from many of the usual suspects, including Dell, HP, Philips, Samsung, Intel and Lenovo, and also graphics cards manufacturers AMD and NVIDIA.

Those companies might like this standard better than HDMI for another reason, too: Unlike HDMI, DisplayPort's an open standard with no fees required to those who invented it. Other than that, besides the slight bandwidth advantage of DisplayPort, the two are almost the same and will be interchangable in some cases with an adapter. But not all cases. Such as...

What do we like about it? You can daisy chain multiple 2560x1600 monitors together, and the standard also supports fiber optic cable, able to blast tons of serious bandwidth for longer distances. It also has an advantage over DVI with its 15-meter spec length, compared with DVI's measly 5-meter recommended distance. We're also quite fond of that ability to support 16-bit color for each component, and hey, the damn thing is easier to connect than a DVI or VGA cable. With Dell and ATI first out of the gate, expect graphics cards and monitors to jump on board any day now.

[ViN86]

guess no one cares...

[ephmrl]

I don't think anyone cared much about USB when it first came out, but its hard to imagine not having it now.

I'm guessing display port will be just like this...

Make it easier, and have manufacturers all use it, and eventually customers will realize years later how much of an improvement it really was when they dust off their old pc's and lcd's when cleaning out their basements to see if they still work for the yard sale.

[evilchris]

I want audio OFF the video cable.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by evilchris

I want audio OFF the video cable.

yea... but 8 channels of digital audio? that sounds pretty good tbh.

also, i like the daisy chain idea, so you can have one cable for multiple monitors.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by evilchris

I want audio OFF the video cable.

me too, combo cable was a pretty dumb idea

[crainger]

DisplayPort will start appearing everywhere. As the article stated there are no licensing fees so manufacturers can chuck it on everything at minimal cost.

[msxyz]

Displayport is backed by hardware manufacturers. In PC hardware market, the margins have become so slim you cannot afford to have them eaten away by undesired license fees.

Plus, HDMI has inherited a few shortcomings of DVI so the industry was already looking for a successor by the time HDMI was introduced

[AngelGraves13]

C'mon Samsung...roll out a new 30 inch already! C'mon NVIDIA, roll out the 9800 already!

[Rakeesh]

Originally Posted by ViN86

yea... but 8 channels of digital audio? that sounds pretty good tbh.

also, i like the daisy chain idea, so you can have one cable for multiple monitors.

The crappy thing about having audio on the same cable is that you can't use a separate video and audio path.

An example of where that would cause problems with me, is that I connect both my PC and my DVR into my audio system, so I can switch between PC audio and TV audio without having to change the video input. That allows e.g. watching TV in PIP and being able to hear it, while e.g. writing a word document.

[Lyme]

So lemme see.. on the tv we will have:
Coax - for regular cable.
Composite - for old consoles and vcr's.
Component - for some consoles and dvd players.
svideo - for consoles and dvd.
vga/dvi - to hook to computers and some consoles.
hdmi - for high def drm media.
displayport - for higher def drm media.

<sarcasm>I can see this catching on in a hurry</sarcasm>

[evilchris]

sad isn't it?