Education Is Very Important

Education is more important than ever due to the hot button feature everyone is talking about:  High

Dynamic Resolution or HDR for short.  With all the hyperbole about this new technology being thrown around, along with the talk about new cable certifications- one can get confused quickly.  An example of how this confusion can spread happen in our office last week in the form of an email from China.  It read as follows:

“Dear friend,

    Good day. Hope you enjoyed your weekend^_^

Attached is our HDMI 2.0 HDCP 2.2 100m extender (HDBaseT) quotation to you. Please check for your reference.”

Whoa, wait a minute! HDBaseT has upgraded to HDMI 2.0 and can therefore now support 4k/60, HDR and 4:4:4 color?  Without a clear understanding of HDMI 2.0, 2.0A, 4K and HDR one would think this HDBaseT was something to consider purchasing to use with the new 4K, HDR components because of “HDMI 2.0” listed spec.  This email could cost your business money if you do not fully understand the HDMI 2.0A spec.  HDMI 2.0 (and HDMI 2.0A) has a range of performance capabilities and if a product falls within this range, companies can say it is HDMI 2.0 compliant.   Yet if this product does not support the FULL RANGE of HDMI 2.0A spec, the product will not support 4K/60, HDR and 4:4:4 color.  The specs of this product will tell the full story of just how much of the HDMI 2.0 spec this extender supports.

After reading the header, a laymen’s translation of the above email from China is “Our HDBaseT extenders will support anything that you can throw at it”. Unfortunately this is not the case, HDBaseT will only work with in the older HDMI 1.4 spec, meaning this product will not support the full range of HDMI 2.0 spec up to 18 Gpbs and this full range is important because of HDR. HDR is without question the biggest change to picture quality since the introduction of High Definition. HDR itself is a technique used in imaging to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging techniques, this means that you and your client will see much greater definition in the depth of the picture and its shading.

To validate my comments look at the data listed below that were part of the afore mentioned email, the specs listed is not the full range of HDMI 2.0A you will not see 18 Gbps listed anywhere:

  In conclusion, read the specs when you see HDMI 2.0 on any products to see if you are using the correct products for installations.  If full HDMI 2.0A spec is what you need – make sure that is what you are purchasing.

Have any questions regarding this topic?  Leave a comment.