Part 3 of Construction of a HDMI Cable: Bandwidth and Speed

Bandwidth and Speed are very important when discussing the construction of a HDMI cable.  One has to have a general understanding of how these two words pertain to cables as well as how they play into the cables functional capability.  Bandwidth and Speed are a very difficult and confusing concept for most people to grasp.

What is Bandwidth?  What is speed? 

Although bandwidth and speed have much in common, they are different and are frequently and incorrectly used by both consumers and the manufacturers to express the same thought. 

·         Bandwidth refers to how much data can pass thru a device at the same point and time. 

·         Speed refers to how quickly a device can create the data. 

For example, when discussing the differences in bandwidth needed to produce a 1080P picture (5 Gbps by Spec) and a 4K/60, 4:2:0 picture (9.2 Gbps +/-) what we are really comparing is the width of the high-way and the number of available traffic lanes.  Think of it this way: You send a 100 vehicle convoy between two cities down a 2 lane road at 60 miles an hour, this will give you 2 columns 50 trucks deep. The last truck in line will not arrive at the same time as the first. Now we increase the road to 10 lanes across and we are only 10 trucks deep closing the time gap.  In widening the road, the trucks can now go faster and vehicle speed increases to 120 mph.  A 10 to 1 increase in traffic flow is the result.

The trucks become data and you get our point – wider bandwidth increases the speed of the data in a HDMI cable.

What does this have to do with cables and why is this part of our series?

How fast a HDMI cable sends data is one of the most important facts of a cable and in our opinion must be a part of this series.  There is not one physical part of a cable that increases bandwidth and speed.  Wire gauge and consistency of the twist ratio determine both speed and bandwidth. Better quality product equals better data transfer.  A cable must be well built to be able to produce wider bandwidths and increasing speed. DPL certification on HDMI cables is a good way to know if the cable will provide the best bandwidth and speed. 

DPL certification is neither quick nor cheap. First it takes a while to design and build a cable that meets the DPL standards. Second in order for DPL to maintain “Truth in testing” on going testing is required and DPL does not get this samples from the vendor they come from dealers or distribution, so like “UL” certification there is a yearly fee to keep you (the vendor) up to date.

For the dealer, this is a fantastic resource as well as a great and timely report of what is tested and real.

History of HDMI: In the Beginning

By C. I. Source

Although HDMI 2.0 has been out for a while, this technology still has a dark shroud of mystery surrounding it.  Dealers and manufactures are afraid of HDMI while customer demand is looming. We’ll examine some of the issues we’ve had to deal with as we get underway with this new frontier in Part 1. Be sure to watch for Part 2, Into the Future of HDMI in our next installment.

The question is:   “As an industry, how do we salve the fears and provide the client with what they need to move forward with the new HDMI interface?”

To fully understand the new technology, let’s review. Let’s look at how we evolved, where we are presently, and where we are headed in the future:    

I

n the beginning, there was DVI created by silicon image which was intended to be a computer video interface that provided a true Digital High Speed Video connection over a relatively short distance. DVI performed as intended -- but not without problems creating a roadblock to future implementation.  Some of the issues were the lack of a single Plug/Wire standard; the inability for the signal path to travel more than 15’ consistently; no audio standard; and a very large terminal.

Not long after DVI was introduced, the movie and TV industries started looking for ways to secure their new “HD” content.  They felt motivated by and ultimately compelled to limit market availability due to what they assumed were their intellectual property rights. They would not release “HD” content to without a strict level of “Intellectual Property” protection.  To fix this shortcoming, Silicon Image (creator of DVI) took the functioning structure of DVI and the HDCP protection scheme developed by Intel and put it all together into a smallish terminal that carried the High Speed Video, Multi-Channel Audio, Intelligence and Security together as one.

The original HDMI Spec 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 (2002-2006) allowed for 5 Gbps of data transfer, this supported 1080P, 8 Bit color, Multi-channel Audio and EDID/HDCP.  In 2006 the HDMI 1.3 spec was released, this covered several new features and an expanded bandwidth of 10.2 Gbps.  This revision had the first actual cable performance change (from 5 to 10 Gbps) since the introduction of HDMI and is where we still are almost 10 years later! The HDMI 1.4 spec introduced in 2009 added features to the electronics but did not have any cable changes except for the “not yet used” Ethernet support.

This brings us to HDMI 2.0 and the new 18 Gbps standard. When HDMI 2.0 was introduced with much Fanfare in September of 2013 (wow time flies!) there was a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation. This new version of HDMI made a giant leap in bandwidth and now calls for 18 Gbps bandwidth capability.

Whoa….wait a minute, did not HDMI LLC say that they would not need to institute a new cable spec to support this? Yes, HDMI stated, numerous times, that the current 1.4 “high end” cable spec will do everything that is needed for this new format.

And that brings us to the reason for this article: How is this going to work? More importantly, how do we plan for the future?

Here (in HDMI LLC’s opinion) is how it is supposed to work:

Equalization! HDMI assumes that if you have a “true” High Speed cable that is in fact capable of 10.2 Gbps and if you can throw 25 db of EQ onto the signal at the display side you will be able to recover enough data to get a “true” UHD 4K picture.

There are of course some serious issues involved with this plan. A vast number of cables are not really 10.2 capable, even though they are rated high speed. That means a fail. The display side equalization, while over-all adaptive, does not appear to be frequency specific adaptive. This means that if your cable does not have a very linear signal loss between 10 Gbps and 18 Gbps (with a max loss of 25 db) you will have a statistically high opportunity of failure. This theory also does not work well with longer distances and extenders, of any sort.

Here (IMO) is how it is working:

How is it that there are systems with long cables and extenders working with UHD right now? Well, they really aren’t doing HDMI 2.0.

HDMI 2.0, more importantly UHD, only needs about 9 Gbps to carry all of the current formats. I call this HDMI 2.0 Lite.

Aren’t UHD and HDMI 2.0 the same thing? No, no they are not. Thinking of the HDMI 2.0 spec as the USA, for example, UHD is about the size of Rhode Island! So while all UHD formats fit into the HDMI 2.0 Spec, and as a general rule the HDMI 1.4 spec, there is no way that all of the HDMI 2.0 features fit inside the boundaries of UHD.

Here is how current UHD 4K/60 works inside of the HDMI 1.4 spec:

Current UHD started showing up in products such as the Sony 4K server in the summer of 2013. This version was only 4K/30 meaning the picture was refreshed 30 frames per second (FPS.) While this looked great on static or slow moving pans, when there was an action scene the video became very jittery. This did not go over well with the consumer. The push was on to get the video refresh rate up to 60 FPS. The only way to accomplish this with the cables and digital roadways that are available is to cut corners on the “chroma sub-sampling rate.” This Chroma sub-sampling rate is represented as three numbers, 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0. This is very important to both the overall quality of the picture and the bandwidth needed to carry the signal. 4:2:0, available in UHD, cuts down on the necessary bandwidth by doing a lot of data averaging. This is done so they can cram a lot of data, in theory, into a small pipe.  In 4:4:4 each and every pixel can display any color independent of any other pixel. In the 4:2:0 pixels are arranged in groups of 4 which all show the same color. This is how they cut down on bandwidth, instead of needing enough bandwidth to provide every pixel its own color information, they now only need enough to cover a quarter of that need.

Thank You to AVS Forum for this Graphic

That’s enough for this issue, don’t you agree? Stay tuned for Part 2: The Future of HDMI in our next issue.

Be sure to send me your questions and any feedback you may have. I’d love to hear from you!

New Videos Are Ready for Viewing

Have you visited our YouTube channel? Metra Home Theater Group uses the channel to educate our customers (current and potential) on the products we provide.  YouTube is another great way to feature our best asset – our dedicated staff.  

We just wrapped our latest installment of videos and they are uploaded and ready to view at your leisure.  Go here  to check out the latest videos featuring our own Brent McCall and Miranda Grantham.   If this is your first visit to our channel, surf around make sure to view older videos and see why we are #MoreThanProducts.

Please feel free to leave a comment suggesting a topic for our next round of videos we plan on doing to kick off our countdown to CEDIA 2015 in Dallas.  

The Confusion Surrounding 4K

Last week, the blog discussed what 4K means to the customer and it caused quite the stir with my CI co-workers.  In an effort to clear things up a little and to add to the controversy of the subject, this post will outline some of the topics discussed in our offices.

Right now, 4K to the CI means confusion. This is because 4K, to most people (consumers), means twice as many pixels horizontally and twice as many pixels vertically to make up the picture on the TV.  4K meant the HD picture quality had to be improved for the consumer wanting bigger and bigger TVs.  Non-4K TVs have a 1080p picture with 1920 pixels horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically.  Since the 4K televisions double both the number of horizontal and vertical pixels, we get: 2 x 1920 = 3840 and 2 x 1080 =2160.  Meaning 3840 x 2160, which equals 4K for the consumer.  This doubling is where the consumer gets the term 4K.  Here is a visual that helps people grasp exactly what that math represents:

However, the term 4K is not interchangeable for both the professional and the consumer version of this technology.  The term “4K” has been pushed on the consumer, but there is a professional 4K, which is totally different. Technically, “4K” is not correct when discussing the professional grade in cinemas and theaters.  The CI using the commercial grade resolution is actually dealing with a picture that is 4096 x 2160 pixels and call this the “real 4K.” This does not sound near as sleek as 4K – I can understand why the marketers wanted to use 4K. It just sounds better, but is confusing the subject.

To distinguish between the two, the Consumer Electronics Association coined the term ULTRA HD, or UHD for short.  For whatever reason, the TV makers stuck with 4K instead. It just sounds better than UHD.  Because it still is confusing to the professional CI to have two terms, things (at least for now) seem to have settled on using the term UHD 4K for consumer TVs.  I guess that is so they can leave room for UHD 8K in the future - which really will make things more confusing.

My question is why couldn’t the /Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) use one term for the consumer (ULTRA HD Anyone) and 4K for the CI?  Like regular gas and premium gas.  I am sure the concept would have caught on and not have confused a soul.

What is 4K?

4K ready cables.  4K televisions.  The term “4K” is being thrown around a lot lately and does anyone really know what it means?  I recently tried to explain the importance of 4K and how it will impact everyone’s life one day over dinner with a group of friends.  I was met with “I just don’t get it” comments.  Undeterred, I went to work and started a conversation on what is the best way to educate the consumer on the importance of 4K.  Other co-workers have had similar conversations with their friends and family members. 

“What is this 4K I keep hearing about? Should I care? Is this something that should be important to me?”

“I understand that it is something to do with TVs, but does that mean I have to replace all my other gear to go with it – a new Blu-ray player, a new AV receiver, new Blu-rays, new set top boxes or even new cables?”

“Will I have to upgrade my subscriptions to services like Netflix?”

These are some of the questions that came up in our office during our discussion of how to educate customers on the importance of 4K.  These questions led me to this blog post and what needs to be addressed first.  Metra Home Theater Group needs to define what 4K is for our customers before anyone will understand why it is important.

THE DEFINITION OF 4K – stands for four times the resolution of a high definition 1080p TV picture to newer TVs.  The picture looks stunning, especially with 4K content.  The terms 4K and/ or Ultra High Definition (UHD) can be used interchangeably.  So if you are in the market for a new TV, purchase a 4K TV because 4K is coming and according to statistics released by Strategy Analytics, half of U.S. homes will have Ultra HD/4K TVs by 2020.

Eventually, customers will have to purchase a new Blu-ray player and Blu-ray movies, but they are not available for purchase yet.  Most UHD TVs are Smart TVs which means you can watch UHD/4K content using Netflix or Amazon.  In addition, receivers older than six months may not support the UHD content.  Meaning, if you want to see UHD/4K content on your new TVs, you will need an updated receiver.  As the standard moves toward UHD, cables that support UHD content will have to be used in conjunction with your components.  Investing in UHD/4K ready cables will be necessary at this time.

The best advice that Metra Home Theater Group can give you at this moment is the following:  if purchasing a new TV and you plan on having it for 3 years, get 4K Smart TV and the UHD cables needed.  Start making the investment so you are prepared when 4K/UHD becomes the standard. 

Top Ten Things Learned at ISE 2015

In a few hours our staff is flying back from Amsterdam after exhibiting at the Integrated System Europe Show.  Unfortunately I did not attend this show but I was in hourly communication with the staff to say informed and engaged on social media.  Trying to cover a show while not being at the show was a challenge and sometimes humorous.

Here is a list of the top ten things I learned from ISE 2015 while not attending:

1. Brent, when tired uses Ethereal Home Theater, the former name of Metra Home Theater Group in a rAVe Pubs video.
2. Demonstration videos create booth traffic
3. Make note of time difference when texting staff in Amsterdam, sorry guys.
4. ISE attendance has exploded
5. ISE is the fastest growing and best attended AV show in the industry
6. The show next year will be 4 days instead of 3.
7. ISE2015 was a parade of innovative projectors, displays, video walls and 4K everything.
8. If we want an eye catching booth for ISE 2015, we need holograms and videos.
9. 99% of the crowd know exactly what they do and what they need
10. The Marketing Director should attend next year!

Our Staff - The Best Reason to Follow this Blog

To be relevant today in the electronic industry one must be online. By online, I mean online on all of the relevant platforms.  How do you determine which platforms are relevant?  Well, as the new (and first) Marketing Director at Metra Home Theater Group I started using the platforms I used personally.  With that being said, it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t start with a strategy.  I have pared down this list and decided to start with a blog for Metra Home Theater Group with the goal of giving our customers more information that they can use in their businesses.

Now, blogs have to be interesting and current to obtain followers.  Luckily for me, I have a writer’s gold mine at my disposal because I get to work with all of the colorful characters here at Metra Home Theater Group.  I mean this in the nicest possible way.  The staff of our home theater division is the hardest working, most intelligent and eclectic group of people. Thanks to their amazing knowledge base, I never know what subject will be the topic for the day, and thanks to their sense of humor the topics are also not guaranteed to be politically correct.  While our friendly conversations are not the domain of human resources, they are often very helpful to learn from each other and help translate what Metra does to our customers.  It was during one of these conversations that the idea occurred to me that I needed to do a blog for Metra Home Theater Group.  I’m very happy that I have the opportunity to sprinkle in the characters of MHTG with the business information.  We are a highly entertaining group and I think our customers whole heartedly agree. 

The Metra Home Theater Staff at CEDIA 2014

I plan for the blog to be informative and entertaining for my followers.  In addition to the latest in product development, this blog will star the hard working staff of Metra Home Theater Group.  Have my blog posts emailed directly to your in-box so you can read all about the fun group in Holly Hill, Florida!  Because where else will you find the technical director of 4k HDMI and the CFO discussing the death museum in California?

CES 2015 Wrap Up

Whew!  CES 2015 was a whirlwind of excitement and it set the tone for 2015.  The booth was the best one yet.  Professional booth builders were shocked to learn we build our own booth. Some booths built by professional booth builders did not look as great.  Our booth got some attention at CES which lead to a great way to kick off 2015. 

In addition to a fantastic looking booth, our product 4K Ready HDMI Cables won an award from TWICE.  It is always exciting to win an award during a show.  We would like to give a big thank you to the judges for the TWICE Picks Award for bestowing this honor on our new cables.  

CES is held in Las Vegas every year and every year the staff suffers because of the environment change. Going from gorgeous Daytona Beach, Florida to dessert-dry Nevada is a blow to the sinuses.  If the staff does not get sick at the show, we get sick upon return.  This year most of the staff stayed healthy while in Las Vegas and got to do some of the wacky, tourist attractions in their down time.  Here is a picture of staffers at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

Currently, everyone is back in the office after an annual post-show visit to the physician for medicine.  This is a step in the right direction!  Next year’s goal is to stay healthy during and after CES.

It is now back to work!

Metra Home Theater is Exhibiting at CES 2015

Today is the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Metra Home Theater Group is ready for the crowd to visit booth #12434.  Some of the staff flew out here on December 27th to begin putting together the booth.  Here is picture of the booth in progress with one of our hard working staff.

 

 

We kick off our year at this tradeshow and it is always a great show.  We have a feeling that it is going to be the best show to date. Why you might ask?  Well, for starters the booth was up WAY ahead of schedule something that has not happen in a long time.  Everyone is calm, relaxed and rested for the show to kick off January 6th at 10 am.  Also, we are exhibiting our new kits.  Our customers wanted kits and we delivered Spyclops and 4K Accessory Kits.  In addition, as the industry leader for 4K accessories,  we are showing our Ultra HD cable line at CES.  These HDMI high speed cables are designed for HD connections utilizing displays with 4K/60 capability for superior high definition picture and sound. 

 

 

As a large show there are lots of new products from all the industry leaders which produces a certain magic to a show this size.  The convention center is huge, really huge.  The booths are just as mammoth.   The day before the show most booths look like it would take another week to pull them together.  Yet, like magic, the first day of the show each and every booth is ready.  It's like CES fairies help out the night before the show to help get them in shape for opening day. 

 

If you are attending CES 2015, stop by our booth (behind Samsung's booth) # 12434.  Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more pictures of the magic of CES.