Diablos said:
...except now the cheapest cable is intentionally gimped and really will only deliver up to 720p/1080i.
That may be true now, yes. Granted, it
is costlier to have more bandwidth (thicker, potentially purer copper, etc), but once you're mass producing it I'd imagine the manufacturing cost is
that much more.
There's a totally reasonable explanation why earlier cables don't work though. When they were made for HDMI 1.0, there's only so much extra bandwidth you're going to add to a cable beyond what it needs. You'll add some for longer runs, but in general you're doing some sort of + tolerance to the spec.
Flash to HDMI 1.3 (assuming you're using it near its full capabilities) ... the bandwidth increase is what? 3-fold or so? Then jump to HDMI 1.4. Probably in the neighborhood of a 2-fold increase from 1.3?
This is a crock of shit. The people who founded and continue to develop revisions of this cable should be ashamed of themselves.
I disagree. The gouging of prices has nothing to do with them at all. They don't develop revisions of a cable, they're developing revisions a Tx/Rx/repeater spec that has evolved and increased in BW needs.
Hey, at least they're keeping them backwards compatible. The same can't be said with many I/O's over the year.
Would you really be happier if new features weren't added? Look at USB and Ethernet. They've had the exact same thing happen. If you had a cable that was spec'd for an earlier revision, many times it won't work with the newer one ... or at least not on a longer run. Should they have stopped increasing the specs of those?
The point of HDMI was for it to be simple; Monster complicated things, but not by much. By HDMI now adopting what is essentially a Monster Cable marketing scheme, integrating it into the lifeblood of their actual product, and throwing it in your face, they are going to confuse the hell out of consumers.
As I said, look at USB and Ethernet. Same thing. Regardless, they aren't mandating tiered cables ... I'm sure they'd be more than okay if companies simply moved up to the BW requirements of the current spec and stopped making the old ones.
The only thing I'm unsure about is this coupling with Ethernet stuff. I really don't see the point. Maybe I'm missing something though.
I only use 720p so I don't care, and even if I had something better I'm smart enough to know what they're doing, as are all of you.
Smart enough to know what exactly? That you need a cable capable of supporting the necessary BW the components you use will utilize?
This, however, is both insulting and frustrating to the average consumer, and, in this economy... wow. There should be regulations on this kind of thing. I don't care if it sounds commie, there is absolutely no need to complicate what is such a simple cable. It's like the HDMI people, Monster Cable, and Best Buy got a room and had a big orgy. Disgusting. It's a cable. Not a television, game console, computer, or operating system -- it's a fucking cable. Keep it simple. I was hoping HDMI would have lashed out at Monster for their completely misleading marketing of HDMI.
omg :lol
The only thing I personally worry about is if Blu-Ray movies and possibly video games will eventually require a 1.4 capable HDMI port for stupid content protection, thus rendering millions of TV's and graphics cards useless, including mine (and all of yours).
Last time I checked, 1.4 has no extra content protection features. HTCP has been in there since basically the beginning.
Holy shit ... some of you here are going off the fucking deep end. Either you don't really understand the tech, or you are simply shouting the sky is falling when there isn't a cloud in sight. Damn.
