The HDMI standard was developed for efficient transmission of HD digital image and multi-channel digital sound through a single cable. The HDMI cable appeared in the laboratory of Silicon Image, in 2000, and quickly became one of the most widespread multimedia interfaces used in residential and commercial sectors.
The HDMI interface allows the transmission of uncompressed digital signal and control data, as well as the connection of equipment compliant with the HDMI standard. HDMI cables are currently being used to connect devices such as tablets and smartphones, computers, TVs, video cameras, video cards, Blu-ray players, game consoles, satellite receivers and other devices that work based on the transmission of high quality audio and video signals. Over the years, several HDMI versions have been developed. Currently, we can distinguish more than six HDMI standards – from 1.0 to 2.1, from the first and second generation. The development of this type of cables was a natural response to the evolution of the possibilities, parameters and functionalities of the equipment for recording, playing and designing digital content.
HDMI 2.1 is currently the newest HDMI cable standard. It provides the best transmission parameters, including enhanced audio return channel, DSC (Display Stream Compression), Low Latency (ALLM) and HDR. The HDMI 2.1 parameters are:
- Maximum HDMI resolution: 7680 × 4320p120,
- color depth: 48 bits,
- maximum pixel frequency: 1200 MHz,
- maximum bandwidth TMDS: 48 Gbit / s.