RSSDVI appears to be losing to HDMI and DisplayPort
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published January 28, 2008, 6:31 PM
While the resolution of the high-def disc format war may end up with few consumers winning, if any, another battle may have bigger consequences: It's about high-bandwidth digital interfaces for connecting PCs, consoles, and displays.
This battle pits the old-guard DVI (digital visual interface) against newer rivals HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and DisplayPort in the industry race for connecting PCs and other devices over high bandwidth networks.
Chipmakers such as Intel and AMD are now supporting DisplayPort, as are PC makers such as Dell and Lenovo. But meanwhile, HDMI already swept past the existing DVI standard last year, particularly among HDTV displays.
DVI shipments will fall from 112 million device shipments in 2007 to only three million shipments in 2007, according to In-Stat analyst Brian O'Rourke. In contrast, a total of 143 million HDMI-enabled devices shipped last year, including 90 percent of all digital TVs that went out the door.
But although HDMI is expected to have dominated the market in 2007, DisplayPort will ultimately emerge as the top competitor to DVI, says a recent report by In-Stat.
According to other observers, a fourth standard, the relatively low-cost UDI (Unified Display Interface), was also in the running, until Intel switched its allegiance from UDI to DisplayPort, leaving Samsung in the lurch.
Regardless of considerable and ongoing technical debate over the pros and cons of these various digital interface formats, HDMI and DisplayPort have each been gaining hefty vendor support, while support for DVI is on the wane. Beyond the addition of Intel, backers of DisplayPort also include AMD, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Samsung, Philips, and NVIDIA, to name just a few.
Meanwhile, however, a number of PC notebook makers also released HDMI-enabled products in 2007, including Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Toshiba.
It's about time that DVI died. Strangely enough, if I connect my Motorola DCT6200 cable box's DVI port to my Yamaha RX-V661 receiver (HDMI 1.2 compliant) with a DVI to HDMI cable I get an error message on my HD monitor saying the cable box does NOT support HDCP compliant HDMI repeaters. I have to plug the cable box directly into my HD monitor's HDMI port.
Score: 0
|My favorite cable of all time:
$60 Monster optical cables...
Because you will notice "cable-induced jitter" caused by inferior optical cables.
Score: 0
|Another non-story. DVI should go away since HDMI serves that need better or DisplayPort is better for PC's. But its not like a company is going out of business without DVI around.
I concur with others below that RCA is an old standard and while cheap, needs to be replaced. If optical were used more it could be cheaper as well.
Score: 0
|"DVI shipments will fall from 112 million device shipments in 2007 to only three million shipments in 2007"
Last one should be 2008 (or the first should be 2006).
Score: 0
|hdmi is great and all but the actual connector sucks for staying seated in devices. i just don't understand how such an important part of cable design was overlooked like that.. boggles my mind.
Score: 0
|Ehhh, what you on about??
HDMI = DVI + audio, so a victory by HDMI is hardly a loss for DVI... since they are more or less the same thing :O
To top it off... they don't actually compete against each other. DVI was made for PCs, and HDMI was a variation made for HDTV. HDMI success is more of a indication of the number of people buying new TVs then any indication that DVI is loosing any sort of battle.
DisplayPort is another matter, it is a new interface type that is designed to replace the aging DVI and HDMI interfaces,
Score: 0
|DUH!
Lets see from the Audio connection aspect:
One (1) Cable (Carried Audio and Video) compared to 4+ Cables.
Stereo Component Makers really need to make a new standard, no more RCA Connections, make everything Video Oriented HDMI and Audio should be done Optical.
I have more RCA cables then I know what to do with, everything works, but there needs to be a new standard!
Plus, Comcast if you are Listening, GIVE ME AN HDMI BASED BOX, I WILL GIVE BACK YOUR 100FT OF CABLE YOU GAVE ME WHICH ONLY NEEDED TO GO 2FT!!!
Score: 0
|Clearly you're not doing it right. I just use VGA & optical/coaxial SPDIF - and those are the only cables heading to my amp at the moment. HTPC covers most requirements for home use, with the exception of perhaps consoles. Still, HTPCs can play games too... and it's not like you can't get digital connections for the newer consoles.
Score: 0
|Audio is done optical? has been for over a decade?
Score: 0
|As others have said, Optical and SPDIF has been around for a long time. SPDIF was pretty standard back in 1997/1998 even on mid-range Computer Sound Cards (e.g. SB AWE64 Gold) and works great.
That said, you still need RCA or similar connections to go out to your speakers - so either way, RCA is not going away.
They pretty much keep RCA around for cheaper electronics as it makes a pretty easy, standard, cheap connection set - whereas optical is a bit more costly.
Score: 0
|fiber optic.
i hope your kidding.
Score: 0
|Shocking! So something that's meant to replace something older is becoming more common!
HDMI was designed to be the replacement to DVI for TV's, while the DisplayPort was designed to be the replacement for DVI on computers.
What's next, a story that DVDs will appear to be losing to Blu-Ray?
Score: 0
|Actually I would be interested in that story. because I don't think blu-ray will ever overcome DVD's sales, nor will HD-DVD. All will fail to online/other distribution methods.
Score: 0
|not ever though.
eventually they have to come out with something bigger.
remember when DVD came out and it was really expensive and everyone still bought those stacks of CDs?
Score: 0
|Ya Think?
DVI is a dinosoar of a plug with too many variations. At least HDMI has one plug, even though they like to fall otu and dont secure in any way like DVI does.
HDMI still sucks in a lot of ways, half assed handshakes that work whenever they want etc.....
Score: 0
|But can you tell the difference between an HDMI and an HCMI connection?
Big difference in functionality between the two - HCMI is handicapped to only output to devices that support the content protection standards HCMI supports.
I think (not 100% positive though) there is no difference in the port itself.
Score: 0
|jeez, can we just pick one that exceeds our needs now so it can remain viable for like 10 years? My PC has dvi and hdmi, why do i need displayport now? sheesh.
how long was vga tops for?
Score: 0
|"can we just pick one that exceeds our needs now so it can remain viable for like 10 years?"
Amen!
Score: 0
|Great idea. Ideally optical cable that basically has 0 limitations on bandwidth. (Not that current applications even come close to DVI bandwidth.)
Score: 0
|displayport?! great, let me upgrade now to make sure i'm covered. lol
Score: 0
|Be sure to get the profile 2.0, if not you're screwed. :P
Score: 0
|