What's with all the collaboration lately? Say goodbye to VGA, UDI is coming
In retrospect, it's really not fair that computer monitors are stuck with that old VGA connector while HDTV's
get all the exciting new DVI and HDMI connectors, but never fear, as is seemingly all the rage
lately, a consortium has been formed to develop a new spec and implement it. The new connector, UDI (Unified
Display Interface) will be fully HDMI and HDCP compatible, because everyone knows how much you love DRM.Intel, Apple, Samsung and SGI are among the companies heading up the initiative, with others like Microsoft and NVIDIA joining to pledge support, so you can expect this to be pretty standard on new computers buy this time next year. My question is why DVI wasn't good enough, it supports HDCP too, they mention lower cost in the article, but my gut tells me they're plugging some DRM holes and we get to pay for it by buying new equipment.
Filed under: Industry
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Home Theater Dude @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:13PM
"but my gut tells me they're plugging some DRM holes and we get to pay for it"
Bingo, time to bend over. I agree that a unified connection would be great, but did we need yet another spec to do it?
klew @ Dec 22nd 2005 9:39PM
Just something about that picture makes me think those are actually men, or maybe I should lay off the pr0n for a while.
hmurchison @ Dec 23rd 2005 10:00AM
DVI has very limited cable length before it craps out and too large of a connector. Plus you must have two TMDS links once the resolution gets high. HDMI gave us a smaller connecter and faster performance (5Gbps) and longer cable lengths with the ability to carry audio.
UDI should improve on this spec. Locking small connectors, thinner cables, longer length and the first generation spec goes to 16Gbps!
I'm sure there will be other improvements as well. The spec isn't finalized until Mid 2006 so they say so UDI products won't hit until 2007 at the earliest IMO.