Back in March, we
called for HDMI members to put aside their differences and unify around a single
HDMI-CEC standard. According to Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, LLC, that movement is about to begin. While speaking to
CE Pro at
CEDIA, the bigwig confessed that the
HDMI founders (Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba) have finally agreed to team up on a "unified CEC plan." If executed, the result would mean that HDMI-CEC-enabled VIERA plasmas could be controlled in unison with HDMI-CEC-enabled Sony receivers, and the whole VIERA Link / BRAVIA Sync / Anynet+ / AQUOS Link garbage could finally be disposed of. Mr. Venuti also claimed that there would "probably be an announcement at CES 2009," so we'll be keeping an ear out in around 100 days.
[Image courtesy of
AVReview, thanks Lindsay]
Universal and centralized remote control of HT gear has long been the promise of HDMI-CEC, but the efforts of some CE manufacturers aside, all the flavors of HDMI-CEC have spoiled the party for everyone. Between talk of a unified HDMI-CEC standard and off-the-shelf solutions like Chrontel's CH7323 chip, we're hoping for a more standard, um, standard. The chip is a HDMI 1.3a-compliant, single-component solution that manufacturers can use alongside HDMI transmitter silicon to bring HDMI-CEC (even vendor-specific commands) to devices, whether the device operates as a "master" or "slave" in the control chain. We're not expecting full HDMI-CEC to explode on the scene overnight, but we'll take these baby steps for now.
