High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) was first launched in 2002 by a combination of various major manufacturers including, Phillips, Sony and Toshiba amongst others. It was designed to be the definitive interface for uncompressed digital audio and video signals. The development of HDMI led to it being the natural successor to Digital Video Interface (DVI) that only carried a video signal.

The move to HDMI came about at a time where the electronics industry and the home users were looking at new technologies that involved high definition (HD TV), digital images, surround sound, and home cinema systems. Delivering higher performance levels and superior quality audio and video, HDMI fast became the standard connection for high definition media.

There have been several revisions of the HDMI standard over the years from its beginnings in 2002. The original version, known as 1.0, had a bandwidth limit of 4.9Gbp but by 2006, HDMI 1.6 had been released that supported a whopping 10.2 Gbp’s. Since then there has been only minor revisions.

For anyone who uses Blue Ray Discs, HDMI 1.3 offers the best quality playback as it is more than capable of handling Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio. In addition, because Blue Ray can decode multiple audio sources at the same time and then combine them in the final output, HDMI holds the technology to allow the greatness of this audio quality to shine through.

More and more PC graphics cards and motherboards now have HDMI outputs to allow personal computers to benefit from high definition audio and video. This is becoming increasingly more important since computers are featuring heavily as part of our multimedia systems. In fact, using HDMI can help to connect your entire multimedia system with the use of one single standardised HDMI cable, ending the tangled mass of assorted cables behind our television sets.

To the future, HDMI speeds will continue to increase and since all new televisions are being produced with HDMI ports, as older televisions fall by the wayside now the digital revolution has begun to take hold, HDMI will be the interface of choice for anyone wishing to watch or listen to digital media.

HDMI is and will continue to be the industry standard for digital media and therefore, ensuring that your equipment has good quality HDMI cables is essential to complete your multimedia experience. Choose HDMI cables from a reputable supplier to ensure that you are not left behind and that your audio and video is of a superior quality.