HDMI Technology

High-definition multimedia interface

High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI™) is an interface for transmitting audio and video data between consumer electronics devices. Since its introduction in 2001, it has become the offical successor of the analog interfaces in the consumer domain. Since then, HDMI™ LLC and HDMI™ Forum have continuously improved the specifications to include new market requirements and higher resolutions.

Advantages of HDMI™:

  • Most common A/V interface with support from more than 3 billion devices
  • Uncompressed video with up to 4k resolution
  • Eight-channel uncompressed PCM or compressed audio
  • High-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) to ensure the copyright of transmitted media content
  • Consumer electronics control (CEC) for control between interconnected devices
  • Ethernet channel (HEC) tunnels IP connections between interconnected devices
  • Audio return channel (ARC) replaces additional S/PDIF audio wiring
  • Downward-compatible with DVI and previous HDMI™ versions

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