HDMI
HDMI, colloquially known as “High-Definition Multimedia Interface” is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams, and it is used to connect HD devices such as monitors and HDTVs. The purpose of this article is to help you understand the differences between the two most popular types of HDMI cables, standard and high speed (also known as “high-speed”), which you might need to purchase for some of your devices.
Nowadays, most new laptops, home theater systems, flat screens TVs, Blu-ray players, and gaming consoles come equipped with an HDMI port to allow users to enjoy HD content. Even if you don’t own a high-definition device, you can still purchase an HDMI cable as a standard-definition video signal will be sent via the cable. In other words, it’s possible to connect a standard definition movie player into a high-end HDTV using just an HDMI cable.
In some cases, you might need to purchase more than one kind of cable as your devices might require different features such as speed and bandwidth. Therefore, it is important to know the difference between standard and high-speed HDMI cables before you purchase one.
Standard vs High-Speed HDMI Cable: What’s The Difference?
Understanding which kind of cable you need is very important as too much speed and bandwidth might result in signal loss and degradation. If you want to keep your high-definition content free from pixelation and signal noise, consider purchasing a standard or high-speed HDMI cable as they offer improved picture resolution and refresh rates as opposed to the ones that do not have this feature.
All HDMI cables offer error correction features such as can bus communications which allow devices to communicate with each other, which allows for cable communication.
Pros :
– It is capable of carrying both 1080p (1920×1080 pixels) and 4k (3840 x 2160 pixels).
– It is the most popular video interface, but the price has been dropping.
– The new HDMI standard “2.1” can also carry 8K resolution at 60Hz.
Cons :
– It is the only cable that can carry 4k resolution. However, it doesn’t support HDR and any kind of color space such as BT.2020. More than that, contents with 4k resolution need to be 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio. Otherwise, they won’t fit the screen and black bars will be shown.
– High-speed HDMI cables are recommended to support 4k resolution. But, these cables are very hard to source and aren’t cheap.
Display Port
Pros :
– It can carry 10 bits of color depth. This means that it can show approximately 1 billion colors at once compared to 16 million colors for HDMI.
– It is well established as a video interface and also well known like HDMI.
– Many graphic cards support it as an output port such as Nvidia’s G-Sync compatible cards and High-end AMD cards. AMD uses DVI, but the connection format of Display Port is very close to that of DVI. Therefore, it is possible to use an adapter.
– It can carry 4k resolution which is not the case with HDMI 2.1. But it doesn’t support HDR like HDMI either.
Cons :
– Since it carries 10 bits of color depth, many graphic cards don’t come with a DP output port as they come with DVI output ports.
– It can carry 4k resolution only at 60 Hz which is not the case of HDMI 2.1 and that’s why many graphic cards support HDMI 2.0 but not Display Port 1.2 or 1.3 because they don’t support 4k resolution at 60 Hz.
– High-speed DP cables are very hard to source and very expensive.
– There is no way for the graphic card to inform the computer that it can’t handle 4k resolution at 60 Hz. Therefore, when connecting a 4k monitor through DP 1.2 or 1.3 port, there are two options:
A) The computer doesn’t recognize the monitor because it can’t handle 4k 60 Hz. In that case, the monitor will go into power save mode and display a message saying that it can only handle 4k 30 Hz via DP.
B) The computer detects the monitor as being able to show 4k resolution but is not up to displaying it which means either 2) or 1).
– Even though this problem doesn’t exist with HDMI 2.1, 4k resolution at 60 Hz is not the only advantage of it. It also supports HDR and can carry the color depth of 10 or 12 bits which Display port 1.2/1.3 doesn’t support even though it carries 4k resolution at 60 Hz unlike HDMI 2.0
– Since both DP and HDMI 2.1 support 4k, the only difference is HDR which HDMI supports and DP doesn’t. There is also a color depth difference but not all graphic cards can handle 10 or 12 bits, so their outputs are limited to 8bits even though they support Display Port 1.2/1.3 standard for example Nvidia’s 750Ti has an 8bits output port.
– This problem doesn’t exist with HDMI 2.0 but 4k at 60 Hz isn’t the only advantage of it either. It also supports HDR and 10 or 12 bits color depth which even Displays Port 1.2/1.3 doesn’t support although it carries 4k resolution at 60 Hz unlike HDMI 2.0.
– Display Port 1.3 is a better choice for graphic cards which can handle 4k resolution at 60 Hz while DP 1.2 or 1.1 is a better choice for graphic cards which don’t support 4k resolution at 60 Hz even though they do support 10-bit color depth and higher refresh rates of 120 Hz or 144 Hz.
– DP 1.2 or 1.3 is a better choice for graphic cards which don’t support 4k resolution at 60 Hz even though they do support 10-bit color depth and higher refresh rates of 120 Hz or 144 Hz because Display Port 1.2/1.3 can carry 10-bit color depth but HDMI 2.1 doesn’t support 10-bit color depth. But DP 1.2/1.3 can carry 4k resolution at 60 Hz which HDMI 2.1 doesn’t support, for example, to play overwatch in 4k with 120 Hz refresh rate or GTA V with 144 Hz refresh rate, graphic cards must have Display Port 1.3 which also carries HDR support together with 4k resolution at 60 Hz.
