8th August, 2008
HDMI: Can It Be Saved?
Brent Butterworth
Let’s have a show of hands here. What do you hate the most? The IRS? Microsoft? Or HDMI? For the thousands of integrators who read The Integrator, that’s got to be a tough call. For our crack editorial staff, the answer’s easy—inspired by a few nights with no TV because of the feisty HDMI interfaces on a couple of new products we’re testing. (What’s that you’re suggesting? Yeah, we tried that.)
Never in our recollection has a consumer electronics technology caused so many problems for so long as HDMI has. As one of the country’s leading custom installers recently told us, “Basically, it doesn’t work.” Some of the audio manufacturers we know become downright apoplectic whenever we bring up the subject. When the question “How many people here are installing HDMI?” was raised at the gathering of top Runco dealers in Mexico last April, only a few hands went up.
Yet we know that cable manufacturers have scrambled to solve the problem, creating cables that are guaranteed to pass a certain digital signal (720p/1080i or 1080p) without visible degradation. We also know that HDMI licensor Silicon Image has created Simplay Labs, a company devoted to certifying proper HDMI implementation and helping manufacturers get their products working right.
We decided it was time to check with a couple of leading integrators to get an update—and to find out if they’ve been able to make peace with HDMI.
“It has gotten better,” said Terry Menacker, president of Overture Audio & Video in Wilmington, DE. “But in 95 percent of our jobs, we still run component video cable as a backup. In most of our projects, even a 32-inch TV in a bedroom might be 20 or 30 feet from an equipment closet, and HDMI’s not always reliable at that distance.”
“You have to use it,” said Terry Mullin, CEO of Creative Stream in Costa Mesa, CA. “Now that Blu-ray has won, people want 1080p, and the only way to get that to the display is HDMI. But that has opened up issues. The biggest one we see is that if there’s any movement of the cables or the equipment, the HDMI plug can come out. Even if you do a strain relief, the cable eventually relaxes and you end up with the same problem. We make our own special strain relievers that pull the plug firmly into the socket, but it’d be so nice if they came up with a clip or a screw to hold the plug in.
“Issue number two is the length,” Mullin continued, echoing Menacker’s comments. “We use Gefen’s HDMI Cat-5 baluns to solve that problem.” At each end of these balun systems, there’s a box that has HDMI and Cat-5 connections. One box converts HDMI to Cat-5 (which can be run easily and cheaply), and another box converts the Cat-5 back to HDMI at the other end. “Cat-5 is a lot easier to run than HDMI cable, because that plug on the end of the HDMI cable is pretty big,” Mullins noted. Menacker reported that his crew has also begun using HDMI/Cat-5 baluns.
Despite Simplay Labs’ efforts, there still appear to be many products in which HDMI isn’t properly implemented, or in which an outdated HDMI standard is used. “We’re at the mercy of the manufacturers of cable boxes, receivers, etc.,” Menacker complained. “Comcast is still giving out boxes that have DVI output instead of HDMI.”
Menacker feels that cable manufacturers are no longer to blame for HDMI problems. “The cable has gotten better,” he said. “As long as you stay with major brands, it’s good. And some of the manufacturers have started to certify their cable for certain data speeds, so that should help.”
Mullins noted that he’d just read a magazine article talking about the possibility of yet another new HDMI level beyond the current HDMI 1.3b. But he offered a solution—one that shouldn’t have to exist, but integrators should be glad it does. “Run Cat-5,” he said. “It’s pretty much bulletproof. There’s not much you can’t do over two Cat-5s.”
So it seems the best way for integrators to solve the HDMI problem is to go around it. HDMI may improve further, but it should be obvious by now that it wasn’t designed with custom installation in mind. Indeed, it seems as if it were designed with no awareness that the custom installation industry even exists.
Posted at 7:10 am |
On August 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm av guy said:
August 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Hmmm? interesting.
On August 8, 2008 at 8:43 pm Aaron said:
August 8, 2008 at 8:43 pm
This article was so pointless I have now added the Integrator to my blocked senders list for future “newsletters”.
On August 9, 2008 at 7:40 am Peter Sherman said:
August 9, 2008 at 7:40 am
We run HDMI up to about 25 feet with pre terminated cables but always run component and a few spare CAT5’s in case we need a balun.
Has anyone figured out why Scientific Atlanta HD cable boxes display HD channels over HDMI with black bars at the top and bottom? And how to fix this? We’ve tried every combination of HDMI set up parameter for the box and for the AV receivers we use but the bars don’t go away on HD. (And I’m sure the channel is broadcasting an HD image when this happens)
On August 11, 2008 at 1:04 pm Greg said:
August 11, 2008 at 1:04 pm
In a couple years when your client tries to play a Blu-ray disc that is flagged to output HD through the HDMI output only you better have a backup solution for them, like an HDMI cable in place. HDMI is like any other new technology, you must get educated about it to do it right. Most of the problem that intallers have is not with HDMI itself but with HDCP and because of HCDP handshaking we never install Cat5 baluns, they DO NOT WORK RELIABLY 100% OF THE TIME. HDMI is here to stay and it sucessor, DisplayPort, is already starting to show up on the pro side. So get some education and stop the bitching.
On August 12, 2008 at 9:36 am Randy Sprouse said:
August 12, 2008 at 9:36 am
What about the DLI HDMI Optical interface that is on the new Directv HR21 pro?
On August 18, 2008 at 8:02 pm Brent Butterworth said:
August 18, 2008 at 8:02 pm
An optical interface might solve most of the problems. The issues installers are having with HDMI are due mostly to signal degradation at long lengths (potentially less of an issue with optical), and to the connector falling out (and other optical interfaces I’ve seen all featured at least a fairly secure connection).
The issue of BDs flagged to output HD only through HDMI is a concern, although I wonder if Hollywood will really want to do that. This issue arose in the early days of HDTV, when many people were worried that their DTV tuners would suddenly start outputting 480i due to some Hollywood crackdown on TV broadcasters. That never happened, and I think it’s even less likely with Blu-ray. If a system that’s been working fine suddenly doesn’t play the new Disney Blu-ray discs right, more than likely the disc will go back to the store, which is a huge problem for Disney.
On September 27, 2008 at 7:34 am Jeff Miller said:
September 27, 2008 at 7:34 am
Future Proof Your Installs!
Run a 1-1/2″ conduit from the electronics to the display, you wusses!! There are very few times where this is impractical, and your clients WILL pay for it. They WANT to be Future Proofed, and will pay $50 - $200 for it. YOU will win 5, 10, 15 years from now when you can say “YES” to any upgrade they want.