DRAFT SPECS READY FOR COPY-PROTECTED DTV INTERFACE
Preliminary specification is set for High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) designed to protect DTV content from unauthorized copying and redistribution, HDMI Founders group announced Fri. Work on digital interface, which incorporates JVC’s High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) encryption, was announced April 16 by consortium of Hitachi, Matsushita, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba.
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Founders said draft specification Version 0.9 was available for review at www.hdmi.org. Spec provides manufacturers interested in developing HDMI-capable CE products with information on implementing HDMI functionality, including: (1) Integrating audio by using auxiliary packetized data transfer technology. (2) Designing 15 mm, 19-pin HDMI interface. (3) Incorporating HDCP. Group said spec would be provided to parties under Specification Review Agreement allowing review of draft before final V1.0 specification was issued.
Draft spec arrived with extraordinary swiftness, in part driven by legislative jaw-boning to get content and CE industries moving on digital rights management (DRM) impasse and get DTV transition on course. HDMI initiative has broad support from Hollywood studios such as Fox and Universal, which won’t release premium programming for DTV broadcast without assurances that it can’t be copied and punted to Internet. HDMI also has support of satellite companies DirecTV and EchoStar, as well as cable operators.
Functionally, HDMI combines high-definition video and multichannel audio in single digital interface connector with bandwidth of up to 5 Gbps. It transports uncompressed digital signal that would be difficult to place on Internet -- Thomson engineers estimate it would take 24 hours to upload 30-min. HDTV signal even using broadband connection. Nonetheless, content owners are wary of improved broadband speeds and compression technology in the future, so HDCP encryption was added. HDMI builds on Digital Visual Interface (DVI) technology used in PC realm, but adds CE functions while maintaining backward compatibility. HDMI founders said key technology underlying DVI also would serve as basis for new HDMI spec.