HDMI Licensing Responds to Microsoft HD-DVD 1080p Issue

In a recent article in this space, Microsoft's HD DVD program manager Sage Schreiner implied that the failure of many HD DVD players to output 1080p content is due to a limitation in the HDMI standard. This is incorrect. As the president of HDMI Licensing, LLC - the organization that licenses the HDMI Specification - I would like to set the record straight.

All versions of the HDMI Specification support 1080p/60Hz. HDMI has supported 1080p from the day HDMI version 1.0 was released in 2002. 1080p/60Hz requires a pixel transmission rate of 148.5MHz, which fits well within the current 165MHz rate of HDMI single-link.

As with many functions that HDMI enables (such as DVD-Audio and SACD) it is up to the manufacturer to choose to implement 1080p. Until recently, many manufacturers have chosen not to do so. They have faced little pressure to support 1080p, as there has been little or no 1080p content available (all the HD content available on broadcast is only 720p/1080i). However, this landscape is likely to change in the next year.

In fact, there are already many HDMI products on the market supporting 1080p input or output. For example, Hewlett-Packard is shipping a 56" 1080p DLP TV that supports 1080p input, and Marantz and Denon have been shipping DVD players with 1080p output.

Given that we are seeing many electronics manufacturers release chips that support 1080p (HDMI receivers and transmitters, video processors, ADCs, video decoders, etc.), it is safe to say that we will see many more products supporting 1080p this year.

Leslie Chard
President
HDMI Licensing, LLC