this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
105 points (100.0% liked)

Hardware

399 readers
69 users here now

A community for news and discussion about the hardware side of technology.


Rules

1. English onlyTitle and associated content has to be in English.
2. Use original linkPost URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
3. Respectful communicationAll communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. InclusivityEveryone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacksAny kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangentsStay on topic. Keep it relevant.


If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.

founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
all 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] nomorecids@lemmy.cafe 1 points 5 hours ago

"Darling can I take the TV cable? I need to charge the car"

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 65 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's less likely that than they don't want to pay the HDMI license fee.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

More likely they are worried that the US will limit the availability of HDMI and DP, like they tried with RISC-V, so they made their own.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Could be, though most of the "owners" are from Asian countries

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

With US orgs in their umbrellas so who knows what the orange wanker will do.

[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 days ago (4 children)
[–] DScratch@sh.itjust.works 41 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Please bro, just one more standard bro, power delivery and high bandwidth data bro, it’s all we need bro please!

[–] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Didn't we already do this? I SWEAR we already did this.

[–] alanjaow@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just one more (data) lane, I promise brooooo

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Big camera sensors use dozens of LVDS lanes without issue, and have you seen PCI express?

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Many of the larger Sony sensors for example. I can recall the IMX250 I think it was, from 10 years ago, had something like 48 LVDS pairs.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 1 points 10 hours ago

My bad, I was just making a joke.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fuck. And we were finally down to just two standards...

Back to the days of S-Video, YPbPr Composite, Component, Scart, and RF, I suppose.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be fair, scart was less of a standard for display, and more a pinout to carry most of that stuff. Scart is the least problematic of those in the list.

And largely the others weren't so much competing as they addressed failures in those before it. RF had limited bandwidth and required a carrier. Composite was the same as RF, but better due to not needing the carrier. S-video is the same with the color information separated for a clearer image. Component is better still by further separating color signals.

The issue with HDMI and displayport is that they are largely the same thing.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good point on Scart. DVI(-I/-D) would have been a better example than that.

I agree that each was an incremental improvement, but with how long it took for each of them to establish dominance and supersede the older standard, they might as well have been competing.

I still remember buying my kid a Wii, and you had a pick of composite, component, or S-Video. And that was nearly half a decade after HDMI was created...

The issue with HDMI and displayport is that they are largely the same thing.

Unfortunately, yeah. If it were up to me, though, HDMI would be phased out. With the exception of Audio Return Channel, DisplayPort can do everything consumer HDMI can do with higher bandwidth and without being encumbered by royalties.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

If it were up to me, though, HDMI would be phased out.

I agree. But sadly, the media market has standardized on it so it's here for a while. So for as long as there are TVs, we will have HDMI until they move to a new one.

[–] DScratch@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I dunno man, hdmi has 400 different cable standards and then microhdmi on top.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Don't forget miniHDMI!

To be "charitable" to HDMI, in its 23-year lifespan, it's only seen 6 major and 4 minor revisions. The minor revisions are way too frequent, but at least the newer cables are compatible with devices using the older HDMI standard.

To be uncharitable to HDMI cable manufacturers, the shitty ones are causing major problems for consumers, exasperating the problem of HDMI being inconsistently functional:

  • The maximum length of an HDMI 2.0 cable is 50 feet before signal degradation starts to cause problems in high bandwidth applications. You can find 100ft "HDMI 2.0" cables all over Amazon, and I guarantee they won't be able to do 4k120hz or 8k30hz without issues.

  • HDMI pin 18 is +5V power, which is barely ever used in cases where someone is connecting a source device directly to a sink device. Some manufacturers try to save on material costs by not including a wire for it and not mentioning that little omission. DisplayPort has the same issue. Guess what happens to devices when using a cable with the power pin connected and no protection for backfeeding? (Hint: an RMA. On that note, fuck Dell.)

  • Manufacturers selling cables without actually labeling the cable itself with the specification version. We all have a drawer of old HDMI cables, most of them won't work for an 8K TV, and half of those you'll only find out through trial and error.

I actually don't have as much of an issue with the mini/micro variants of the connectors themselves. It's pretty easy to find a passive adapter in most cases, and they mostly work fine as long as you aren't trying to feed 4K over long distances or high refresh rates through them.

[–] DScratch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I didn’t come here to be educated! I’m here to be unreasonable!

[–] Auzy@aussie.zone 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

HDMI is hot garage.. still.. so, anything to get us off it would be great

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Displayport already exists and is way better and less expensive. The plug shape is also way better, and doesn't have the annoying tendency to come slightly unplugged.

[–] GTG3000@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now if only windows would stop reacting like I unplugged a DP monitor when it's powered down.

[–] Geodad@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Easy fix: Switch to Linux.

[–] refalo@programming.dev -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

"Only my opinions are valid and there can be no other use-cases!"

But seriously... this is the reason there are multiple standards, I think it's quite obvious the situation is more complex than you think. If it was universally so easy and so much better, we'd all already be using it, but of course we are not.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

If it was universally so easy and so much better, we’d all already be using it

This is not how the world works.

[–] yuri@pawb.social 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

and why isn’t everything usb-c yet?

[–] spartanatreyu@programming.dev 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

display port cables are cheaper than usb-c cables that support display port

[–] yuri@pawb.social 1 points 5 hours ago

oh i just meant for stuff like micro usb. really my only beef is with the idea that better standards just magically get universal acceptance and implementation.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We may actually need this in Europe. America gone full mad, so...

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

DisplayPort is royalty free, and VESA has many non-American companies in its membership list. Just saying.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Dang.. Are you seeing this USB-C?

[–] deur 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Dang, it's almost like usb-c has half the conductors, way less precise tolerances, and ultimately has learned the most important thing they can do is be flexible (in both construction and standardization) and actually meet user needs. They obviously werent prepared for the unfathomable stupidity of people who can't be expected to keep track of their cable capabilities, but they fixed that with new branding standards.

don't be too arrogant and attribute it to stupidity. People have neither the time nor money to play whac-a-mole with the several thousand permutations of wattages, USB-C versions and port capabilities. Ignoring even quality inconsistencies with the same permutation of cable from the same manufacturer between two cables, it's a nightmare.

[–] GTG3000@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Man, if only it was possible to know ahead of time what kind of standard the cable you want to buy supports. I wouldn't be so annoyed if it wasn't basically lottery, since they can put whatever wording they like on what's basically a USB2.0 cable and have no repercussions whatsoever.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 10 points 2 days ago