I am just one of many customers that feel that HDMI is a very promising technology. I personally own two HDTV screens with HDMI ports (one has two ports), two Microsoft Xbox 360s with HDMI ports, two AppleTVs and one upscaling DVD player with HDMI port. I like the standard because it allows me to move all of the required signals between a source device and a screen, which cuts down on clutter. The obvious benefits of these signals being digital are just icing on the cake.
The problem is consistency. Your own website says it the best: one cable, one standard. I should be able to plug one of my two Xbox 360s into any of my HDMI ports in either HDTV screen and it should work. I should be able to do the same with either AppleTV or the upscaling DVD player. And I should be able to mix and match between my three different HDMI cables, they should all work the same, because after all, HDMI is a standard.
The reality of the matter is that it does not work that way. For example, one of my HDTVs refuses to work with an Xbox 360 through HDMI ports, with different brands of cables, and with two different Xbox 360s. The upscaling DVD player will take up to 30 seconds to acknowledge that it is connected to an HDMI source. One of my two AppleTVs don't like when I turn off the TV, it takes up to a minute for it to auto detect the TV.
The funny thing is all of these devices are digital. We are used to that in the digital realm, things either work or they don't.
A good example is USB. There are less than 10 connector types for USB, and those are physical formats, electrically they are the same. If you find the right plugs, it doesn't matter what devices you are connecting, the USB layer will work. You never hear of people using the right USB format and not being able to connect two devices that are designed to work together. It just doesn't happen.
Another great example is Firewire, which has even less connector types. Firewire always works, period.
Why is HDMI failing at this? We are buying expensive HDTVs, digital cable boxes, PVRs, computers, A/V receivers. If it has any bearing to audio/video, it either has HDMI already, or somebody is trying to add it to it. We are paying a lot of money for these cables, in some places people are paying up to $50 per linear foot. That's a lot of money for a technology that is supposed to work 100% of the time and it doesn't.
Why?
When it works, it is fantastic. It is obvious HDMI is not a fluke. Then what is the problem? Shoddy vendor implementations? Sub-par cabling? Software?
We are going to be stuck with HDMI for a while, so please, figure out who is not getting along with the program. It is time to start enforcing the brand (think about it: when HDMI doesn't work, nobody says "fuck this piece of shit Xbox 360, " instead they say "fuck this piece of shit overpriced HDMI bullshit, I'm returning this $50 cable tomorrow") and the standard so whenever a customer buys HDMI, he/she gets HDMI and not a half-assed implementation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment