and remember, the whole purpose of HDMI is to allow a “phase out” of analog connections, and mandatory HDCP (DRM).  Think of it as the yucky filling in the yummy looking donut.

This is exactly what I try to tell people but they don’t understand. It is the same problem that occured when these 1080p TV came out. You don’t get to use the features until you have the matching components to make the cable usefull.
This is more of the confussion that has lead America to think they are watching HD when they really aren’t. Education is severely lacking when it comes to the HD landscape.

Id say that information is severely lacking in the HD landscape. Even tech savvy users who digg deep in specialized forums are having a hard time telling whats what

So is HDMI a worldwide standard?  For example, I am moving to the UK, will a USA HDMI input work with a UK HDMI output?

I try to turn the confusion to my advantage by assuring the customer we are designing a package of components that work well together by taking advantage of the features each component provides.

I straight out say “my value is you are getting the best solution of the money being paid, professionally installed and optimized to make it easy to use”.

HDMI 1.3’s “automatic lip-sync_ feature is widely misunderstood.  It is simply a specification that allows a display to tell an a/v receiver how much the display will delay the video so the receiver can apply that much audio delay.

Unfortunately this doesn’t really correct lip-sync and can even make it worse.  For real lip-sync correction you need to be able to adjust the auydio delay while watching your actual programming since lip-sync varies so much from DVD to DVD and program to program.

All of the audio delays reviewed here have plus and minus buttons for tweaking the digital audio delay until lip-sync is perfect:

http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=3011

“Automatic” lip-sync correction is impossible since there is no watermark in the video and audio singals to define when they were ever in-sync.

As soon as I buy a new pre/pro and/or a new display, with only HDMI 1.1 or 1.2, the next week there will be a ‘revolutionary’ improvement in something that will make me wish I had bought HDMI 1.3a.  I am not one of those who changes my audio/video equipment every other month, or even every other 6 months.

HDMI is so confusing that even the author of the article was misleading in her statements.  To say that all versions of HDMI support 1080p is like saying all HDMI 1.3 compliant devices support Deep Color.  Not true.

Not sure if HDMI 1.3 finally made it mandatory, but the fact is that 1080p support was optional for earlier versions of HDMI. 

And the audio support is confusing as well.  For most users, its fine that TVs will extract the Stereo content for its internal speakers and provide a optical output for connection to an A/V receiver.  But optical (SPDIF) outputs only support up to 6Mbps data rates.  That means you will have to buy a new AV receiver supporting HDMI 1.3 in order to actually use the new HBR audio formats that can be as high as 25Mbps.

Despite that the official HDMI’s organisation is responsible for people being misled - con - their website is probably the best place to go to clarify the HDMI problem.

http://hdmi.org/

Since, their site is relatively complicated I shall include pages that I think are useful:

http://hdmi.org/learningcenter/index.aspx

http://hdmi.org/pdf/HDMI_Insert_FINAL_8-30-06.pdf

http://hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx

http://hdmi.org/learningcenter/videos.aspx

Some of the reasons why I am disappointed with HDMI given below:

1) HDMI 1.3 - Reliabilities - I wanted the official HDMI organisation to independently check all HDMI versions and far superior reliabilities and lengthen the life of TVs.
2) HDMI 1.3 should have wireless connectivity
3) Picture quality should be far superior; Deep Colour, xvYCC or their equivalents - with excellent video scalers.
4) HD (high defintion) sounds; Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD should have been with other features should have been implemented from HDMI 1.0.
5) Being able to record and watch HD - at the moment it is impossible, for example no HDMI inputs.  Piracy not a problem if, ‘The Establishment’ allows people to record and watch HD on products that their households legally own - better than at present.  For example use procedures similar to verifying that products are under warranty./ guarantees. Manufacturers could supply HDMI’s official organisation with data.  Consumers’ HD products could then automatically be upgraded similar to Freeview Playback etcetera.

I forgot to state that I thought that the latest HDMI version is HDMI 1.3b and not HDMI 1.3a.

I have just realised that this is an American and not UK site - Think of, ‘Freeview PlayBack’ as upgrading products using air-to-air signals, that some products already do.

I would like two HDMI’s lists to be published

1) One showing which members voted to b eable to place HDMI 1.3+ labels on products to - con consumers in my opinion.

2) The HDMI members who voted that the HDMI lable cannot be used unless HDMI 1.3+ features are properly implemented.