Comments on: HDMI to Mini DisplayPort Cables Declared Illegal

By: Michael Miller

Michael Miller — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:34:00 +0000

It’s the other way around. Anyone using HDMI has to pay an 8 cent royalty fee for every connector. Display port is royalty free. Get your facts straight!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:20:00 +0000

makes me want to barf!

screw you HDMI.org or whatever you call yourself! I will use whatever cable /adapter/combo I damn well please!

By: Byron Hansen

Byron Hansen — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:11:00 +0000

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, LiveCent.com

By: First Name

First Name — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:43:00 +0000

A trade organization whose primary duty is maintaining compliance from manufacturers (not consumers) with a widely adopted cable standard is not the same as governmental bureaucracy.

Ask the people that bought the first gen Radeon HD 5000 series video cards and wanted to use their extra mini DisplayPort connectors with their DVI monitors for Eyefinity, only to find that every single one of those cables on the shelves weren’t actual DisplayPort cables (despite the large labels proclaiming them to be official) because of the clusterf*** created by Apple and Toshiba when they bastardized the standard.

My only questions are, why so late to the party, HDMI? And where are you on this, DisplayPort? Both of them should have been raising holy hell when Apple first announced their intentions to use HDMI signaling on a DisplayPort connector, violating both standards. [edit] Ah but I forget. Apple “helped” create DisplayPort, so they can do whatever they want. Thanks, Apple.

By: Hetal Patel

Hetal Patel — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Good move Because Apple charge Royalties on Display port Patents ! and there was no need to invent Display port at all

By: Slash-2CPU

Slash-2CPU — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 03:45:00 +0000

HDMI.org is scared to death of DisplayPort. It is a free, open specification that offers better bandwidth, distance, and connectivity that HDMI.

Trying to tout a decade-old spec has to be hard work for those guys.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:35:00 +0000

“The HDMI specification defines an HDMI cable as having only HDMI connectors on the ends. Anything else is not a licensed use of the specification and therefore, not allowed.”

By that definition this would apply to DVI to HDMI cables as well. Mine don’t have HDMI on both ends.

By: Jc

Jc — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:18:00 +0000

And what about all the HDMI to DVI cable ? HDMI receivers are required to be compatible with DVI transmitters. If fact a lot of cheap DVD players only transmit DVI signal into a HDMI connector.

By: Jscableman

Jscableman — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Seems like it should Could be called a high definition monitor adapter cable.

By: Average Joe

Average Joe — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 07:48:00 +0000

Passive USB male-to-female extension cables are “illegal”, too, because they allow the end user to create a non-working setup by exceeding the maximum USB cable length. The proper, licensed way to extend a USB bus would be to use a hub.

In reality, everybody and his dog are using USB extension cables, and they’re sold together with many USB products. The cables just can’t (or shouldn’t) get the official “USB” logo because they’re not compliant.

Perhaps the same will apply to these HDMI/DisplayPort cables.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:33:00 +0000

Is it still OK if I make up a cable with a BNC male on one end and banana plugs on the other without a license or bureaucrat’s permission? I need one for my scope.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:30:00 +0000

hmm, doesn’t this open HDMI.org to antitrust regulators?
I mean preventing connections out of the standard is forcing lock in, isn’t it?
very strange behavior, that can only be called old school Sony like…
Atrac, MemoryStick anyone?

By: Brandon Blackmoor

Brandon Blackmoor — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:14:00 +0000

Ridiculous, in so many ways.