The Successor to HDMI: All Your Video Through CAT6

[amirm]

I say it is about time!

http://newteevee.com/2010/06/30/the-successor-to-hdmi-all-your-video-through-cat6/

An alliance of CE makers, including Samsung and LG, finalized the specifications for a new A/V cable standard dubbed HDBaseT yesterday, which is meant to eventually succeed HDMI by offering more advanced networking functionality for home entertainment devices.

HDBaseT’s features should make home theater enthusiasts and cord cutters alike happy: Not only is it based on standard CAT5e/6 networking cables, which is going to make networking your home theater much cheaper than HDMI, the new standard also supports cable lengths of up to 328 feet. In other words: There’s really no more excuses for not connecting your PC to your TV, even if the two devices are located in different rooms of your house.

HDBaseT will support the transmission of HD and 3-D video signals, as well as data through an integrated 100MBit Ethernet connection. The technology will also allow true networking of various devices and displays, meaning that your DVR or HTPC can easily output video to any TV set in the household. Users will be able to daisy-chain devices or connect them through a star topology, and even transmit power through the cables. Essentially, this could mean that TV sets will only need one single input cable to receive video from a multitude of devices.

....

HDBaseT is supported by LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Valens Semiconductor, and the first devices supporting the new standard are expected to go to market later this year. However, the companies involved estimate that the majority of adoption will happen in 2011.

 

[JackD201]

That's GREAT! My entire home is wired with CAT 6

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

As a Telecom Engineer , I could never understand the push for HDMI ... Pleased the CE industry is getting back to its senses. Is the Standard ratified and are there components currently using it?

 

[amirm]

The standard was ratified just now and hence the announcement: http://hdbaset.org/. But the basic system has been in place for a while as there has been plenty of "baluns" (converters) from HDMI to cat5e/cat6.

Valen semi who is one of the founders of the org has existing silicon: http://www.valens-semi.com/products.aspx

As you can see though, this is a secondary chip going after the main HDMI transceiver. As such, it is not going to get much adoption. That would happen when likes of Silicon Image incorporate this natively in their transceivers. Now that there is a standard, that might happen. The fly in the ointment is lack of participation from many other consumer electronics companies. Hopefully that doesn't mean that they will cook up their own competing solution!

Finally, I should note that even though this standard uses the same cables used for Ethernet data networking, the signaling is completely different. As such, you cannot route it on the same network as Ethernet data traffic. It will need its own specialized switches which are likely to continue being expensive for a while. But standardization should help bring those costs down and more importantly, make the different implementations compatible with each other. Today, with solutions from Crestron, AMX, etc, you have to use the same end points from them as the solutions are proprietary.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I would like to see an optical signal path. Ground loops are the reason.

And this begs the question, what about HDCP? How is CAT6 piracy-proof?

 

[rblnr]

And this begs the question, what about HDCP? How is CAT6 piracy-proof?

Good question. There obviously has to be some copy protection function or the content providers will never go for it. Is there any reason why HDCP is limited to HDMI? Isn't the CP part taking place in the chips at either end of the cable?

 

[es347]

Here we go. It'll be just matter of time before the exotic cable companies come out with CAT6 cable made from unobtanium in patented geometric configurations, priced at a mere $100 per foot.

 

[amirm]

And this begs the question, what about HDCP? How is CAT6 piracy-proof?

HDCP is transport independent so it is supported normally on this interface. Since packets remain encrypted, the fact that they go over cat-6 versus standard HDMI cable doesn't make it less secure.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Here we go. It'll be just matter of time before the exotic cable companies come out with CAT6 cable made from unobtanium in patented geometric configurations, priced at a mere $100 per foot.

Matter of time?
http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/communication_cable/rj45_g.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
(read a couple of reviews...)

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I thought that anything HDCP could not have a means of connecting to anything that would allow a sniffer connection. Optical, for instance, could be sniffed with a splitter. I would imagine CAT6 could easily be sniffed. I suppose HDMI too..

 

[amirm]

I thought that anything HDCP could not have a means of connecting to anything that would allow a sniffer connection. Optical, for instance, could be sniffed with a splitter.

That is even easier with the twister pair wires of HDMI cable . The principal of cryptography is that the keys are kept secret but the encrypted data can be seen by anyone. That is how you are able to look at your bank account or order something with your credit card on the open Internet.

HDCP has a key exchange protocol that the two end nodes use to "establish trust." Those end-points are what needs to be safeguarded.

That said, maybe your comment comes from the that HDCP does allow other devices to route its packets. There, they require that their format be closed and not interoperable. One such device is "Just Add Power" which takes HDMI video, compresses it and routes it over standard data switches. It uses a private encryption mechanism to keep its content safe.

I would imagine CAT6 could easily be sniffed. I suppose HDMI too..

Per above, the wire is not a problem at all. Think of another scenario. When you get a blu-ray disc, all the magic you need to play it is in your hands. Yet, without the aid of hacker software, you are not able to decrypt it yourself even though all the information is there in your possession and you can sniff it forever .

 

[es347]

Matter of time?
http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/communication_cable/rj45_g.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
(read a couple of reviews...)

Lord help us!

 

[amirm]

There is a webinar coming up on this technology if anyone is interested: http://zektor.com/support/hdbasetreq.shtml

HDBaseT Webinar Invitation Request
December 8, 2010 9:00 PST

Zektor Inc. is pleased to co-host this informative HDMI over HDBaseT webinar with Malcolm Edwards of Innotech Management, the U.S. representative for Valens Semiconductor. We also have a guest moderator, Derek Flickinger, VP of R&D with Interactive Homes and contributing writer to CEPro magazine. We have put a copy of the document Derek has already written about HDMI over HDBaseT here in the webinar area for download.
We will be presenting the following areas in the webinar:

HDMI over HDBaseT technology overview
Clearing up misconceptions about HDBaseT
Updates and future products from Valens Semiconductor
Meeting HDMI 1.4 requirements
Planning future installs with from an integrator’s perspective with HDBaseT from Derek Flickinger
Brief overview of upcoming HDBaseT products from Zektor

An invitation will be sent you with a link and passcode to the event

 

[Ron Party]

Amir, what do you think about HDMI over power lines?

 

[amirm]

I am not a fan. There is not enough bandwidth to send the video over HDMI in its native rate. You need gigabits/sec to do that, not mbit/sec which is available. Acoustic Research built an HDMI over powerline solution but it compressed the signals heavily so it didn't catch on.

In general, I find powerline networking the last resort solution. You can get it close to being reliable but never quite there.

This whole area is kind of screwed up. Broadcast digital TV has a bandwidth of 19 mbit/sec. Blu-ray is 48 mbit/sec. We decompress both, and then attempt to move the resulting gigabit/sec channel around. If we moved the original compressed signal around, it would work over many networks from wireless to Ethernet.