Smart Tv's come with App's like Netflix & Youtube built in alongside wifi & ethernet access to gain the information to stream content. Meg & I enjoy a 48in Sony model with a built in computer that gives it "smart" features. Our main digital entertainment system also contains a Sony Blu-ray player, an X-box One & a Sony Receiver Amplifier, all connected with HDMI cables.
HDMI to HD Experiences
I was thinking about HDMI as a data information exchange cable format that evolved alongside the evolution of HD home content during the late 1990's and early 2000's. Old fashioned TV's from the 1980's before HD were 480i then 480p, content resolutions that look downright grainy if you set your youtube settings to such a low resolution and then go full screen. Interestingly you can set Youtube all the way down to 144p, a resolution appropriate for a smart watch screen. 720p resolution from DVD discs offered the first home mass market HD content experiences, namely movies. Blu-rays disks can hold ~4x more data than a DVD, enabling 1080p resolutions. 4K was the latest HD format with 4x more resolution than 1080P. Your eyes can see a maximum of about 150mp each, which will translate to stereo or 3D 32K viewing experiences of the future. HDMI cables enables 1080P and 4K devices to share audio & video data.
The Power of Moving Information
Data, Power & Content stream across the HDMI cable through 19 conduits, copper channels moving power & data. Content that we watch is made of information included into data moved with power across cables or RF or modulated optical data interfaces, copper wires, wifi & fiber optics respectively. The HDMI cables is a dumb cable, meaning it does not contain any digital logic itself. The devices you connect with HDMI have all the digital magic pumping the information into & out of the HDMI cable, to and from the devices you are connecting with HDMI cables.
Information Brain
Content itself is made of information that strongly influences the human brain, the mind, our conceptual framework, language, culture, personality, beliefs, understandings, values & ethics. Everything you do with your brain influences the way your brain works. Our minds are constantly adapting to incoming sensory data of all kinds. Content on a glowing screen with audio gives the human mind a powerful window to escape waking reality such that the viewer can enjoy an alternate reality through the safety of the screen window interface. Hollywood directors like Christopher Nolan are able to create remarkable experiences through these magic digital windows of experience. The movie goer experience effects go back to the turn of the 20th century which the first film based movie recording and projection systems were commercialized. The home color TV formed the functional foundation & conceptual framework technology to distribute content of all kinds directly to individuals in their homes, now on their computers and smartphones. Youtube on your phone is ultimately the miniaturization & information infusion enhancement of internet with TV in a mobile platform. 3D VR experiences take the screens directly into our human stereoscope natural vision interface for ever deeper richer experiences.
Music & the Human Brain
Think of how music can affect the atmosphere of a space, how the feeling of a movie can be conveyed with the soundtrack. Think of how music can induce different moods and energy feelings. Think of how music can make you feel something, move you to tears, or make you smile. Some music makes you want to get up and move around, to jive and dance. Some music makes you have reflective thoughts about the ephemeral natural of individual lives. Some music makes your workspace more tolerable, other music sounds like screaming or metal grinding. Its amazing how sound modulation can produce such a remarkable range of different experiences. Music affects the same area of the brain as sex and drugs, the Nucleus Accumbens, the part of the brain that governs behaviors patterns.
HDMI Data Throughput
HDMI 2.0 Performance 18Gbps up from about ~10Gbps during the HDMI 1.4 era. 4K content requires the higher 18Gbps bandwidth, because 4K screens display 400x more pixels than 1080p.
Gbps or Gigabits Per Seconds is relatively fast in terms of data speeds. Thats billions of bits per seconds! A bit is the smallest unit of data possible, used to represent information like the characters that make up the words in this blog posting or numbers, usually through collections of 8 bits called bytes. Bits are made either a 1 or 0's, digital machine code that operate the on off transistor switches in integrated circuit logic. Anything can be represented by two states, on or off. Starting with morse code, the digital information revolution is now fully underway. We are heated towards 5G mobile gigabit cellular RF broadband systems that will connect people, cars, infrastructure, appliances, homes, business, roads, streets, emergency services, etc, the internet of things or IOT over 5G LTE.
HDMI extensions
TMDS data methods are used to signaling across the HDMI cable, meaning that even very week signals are able to send HD video data between devices successfully, important in electrically noisy cable installations. If the signal is too weak from a long HDMI cable, nothing will display, it will either work or not. This is because of the robust nature of transition-minimized differential signaling methods used to module digital data across the HDMI cable.
Power : 5vdc @55ma on pin 18 or small fractions of a watt, the HDMI cable is not a powerful electrical cable, HDMI is meant to move information not energy. If you look at something like Chromestick that plugs directly into the HDMI port of a TV, you will see that the Chromestick needs USB power through its micro-usb input in order to power the little smart computer in the Chromestick.
HDMI commentary
The future of information is wireless, in theory, though cables always provide a better connection. The situation with RF clutter from home wifi networks is so bad now that I almost lost my first gen. AR. Drone in suburbia! RF from cellular networks is also increasingly problematic as more LTE infrastructure installations proceed (great if you want more reliable faster mobile data). Cables provide more power & cleaner signals than wireless. Wireless power is already actively being developed for phone chargers (Qi) and for electric vehicles that can charge by simply parking or driving over inductive charging loops that harmonically transfer resonant electrical energy into the vehicles receiver coil. Wireless power is itself an interesting emergent technology! Cable charging an EV is still more energy efficient, faster & more reliable, also more widely supported. Wireless power is still a new-dangle emerging technology!
Wireless data echoes back to the earliest days of radio & tv broadcasting, extending all the way up through cellular network development and then cordless indoor phones, and finally wifi ac & ad! Right now I am typing this blog posting on a old MacBook connected to my TP On Hub wireless router with its 13 antenna! Wireless is powerful for mobile phones both through wifi & LTE, to move the data we want to interact with. Even my fitbit uses wireless to connect to my phone, over bluetooth, a low energy RF data transceiver technology. Good enough performance allows wireless systems to replace cables. For now I will continue using HDMI, and charging cables while dabbling with QI charging! An interesting future lies ahead, one that is fun to think about!
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