James n started a thread wrt the new Linn DSM players where HDMI inputs were mentioned.
Rather then hijack James' thread I thought I'd start a new one.
My comment was:
I am far from convinced. I tend to think of HDMI as digital scart, and while I accept that it can shift large amounts of data, I read about all sorts of HDCP issues.
Was HDMI bought in, in part, to try and raise the cost of entry by the large electronics companies?
My hope is for the continuing progress of DRM free HiDef downloads.
If HDMI can then be used as a transmission medium sans HDCP that might be convenient, although I suspect a large lawsuit would be threatened.
But, I'm open to being educated, if there is some intrinsic advantages that HDMI offers over other methodologies .......?
Likesmusic:
So, a pre-amp that you can stream to, plug analogue sources into, plug digital sources into including tv, with balanced and unbalanced outputs .. one box .. who would want that ..!
Simon-in-Suffolk:
Hi, well HDMI provides a synchronous high capacity bit stream which clearly has advantages over a synchronous formats such as spdif. The audio bit streams include hidef LPCM and the interface can also carry Ethernet.
Simon
Hook:
Hi Simon -
I understand the advantage of HDMI's higher capacity when it comes to delivering multi-channel. But given these new Linn's are stereo components, are they really gaining anything from it?
It will be interesting to read reviews of how these new Linn products sound.
....I'm cooking up a response, what do you think?
M
Posted on: 14 October 2011 by likesmusic
Mr Underhill - there is nothing stopping the timing information for both video and audio being respected. If you choose to buffer the audio, then you would need to buffer the video. In practice though, video is usually buffered by the display device, to the extent that it is often necessary to delay the audio to get correct lip-sync. In which case, for real-world situations, buffering the audio is adequate and indeed useful. For audio only, I just can't see what the problem with buffering is in practice unless you are wanting a real-time very low latency system that works for arbitrary sample rates as in a studio. Noone complains about (possibly many) milliseconds of delay with streaming - introducing a little delay to de-jitter HDMI is unlikely to be a problem. The nDAC and NDX do it already for s/pdif. Perhaps you should post your questions on the Linn forum - their guys seem very responsive. Seems a nice idea to support people who want to play movies on a BluRay, or stream them, or play SACDs and want to siphon off the best possible audio (and only have one box!)
Posted on: 17 October 2011 by Mr Underhill
Hi Simon,
I initially wrote:
I am far from convinced. I tend to think of HDMI as digital scart, and while I accept that it can shift large amounts of data, I read about all sorts of HDCP issues.
Was HDMI bought in, in part, to try and raise the cost of entry by the large electronics companies?
Having done a reasonable amount of reading and thinking I essentially haven't changed my mind.
I can see that HDMI has some different potential solutions, but the quality of sound will come down to the engineering; and potential solutions also can introduce additional potential problems.
As a result of this thread I will keep an interested eye on what happens in the world of audio via HDMI. But I don't see it as a panacea, as I'm sure you don't either.
M
Posted on: 17 October 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Hi, yep it's not a panacea, but can bring benefits subject to implementation, and HDMI gives a lot of options here for 2 channel hidef audio. It also provides a neat way for automation protocols to share the interface.
Simon
