What is the life expectancy of HDMI?

What is the life expectancy of HDMI? HDMI is still an evolving standard of technology that is fluid, and changes to meet the market needs. The life expectancy for HDMI is expected to be quite long into the foreseeable future. There are several reasons for this long life expectancy.

The first reason that HDMI has such a long life expectancy is because the founders of HDMI technology include companies who are leading consumer electronics manufacturers in their area. Some of these HDMI founding companies are Panasonic, Sony, Phillips, Hitachi, RCA (Thomson), Silicone Image, and Toshiba. HDMI technology is also supported by some of the top major motion picture producers in the motion picture industry. These producers include Disney, Universal Studios, Fox, and Warner Brothers. System operators including Dish Network and DirecTV, as well as CableLabs, all also support HDMI technology. All of these founders and supporters are assuring the consumer that HDMI technology will not become outdated and obsolete.

The second reason for HDMI technology's long life expectancy is the capacity for speed. HDMI has a capacity for five gigabits per second. Newer standards for HDMI have created even more of this capacity. HDTV currently uses less than half of the available bandwidth. What this means is that HDMI technology still has a vast available capacity for any future technological developments in this area.

HDMI technology is also relatively inexpensive for manufacturers to implement. The technology is cheap to enable in currently available products. This fact, along with the fact that the founders and supporters are all big names in the consumer industry, mean that these businesses and companies have a vested interest in Keeping the HDMI technology up to date and current. This ensures that this technology is not just a fad or short term solution.

New specifications are periodically released on updated versions of HDMI technology. This is because market needs are constantly evolving as new technologies become available and so specifications have to be revised and updated from time to time. Currently the new updated model is version 1.3. This version contains the most up to date specifications for HDMI technology.

The latest specifications for HDMI also ensures that the life expectancy for HDMI is going to be into the far future. With the 1.3 specifications the band-width for HDMI has increased to 10.2 Giga bits per second. On top of this, the new version of HDMI has a foundation laid to allow for future speed advancements. This increased speed leaves more than ample room for any future advancements, such as in resolution or deep color, that may be made to improve display.

New high definition DVD players and video game consoles released are verifying that HDMI technology is here for a while to come. Consumer electronic manufacturers and the motion picture industry make billions each year from consumers who purchase their products. By supporting HDMI, these industries are showing that they intend to keep using HDMI for a long time to come. This is reassuring to consumers who, in the past, have bought the latest in technology only to find it obsolete in a year or two.

Each newer version of HDMI is backward compatible with any past versions. So if you have an older version of the technology it will be compatible to the newest version. This ensures that any HDMI product you buy today will still be compatible with future HDMI enabled electronic products. This also adds to the life expectancy of HDMI.