HDMI has become the standard for audio and video cables for most people. If you’re watching a Blu-ray on your living room TV, you have it connected via HDMI. The same thing goes for your streaming boxes like the Apple TV 4K and Roku Ultra. The point is that HDMI has become an everyday part of life, but it doesn’t apply to all aspects. My PC doesn’t have an HDMI cable anywhere near it, and it hasn’t for several years. For PC, it feels like DisplayPort reigns supreme, and there are a few reasons for that.
The big reason I can see for people to be using DisplayPort is that manufacturers are essentially forcing you to. My RTX 3070 Ti has just a single HDMI slot, but it has three DisplayPort slots. This means if you’re using a multi-monitor setup, you need to use DisplayPort. The good news is that DisplayPort is a perfectly fine format, and there are many people who prefer it over HDMI. When it comes to PC, I do prefer it, but there are still places where HDMI is suitable for PC. There are even situations where HDMI is the only option, which might be a bit surprising.
Quiz
HDMI Ports & History
Trivia Challenge
Think you know your HDMI versions from your ARC from your eARC — put your display tech knowledge to the ultimate test!
HistoryVersionsFeaturesHardwareStandards
In what year was the first HDMI specification (version 1.0) officially released?
Correct! HDMI 1.0 was released in December 2002 and became commercially available in 2003. It was developed by a consortium of electronics manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, and Philips as a successor to analog standards.
Not quite — HDMI 1.0 arrived in late 2002 and hit the market in 2003. It was a landmark moment for home entertainment, replacing bulky analog connections with a single digital cable capable of carrying both audio and video.
Which founding companies were part of the original HDMI consortium that developed the standard?
Correct! The original HDMI founders included Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba. Together they created a royalty-bearing standard that would go on to dominate home AV connectivity worldwide.
Not quite. The founding seven companies were Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba. Notably, Apple was not an early backer, and Samsung joined later as a major adopter rather than a founding member.
Which HDMI version first introduced support for 4K video at 60 frames per second?
Correct! HDMI 2.0, released in 2013, boosted bandwidth to 18 Gbps and introduced 4K resolution at 60Hz. It was a crucial upgrade for the emerging 4K TV market and also added support for 32 audio channels.
Not quite — it was HDMI 2.0, released in 2013, that first enabled 4K at 60fps. HDMI 1.4 could handle 4K but only at a sluggish 30fps, which was fine for still images but not smooth enough for video or gaming.
What does the ‘ARC’ in HDMI ARC stand for?
Correct! ARC stands for Audio Return Channel, introduced in HDMI 1.4. It allows a TV to send audio back down the HDMI cable to a soundbar or AV receiver, eliminating the need for a separate optical audio cable.
Not quite — ARC stands for Audio Return Channel. Introduced with HDMI 1.4, it was a clever addition that lets your TV send audio upstream to an external speaker system using the same cable already carrying video to the TV.
What is the maximum bandwidth supported by the HDMI 2.1 specification?
Correct! HDMI 2.1 supports up to 48 Gbps of bandwidth, a massive leap from HDMI 2.0’s 18 Gbps. This allows it to handle 8K at 60fps, 4K at 120fps, and features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for gaming.
Not quite — HDMI 2.1 delivers a whopping 48 Gbps of bandwidth. That’s nearly triple the 18 Gbps of HDMI 2.0 and enables next-generation features like 8K resolution, 4K/120Hz gaming, and Dynamic HDR all over a single cable.
HDMI was designed as a digital successor to which widely used analog video interface?
Correct! HDMI was conceived as a successor to component video, the analog standard that dominated home theater setups in the late 1990s and early 2000s. HDMI combined audio and video into one cable, something component video could never do.
Not quite — HDMI was designed to replace component video (YPbPr), the three-cable analog system common in home theaters. While DVI is a digital cousin of HDMI and shares much of its underlying technology, component video was the primary analog standard HDMI aimed to supersede.
Which HDMI version was the first to support Ethernet data sharing over the HDMI cable?
Correct! HDMI 1.4, released in 2009, introduced the HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC), which allows a 100 Mbps network connection to be shared between devices over the same HDMI cable. It was a forward-thinking feature, though rarely implemented by manufacturers.
Not quite — HDMI 1.4 was the first version to include the HDMI Ethernet Channel when it launched in 2009. In theory it lets devices share a broadband connection without extra cables, though in practice very few products ever took advantage of this feature.
What key improvement does eARC offer over the original ARC in HDMI 2.1?
Correct! Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) introduced in HDMI 2.1 supports high-bandwidth, lossless audio formats including Dolby TrueHD, DTS:X, and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. Original ARC was limited to compressed formats like Dolby Digital 5.1.
Not quite — the big leap with eARC is its support for uncompressed, lossless audio and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Standard ARC could only pass compressed audio, meaning audiophiles with high-end soundbars were missing out until eARC arrived with HDMI 2.1.
Your Score
/ 8
Thanks for playing!
HDMI is needed for capture cards
No DisplayPort in sight here
If you need to capture footage from a game console, then you need to have an HDMI cable. This actually makes a bit of sense, since all game consoles use HDMI, so it’s not like you can just plug a DisplayPort cable into your PS5. I have El Gato HD60 S, which was once upon a time one of the best capture cards available, and it requires me to use HDMI. Of course, if you’re capturing footage from your PC itself, you can just use software such as OBS and omit a capture card completely. This makes it so you don’t have to have an HDMI plugged in at all.
The capture card acts as a middle man between your console and TV, so you’ll actually need two HDMI cables here. You need an HDMI cable running from your console to the capture card, and then you’ll need another cable to run from your capture card to your PC. If you’re like me and have a bunch of extra HDMI cables lying around, then this isn’t a problem whatsoever.
You have just a single monitor
Just one cable needed
I ditched my triple monitor setup in favor of an ultrawide monitor, and that meant I no longer needed to have three DisplayPort cables running from my PC to my monitors. It made cable management a lot easier to deal with, and it also meant I could use an HDMI cable again. As I mentioned previously, my GPU only has a single HDMI port, so it’s perfect to use with this monitor. I don’t actually use an HDMI cable, however, and I decided to stick with my DisplayPort cable that I already had. I’m just saying this is an option for people who are using just one monitor.
Everybody starts somewhere, and when I first built my PC, I used one monitor for a while. I also didn’t know what DisplayPort was as I had primarily been a console gamer up to that point. HDMI had a bit of a reputation in the gaming sphere where people swore up and down that DisplayPort was better. The gap has closed quite a bit now, and with HDMI 2.2 on the horizon, the gap has closed even further. If you’re doing basic productivity tasks such as word documenting or watching YouTube, it doesn’t matter whether you choose between DisplayPort or HDMI.
Adding additional monitors to laptop
HDMI is effective here
Laptop screens are quite limited, and believe me, I know, because I’m writing on one right now. I like to have a lot of extra real estate while I’m writing, and that’s why I do most of my work on my desktop. For days when I’m more laid back, I’m fine with a laptop on my couch. For those in between days when I don’t want to be in my office, I move to a different area where I hook my laptop up to a spare monitor using my laptop’s HDMI port. While it might seem a little weird to have a monitor plugged into your laptop, I promise that it makes a real different in productivity. It will never replace my desktop PC, but it’s fine to work on a day or two a week.
If your laptop doesn’t have a spare port, you can always plug in a USB hub and give it one. Using a hub is nice because you can also get an Ethernet port added to your laptop for some added stability. Using a hub like this is very nice for giving a laptop more versatility, even if it means you aren’t using the HDMI port. Laptops don’t have a lot of USB ports to begin with, so being able to plug in your mouse, an Ethernet cable, additional monitors, and even charge your phone doesn’t go unnoticed.
Trending Products
ASUS RT-AX1800S Twin Band WiFi 6 Ex...
TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router (Arche...
MSI MPG GUNGNIR 110R – Premiu...
Lenovo 15.6″ FHD Laptop, Inte...
GAMDIAS ATX Mid Tower Gaming Laptop...
15.6” Laptop computer 12GB DD...
SAMSUNG 27″ T35F Sequence FHD...
cimetech EasyTyping KF10 Wi-fi Keyb...
