HDMI

HDMI - One Cable. One Standard. The future-ready way to connect HD.


High Definition Multimedia Interface or HDMI Comprised of Hitachi, Panasonic Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Silicon Image, Sony Corporation, Thomson and Toshiba Corporation, the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) Founders have joined together to define a next-generation digital interface specification for consumer electronics products. HDMI is also supported by major motion picture producers, as well as satellite and cable companies.


Common Versions

HDMI 1.3, 1.3a, 1.3b - There are no difference between these HDMI versions for consumers. These minor revisions to the specification typically relate to manufacturing or testing issues and do not impact features or functionality. In addition, all HDMI versions are fully backward compatible with all previous versions.

HDMI 1.4 - This is the newest HDMI standard and it's more powerful, with plenty of new capabilities pushing the boundaries of high definition experience.

Some HDMI cables do have specifications such as 24AWG and 28AWG. AWG is an acronym for American Wire Gauge and the number before it, is the thickness of the wires used. The higher the number the thinner the wire gets.

Please visit official site for more information.

CrossMediaBar XMB

CrossMediaBar XMB - a Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE).


The interface is used on Playstation Portable (PSP), Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony's Blu Ray Players and some of the Bravia TV's. In addition, Sony has also added the XMB to its latest range of VAIO laptops.


It is the most easiest and user friendly that I have used. It is self explanatory icons spread horizontally across the screen, selecting icons reveals several options vertically above and below the selected icon thus, forming a cross.

Navigation is very simple any device that uses this kind of interface has an up, down, left and right arrow keys into it such as the 4 way Directional pad or D-pad on Playstation Portable and Playstation 3. As for Blu Ray players and Bravia TV's a D-pad looking button is visible on a remote.

Did you know that?

The interface won the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for "Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology" in 2006.

Click here for a web based user guide for PS3's XMB

Blu Ray

Blu-ray, also called BD (Blu-ray Disc), is the next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers namely Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson.

The format was developed to enable recording and playback of high-definition (HD) videos, as well as storing and rewriting large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVD's which is limited to 4.7GB. Whereas, BD's can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity will be fully utilized that will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

For movie news, announcements, reviews and anything related Blu ray please visit Blu Ray.com