Specifications

Crestron DigitalMedia™ Design Guide
Check website (www.crestron.com) for product availability 3
This portion of the guide addresses the need for the move to HDMI and explains the new features that HDMI supports. We’ll
demystify the “handshaking” that occurs between HDMI sources, repeaters, and displays, and explore the cause of some
common problems experienced in the field.
Say Goodbye to Analog
Before we get too involved in the technical details, there’s an important question to address: why do we need HDMI? Although
analog video distribution works very well for much of the market, analog is on its way out. Content providers such as television
and movie studios love the fact that HDMI supports the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) protocol. HDCP
allows them to encrypt content while it’s on the wire, so it can’t easily be copied and pirated. They’re pushing hard on the
consumer electronics industry to move from analog to HDMI, and they’re making progress. For the unconvinced, here are
a few harbingers of analog’s demise:
Image Constraint Token: The Blu-ray specification has a built-in time bomb that’s yet to go off; the Image Constraint Token
(ICT). This embedded flag forces players to downgrade video on analog outputs to standard definition, which is one quarter
the resolution of the current analog maximum, 1080i. The movie studios are waiting for more widespread HDMI and Blu-ray
adoption before shipping discs that implement this limitation, and have reportedly decided not to do so until 2010 or 2012.
Content provider support: SkyHD, a popular European satellite service, is already shipping HDMI-only set top boxes. And
here in the United States, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is petitioning the FCC for permission to block
movies from being transmitted on set top box analog outputs.
Feature support: The latest and greatest features are only supported by HDMI. The aforementioned formats aren’t, and will
never be, available over analog. The more discerning consumers, who are the bread and butter for much of the custom
installation industry, expect these sophisticated features.
Any analog distribution system that carries commercially created content runs the risk of becoming obsolete over the next
several years. Now is the time for the consumer electronics and custom installation industries to embrace the transition.
Comparing the Cables
Analog Cables HDMI Cable
 Separate audio and video cables
 Robust signals
 Field termination
 Inexpensive
 Installer friendly
 Reliable multi-room distribution
 Distance is rarely an issue
 Secure cables
 No copy protection (DRM) support
 Single AV cable
 Delicate signals
 Cannot be field-terminated
 Very expensive
 Difficult to run
 No reliable multi-room solution
 Limited distance
 Non-locking cable
 Supports copy protection