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Do I need HDMI 1.3?
With the UK release of PS3, HDMI 1.3 becomes one of its most touted features by Sony. The interface is capable of much higher bandwidth than its predecessor and promises to deliver better colours and richer sound. But before we get carried away, let's take a look at its main features below.
| KEY FEATURES | |
| Higher speed | Bandwidth improved from 4.95 to 10.2 Gbps. Capable of delivering future higher frame rates, resolutions and richer colour range. |
| New Lossless Audio Formats | Now supports Dolgy Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. |
| Wider colour space | xvYCC improves on current HD colour gamuts by 1.8 times. |
| Deep colour | To enjoy the new colours, you need to transfer the data at much higher bit rates, ie 30.36 or 48 bit. |
| Lip sync | Allows audio-video syncronization to counter longer processing times. |
| New mini connector | Smaller for factor for HD portable devices, camcorders and digital cameras. |
Now ask yourself the following questions, bearing in mind the video chain. (source material -> player -> HDMI interface -> HDTV)
1) Do I have any movies or media that is encoded in that new xvycc colourspace?
2) Can my player and HDTV process 30, 36 or 48 bit data?
3) Can my HDTV display the xvYCC colour gamut/range?
4) Do I have any Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD decoders in my video or audio chain?
5) Is my player or HDTV, HDMI 1.3 compliant?
So you see, HDMI is really ahead of its time. At the present, no major movie studio is going to commit to encoding their films in the latest xvYCC even though the benefits are plain to see. It's very likely that video and PC games may be the first ones to use this colour gamut.
If you have bought a HDTV recently, it is probably not HDMI 1.3 compliant. Fortunately, any new device with HDMI 1.3 will work with your HDTV because of backward compatibility, but dont expect to enjoy any of the above benefits. In addition, most current HDTV models are not capable of processing more than 10 bit colour depths.
There has been a lot of talk of wide colour gamuts but again no current consumer TV supports xvYCC colour gamut. Sony and Mitsubishi have announced new displays that can do this but this is gonna be out of reach for most of us.
Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD is currently not supported by many standard high definition players. That means HDMI 1.3 may benefit users who want external decoding of these new lossless formats in receivers. This capability will become less useful when disc players start to implement these decoders as the format becomes widespread.
So, while HDMI 1.3 is a little more than just a cable, it is certainly not the whole deal. Our verdict: don't let it influence your buying decision until you sorted out the rest of your video chain. Don't worry, it might take a while for the industry to catch up.
Don't quote me on this as I haven't confirmed this with the manufacturer. And current TV manuals aren't going to enlighten you on this either. My guess probably not. Otherwise they would be trumpeting it :)
The PS3 would have worked great with older HDMI versions anyway. My point is that you can't really futureproof with HDMI 1.3.
Although the 42" is 1080i, it's not Full HD, instead it's a 1024x1080 panel. It's performance is still behing the Pana TH42PX600 and Piuo PDP427 despite the extra pixels.
The sound is also a bit weak. Good plasma, but hardly the industry standard
The most common problem is a mismatch between the resolution, i vs p and frequency of the signal being sent to the TV.
Try switching between the different resolutions in the PS3. Maybe the Samsung can't do 1080p on HDMI?