US-based company Silicon Image has confirmed that the improved HDMI 1.3 connector will feature in new consumer electronics products before Christmas, the first of which probably being the Blu-ray-based PlayStation 3, due for release in November.
Because it boosts bandwidth to 10.2Gbps from 4.95Gbps, HDMI 1.3 connectors will enable suppliers of future video sources and HDTV displays to accelerate refresh rates to 120Hz from 60Hz, deepen colour bit depth to 48-bit RGB from 24-bit, and deliver 1.8x more viewable colours to include every visible colour that the eye can see.
For future Blu-ray and HD DVD disc players, HDMI 1.3 also promises to transport all, not just some, of the two formats' optional high-bandwidth surround-sound codecs in native form, thanks to
a boost in the HDMI standard's "frame rate" to 768kHz from 192kHz. The newly supported surround codecs are losslessly compressed Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master. Optional surround codecs previously supported by HDMI were (for Blu-ray) uncompressed 7.1-channel 192kHz/24-bit PCM and compressed Dolby Digital Plus. For HD DVD and Blu-ray, previously supported optional codecs include various DTS HD implementations, including 5.1- to 7.1-channel soundtracks.
