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ViaPort Eliminating HDMI ‘Handshake’ Problems
Marshall Goldberg, senior product marketing manager at Silicon Image, says the ability to put the receiver at the “end of the line” instead of between the source component and the display will greatly resolve installation issues.
Chipmaker Silicon Image showed off working prototypes of its new ViaPort Technology that solves a major HDMI problem in basic home theater design.
As more consumers purchase thinner TVs, they are recognizing the internal speakers on the TV just don’t cut it, resulting in more home theaters with an A/V receiver (AVR) and external speakers.
One consistent problem technicians encounter is getting the AVR to complete the HDMI handshake in full 1080p between the Blu-ray player and the TV. Older AVRs are often a hindrance for the HDMI handshake to occur.
With ViaPort technology, an installer can move the AVR to the end of the lineup, enabling a direct connection between the source and up to five displays. This enables the source and sink to take advantage of the latest technologies (3D/Ethernet/4K over HDMI) without the need to replace older, incompatible AVRs, which can block the source/sink signals.
The new topology permitted by the embedded chip will make life a lot easier for integrators.
Enhanced audio and simplified system setup are additional benefits. The receiver only needs HDMI "in." The breakthrough is achieved by adding an HDMI "out" to the DTV and incorporating ViaPort technology in a DTV chip. The technology also allows an integrator to daisy-chain via HDMI up to eight TVs.
“This is a real innovation,” says Marshall Goldberg, senior product marketing manager. “This is not vaporware.”
How Soon Until Adoption?
Why was this big news so discrete at CES? Silicon Image is at CES primarily to show off the product directly to manufacturers in an attempt to get them to adopt the new chip in their displays.
Silicon Image currently has its Port Processor chip in flat panels made by nine of the top 10 manufacturers, already selling 70 million of those chips. The outlook for ViaPort is strong, according to Alex Chervet, director of marketing, who says Silicon Image’s manufacturer/customers "want the chips in Q1" to test. That translates into possibly seeing the technology in displays by later in 2011 without negligible cost to an individual display. (Existing chipsets from Silicon Image averaged $1.38 each in Q3 of 2010, but that includes more expensive units for components like RAID devices.)
For technicians having trouble with HDMI in the field, it sure wouldn’t hurt to press their preferred TV manufacturers to incorporate the new chip ASAP.
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Article Topics
News · Product News · Wire and Cable · HDMI · Events · CES · Ces 2011 · Home Theater · Installation · Silicon Image ·About the Author
13 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
How on earth will this make things easier?!?! 4 sources = 5 wires in the wall?? WTF?!
Sorry but this is about the dumbest idea since the helicopter ejection seat.
What a complete waste of time to create such an idea. This is not a solution. I really believe these engineers have never seen how “home theater” is done.
As stated in a comment above, it is easier to replace the AVR. Far more cost effective as well.
This is a solution for the meek squad guys who deliver a TV on a stand, plug in some cables and walk out in 30 minutes. Not for integrators.
-Dislike-
Once again, a group with no real-world installation experience develops a solution that doesn’t address the problem with a usable solution. No installer mounting a television (much less a projector) will pull an HDMI cable for each source. It simply won’t happen.
Who is your target audience? This article was not written with the viewpoint of a Custom Installer in mind. It’s more of a shill for a manufacturer than an objective viewpoint on a product and how it affects our industry.
The major problem is not with pulling multiple HDMI cables to your display device. Even though its ridiculous and impossible if you have 8 HDMI sources and 2 HDMI inputs… The major issue to think about is…
What happens in 2 years when this silly idea gets abandoned and you have to go back out to a job and replace a TV that does not have the viaport?
What happens when the clever CI decides to put his AVR in a different closet relying on this new topology?
HDMI coupler and an HDMI switch band-aid wont work because you still need an HDMI out of the AVR back to the TV. Does the kit come with flexible conduit? That might save the day.
It seems to me that this is a “solution” to a problem that should never have existed if HDMI, and especially HDCP, had been properly designed and implemented with consideration towards real-world environments rather than the simplistic view of a point-to-point, component-to-monitor, short-distance cable environment. How many of us have pulled our hair out over HDMI and HDCP issues due to crappy design and implementation by CE manufacturers that are more concerned with saving a penny than providing a robust interface?
Lets all go back to component video. It always worked.
This is awesome! Now when I have the source equipment 20 meters away from the TV and the customer has 4 sources I get to run 5 really expensive cables (or cat5 baluns that don’t work perfectly) to the monitor! Wow, what a profit center! HDMI is the worst piece of s*** ever foisted on us integrators, but we HAVE to make it work somehow with 1080p and 3D and all that other stuff. As someone else said above, these engineers don’t know how things get installed in the real world.
New TVs already have optical audio out, which is just as good except for 7 channel.
Just found this in the bottom of my email pile. What a hoot! Are you sure they weren’t planning on saving this for April 1st release?
I would imagine that Noel Lee thinks it’s a WONDERFUL idea - easily worth another Lambo…
Yeah!!! Another stupid product that we should tell our clients they HAVE TO BUY to make their stuff work. Component works 150% of the time! I think I am going to order some of those HDMI to component adapters and start testing them. Damn the man. I’m tried of Bluray players going on the blink and AVR companies telling me I need to use a signal boaster if im going over 2 meters to the AVR. What crap - I think I’m going to introduce a new technology that runs on string with a can at each end - I think will be more reliable.
So instead of 1 HDMI to the TV from the AVR you have to run one for each source plus one to the AVR? Or add an HDMI switch?
No thanks, easier to replace/upgrade the AVR to something current.