How Locking HDMI Connectors Came to Be

While numerous manufacturers have tried, only two of them have received blessings from HDMI Licensing for their HDMI locking connectors.

Perfect Path from PPC is one of them.

Arguably the first company to introduce locking connectors back in 2007, PPC started out with a “high-retention” product that could withstand 10 pounds of force.

Early efforts from other manufacturers required external pieces, including screws and special accommodations on the components themselves. Not so with PPC cables.

The first-generation product included a latch on the connector that locked into the corresponding hole found in all HDMI ports. The solution was developed after PPC engineers took a trip to Best Buy and examined a variety of HDMI-endowed components.

“We have a model shop here, so we mocked one [connector] up after looking at all of the ports at Best Buy,” says PPC product engineer Jeremy Amidon. “So we knew the route we wanted to go. We just needed to refine it.”

Even with 10 to 12 pounds of resistance, however, “you could still pull it out, which in some cases is good,” says Amidon. “Sometimes you don’t want to too tight.”

There was another problem: with some components, a user couldn’t access the release button on the HDMI connector.

“HDMI has a standard on their ports, but not a standard on how they’re mounted on devices,” Amidon says.

PPC learned that the hard way, especially when Sony came out with Bravia TVs that made it difficult to press the release button on the PPC connectors.

So PPC went about developing an even better solution that could endure more pressure and disengage easily from any HDMI component.

PPC’s second-gen product features an outer shell that slides forward to lock in the cable (video).

“A plastic wedge pushes up into the opening of the port for a mechanical engagement,” Amidon explains. “To release, simply pull on the shell, just like you would normally do with an HDMI cable.”

Amidon says that PPC has experimented with tolerances of HDMI ports and the components they’re built into. Technically, he explains, PPC cables could “lock even more, but once you get over the 50-pound range, you start deforming the ports.”

He adds, if you pull out a PPC connector accidentally, you won’t damage the HDMI port and you can still plug it in again, while maintaining the 25-pound resistance.

When to Use Locking Connectors

Amidon says Perfect Path locking cables are priced somewhere between the costliest products and the cheaper varieties. Therefore, they make sense in virtually any installation – not simply in mission-critical applications.

He notes in particular the one short pin – for hot plug detect -- in an HDMI’s 19-pin array. While the cable appears to be plugged firmly into the connector, the short pin may not be seated.

As Amidon tells it, this was the situation with many cable and satellite companies that rolled trucks only to find a loose HDMI connector.

Integrators, he says, “want the security of knowing if you have a problem it’s not going to be the HDMI cable.”

At the very least, installers should install locking connectors when articulating mounts are involved. Mission-critical installs, such as CCTV surveillance systems, also should include locking connectors.

And, of course, “It’s very important now when you have things mounted into walls,” Amidon says. “It’s permanent. You don’t want to tear everything up.”

But why not use them all the time so there’s never any worry? Amidon explains, “Sometimes you just move a component to dust and the cable can get loose.”

Same Goes for RCA Jacks

RCA connectors aren’t any prettier, which is why Perfect Path developed locking mechanisms for those (video).

The problem, says Amidon, is that there is no standard on port dimensions.

“The challenge is to get a solution that works on the smallest port and the largest port. Otherwise, it could be tight on the small port and super-tight on the larger port. We didn’t want to put stress on the device.”

Perfect Path’s locking RCA has a twist-on tightened. “If you want it tighter,” says Amidon, “just twist more.”

So what will Perfect Path lock next? “Anything that needs it,” Amidon says.