HDMI is, today, the connection of choice for consumer electronics products, such as DVD and Blu-Ray players, digital cable/satellite receivers, video game consoles and, of course, computers. This is the connection you should use to hook up your video source (including your computer) to your TV if both support it. If you are connecting your PC to your TV, don’t forget to configure the video resolution to your TV’s maximum resolution after you connect the two in order to get the best image quality. Follow the table below.

This connection works 100% in digital mode, is capable of transferring higher resolutions than DVI, features a copy-protection mechanism called HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection), and transfers digital audio signals on the same cable (up to eight channels with 24-bit resolution and 192 kHz sampling rate), eliminating the need of an extra cable for connecting audio if your devices support this feature. Version 1.4 of the HDMI connection also added support for Fast Ethernet networking (100 Mbps) on the same cable. In the table below, we summarize the main differences between the HDMI versions available.

We have already written a tutorial explaining in-depth how HDMI works, so you may want to read it if you are interested in HDMI. Also, our tutorial on SPDIF audio connection will give you a few more usage examples.

In the pictures below, you can see some examples of HDMI use.

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Figure 32: HDMI output on a video card

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Figure 33: HDMI output on a DVD player

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Figure 34: HDMI inputs on an HDTV set

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Figure 35: HDMI cable

As we mentioned on the previous page, you can easily convert DVI-D and DVI-I connectors to HDMI through a cable or adapter, which should be used if your video source (your computer, for example) has a DVI-D or DVI-I output but not HDMI.

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Figure 36: DVI-to-HDMI cable

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Figure 37: DVI-to-HDMI adapters