Your being here indicates that you were shopping for an hdmi cable and not sure which to get. Maybe you have heard about the latest and greatest hdmi 2.1 And you are ready to make a mad dash to the store but you want to do a bit of research first. Good thinking. In this article, I am going to give you a rundown of the several different versions of hdmi so you know which one you should buy and it might not be hdmi 2.1.
A little background check on HDMI cables
If you have used a camera, a tv, a monitor, a projector, or any piece of video technology in the past 10 years you have seen HDMI cables before. It is what transmits video and audio signals from your device to your display or receiver. They are pretty important. You have probably come across cables marked as hdmi 1.4, 2.0, or 2.1.
What is the difference between each version?
If you have ever wondered what the difference is, here I am to give you an answer. You are welcome. 1.4, 2.0, and 2.1 are hdmi specifications or versions and it all started with hdmi 1.0 way back in the old days in 2002. Since then the standard has been upgraded to support new technologies as well as higher resolutions, higher fresh rates, and higher transmission rates.
HDMI 2.1
Most recently we have hdmi 2.1 and on paper, it’s quite an advance over hdmi 2.0 nearly tripling the max bandwidth potential from 18 gigabytes per second to a whopping 48. That is impressive stuff; you are going to want to take a look at your gear first because when it comes down to it, there is no advantage to using hdmi 2.1 with a device that doesn’t support it.
The latest is not always the best in every situation
Hdmi 2.1 is the future but that does not mean that you should throw out any hdmi 2.0 or 1.4 cables that you have laying around and replace them with the latest and greatest. For one thing that is wasteful for another, these cables may be perfectly fine for your existing applications and even future ones.
HDMI 2.1- when to buy?
If you are shopping for cable and it is within your budget it is not a bad idea to pay a little extra for hdmi 2.1. It will work just fine with any device that uses hdmi 2.0 or lower since every hdmi version is backward compatible with previous generations.
When not to buy?
If you are not planning on upgrading your tech anytime soon hdmi 2.1 is just really unnecessary and if you are looking for a cable to use with one specific device and nothing else just go with whatever version of hdmi that device supports. So there you have it now you know what’s up with hdmi versions. Yep, that is it for whatever you needed to know concerning hdmi 2.1 and other versions as well.
