HDMI Audio / Video Cabling Glossary of Terms

1080 / 1080i / 1080p - common terms related to HDTV video with 1,080 scan lines of resolution. The letters "i" or "p", (in 1080i and 1080p), stand for "Interlaced" and "Progressive Scan". HDTV 1080 mode provides a display resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 using the standard HD 16:9 aspect ratio.

ANSI/EIA/TIA-568b - the letters, "ANSI", "EIA" and "TIA" are initials which stand for: American National Standards Institute, (ANSI), Electronic Industries Alliance, (EIA), and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The ANSI/EIA/TIA-568b standard addresses pin-out and wire pair color coding for Category 5, (CAT5), Enhanced Category 5, (CAT5e), and Category 6, (CAT6), structured cabling.

CAT5 / CAT5e - (Category 5 / Category 5 Enhanced), refers to cables which contain a bundle of (8) unshielded solid or stranded (copper) wires. CAT5 cable is normally used for transmission of digital data for distances up to 100m, (328'). Most installation use solid CAT5/CAT5e cable for fixed point to point connections, and then use stranded from fixed termination point to device connections, (as stranded core wire is more flexible). CAT5 Enhanced cables feature improved reduction of interference on the far end of the cable, (the point furthest from data / signal source). Cat5 / Cat5e cables are normally terminated with a (male) RJ-45 style 8-pin connector.

CEC - (Consumer Electronics Control). In regards to HDMI cables, CEC is a single wire within the HDMI cable bundle which carries a low voltage signal. Interconnected HDMI devices use the wire as a bus to communicate with each other. The purpose of CEC is to act as the traffic cop on the HDMI network and enable cooperation for common (and advanced) functions of video signal, audio signal, display, playback and recording in a plug 'n play environment between HDMI devices. A common communication would be a device powering on or sending signal and the primary display recognizing the source device, negotiating the best display mode for it's capabilities and routing audio to an external surround sound system if one is connected to the HDMI network.

Crosstalk - when signal in two (or more) wires, channels or parts of an electrical circuit interfere with each other.

DSR - (Digital Signal Rate), a measurement of the speed of data flowing through a circuit (or part of a circuit) sometimes stated as "channel capacity" which refers to the maximum average sustained throughput of data including a calculated allowable margin of error.

EDID - (Extended Display Identification Data), a type of formatted data embedded in a display device and a means for the device to relay the stored information to a graphics controller. In regards to HDMI and HDTVs; EDID allows the HD-TV to identify itself to the source device so if the source device uses EDID, it can optimize the signal for that display.

EMI - (Electro-Magentic Interference), a distortion of the electrical signal in a circuit caused by other electrical signal or energy in close proximity to the circuit.

Extender - devices which increase transmission range of digital high definition audio / video signal by transmitting the signal over UTP cables.

Far-End - refers to the point in a signal or circuit furthest from the transmission source, (see also: Near-End)

HDCP - (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) are codes embedded in audio / video media which provide the a form of "digital copyright protection". Devices which are HDCP compliant have the ability to detect the protection code and not allow prohibited distribution of the (HDMI) signal.

HDMI - (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. HDMI connects digital audio/video sources such as set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles (such as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360), and AV receivers to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, and digital televisions.

Interlace - (interlacing, interlaced), a method of refreshing the picture on a video display, (t.v., monitor or other device capable of displaying video signal). Interlaced displays refresh every odd-numbered row of the display from top-left to bottom right in one pass, then in a second pass refresh the content in the even numbered rows. By weaving, ("interlacing"), early televisions and other cathode ray type displays were able to show real-time video without the flicker caused by refreshing the entire screen on each pass. Most high-definition modern displays use progressive scan technology rather than interlacing.

Near-End - refers to the point in a signal or circuit nearest to the transmission source, (see also: Far-End)

RoHS - (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), for in electronic products and electrical equipment to be marketed as "RoHs Compliant" they must meet requirements that hazardous metals like lead, mercury, cadmium and certain types of chromium, (and plastics containing PBB and PBDE), will be reduced to acceptable levels or eliminated from the products.

SCART - (Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorecepteurs et Televiseurs) - a standardized a/v connector type originally design in France. SCART is a very common way to connect PC's and many types of game systems, (e.g. Nintendo, Playstation, XBox, etc), to high definition televisions and other HDMI home theater output devices..

SPDIF, (also S/PDIF) - (Sony / Philips Digital InterFace) - high-speed compressed digital audio data format primarily engineered by Sony and Philips. A common use of SPDIF is to connect DVD players to home theater systems for surround sound.

UTP - (Unshielded Twisted Pair), usually refers to pairs of thin, flexible, insulated copper wire which is twisted to reduce Electro-Magentic Interference, (EMI). Most often UTP cable is wound in bundles of matching solid color and banded color pairs of wires.

YPbPr - a high definition three signal type of color and brightness encoding used in progressive scan component video equipment. Y/PB/PR is based on RGB color with a "Y" signal which carries luminescence, (brightness), information and the "Pb" and "Pr" signals respectively carry blue and red color difference information by which green color information can be derived.