FerrellHale670

HDMI stands for "High-Definition Multimedia Interface." The HDMI standard was developed by a consortium of consumer electronics manufacturers and content providers, to address what, from the content-provider industry's standpoint, was a serious problem: existing analog video formats such as component video are not easily copy-protected. HDMI, being digital, provides a perfect platform for the implementation of a copy-protection scheme (HDCP, or "High-Definition Content Protection") which enables the content providers to limit the consumer's access to, and ability to copy, video content. HDMI is a horrid format; it was badly thought out and badly designed, and the failures of its design are so apparent that they could have been addressed and resolved with very little fuss. Why they weren't, exactly, is really anyone's guess, but the key has to be that the standard was not intended to provide a benefit to the consumer, but to such content providers as movie studios and the like. It would have been in the consumer's best interests to develop a standard that was robust and reliable over distance, that could be switched, amplified, and distributed economically, and that connects securely to devices; but the consumer's interests were, sadly, not really a priority for the developers of the HDMI standard.