Dell's DisplayPort Folly

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:09:58 -0700 (PDT), Ablang
wrote:

DisplayPort was a good idea that missed its window of opportunity. By
forcing the issue, Dell and other DisplayPort backers are only going
to bewilder consumers. If you're in the market for a new laptop,
desktop, or monitor in the coming months, be sure to take a close look
at the connectors on the back. How irritated would you be to find that
the best connection on your new high-end monitor won't work with the
best connection on your high-end notebook?

Thanks for the info. I would choose a computer with HDMI because
that's what my HDTV uses and it seems to be the standard with home
theater too.

I would like to know why HDMI cables cost so much though.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:56 -0400, "Rich"
wrote:

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the expensive
HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger profit percentage-wise
on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

Yeah... before I had a HDMI cable for my Apple TV, I used composite
video (or component, I get them confused) and the picture was great.

I'd like to find a good basic learning remote. I love my Samsung TV
but to get to different sources I have to cycle through them -- there
isn't a button to jump right to a source.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:07:51 -0500, Boris Boris wrote:

Journey wrote in
:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:56 -0400, "Rich"
wrote:

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the
expensive HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger profit
percentage-wise on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

Yeah... before I had a HDMI cable for my Apple TV, I used composite
video (or component, I get them confused) and the picture was great.

I'd like to find a good basic learning remote. I love my Samsung TV
but to get to different sources I have to cycle through them -- there
isn't a button to jump right to a source.


http://tinyurl.com/yrfma7

I was given one for Christmas. Works pretty good. If you can find one
on sale, I'd give it a try.

Thanks for the link. I like the way it looks. Some of them look like
they came out of an old sci-fi movie.

I guess there are always things to learn in geek-world. The first
thing I need to find out is whether my Samsung accepts a command to go
directly to a specified source, or if it only cycles through.

I've started to watch over the air HD broadcasts and wow, the quality
is amazing.

Dell's DisplayPort Folly
The PC giant is championing an interface we don't need and shouldn't
have to pay for.
Tom Mainelli, PC World
Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:00 PM PST

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,14...l?tk=nl_ptxcol

Dell is on a mission to prove it's a technology leader by making sure
that DisplayPort--the DVI replacement that it's pushing hard for the
industry to adopt--appears on your next notebook, PC, and monitor.
There's just one problem: We don't need DisplayPort. It currently
doesn't offer any real cost or performance benefits over the well-
established HDMI interface, which is appearing on a growing number of
products. DisplayPort's introduction is likely to cause confusion and
frustration for buyers seeking a monitor that will work with their
notebook or PC at home. Worse, Dell plans to eventually launch
DisplayPort-only monitors that will lack backward compatibility with
every single PC shipped to date. This is not technology leadership.
The DisplayPort Dilemma

In addition to writing GeekTech, I'm a research analyst for IDC
covering monitors and projectors, so I've watched DisplayPort's
evolution closely. Dell, HP, Samsung, and other monitor industry big
shots first started kicking around the idea that became DisplayPort in
2003--and back then it made sense. After all, the old analog VGA
interface was dead (although to this day it refuses to lie down) and
the DVI interface had become technologically moribund, unable to keep
up with the promise of next-generation, ultrahigh-resolution monitors.
DisplayPort would be the ultimate digital interface for PCs, and it
would be an open standard with no associated royalties, unlike the
then-new HDMI interface, which was starting to show up on televisions
(companies that implement HDMI today pay 4 cents per device plus a
$10,000-per-year fee).

If DisplayPort had launched then, we'd probably be merrily using it on
our PCs today. Instead, the standard took years to mature (as they
often do). In the meantime, high-definition TV sales took off, and so
did the acceptance of HDMI: Today that interface is on just about
every HDTV sold, and most people with any technical prowess know what
it is and how it works. After several tumultuous revisions, HDMI
reached version 1.3, which can support even today's highest-resolution
30-inch monitors. As a result, HDMI now ships on many PCs and monitors
from just about every major vendor, including Dell.

When HDMI became the de facto digital interface standard, development
of DisplayPort should have ceased. Alas, the wheels were already in
motion, and Dell--the standard's most vocal proponent--and VESA (the
Video Electronics Standards Association, brought in to administer the
specification) pushed forward, continuing development and issuing
specifications. Finally, in January this year Dell rolled out the
first-ever DisplayPort-enabled monitor, its 30-inch UltraSharp
3008WFP. Interestingly, the $1999 LCD also includes an HDMI port.

Why put an HDMI port on the company's first DisplayPort monitor?
Because even Dell's top DisplayPort evangelist, Bruce Montag, senior
technical staffer in the office of Dell's CTO and chairman of the
DisplayPort task force at VESA, acknowledges that HDMI is too well
established to omit. Though Dell plans to continue offering HDMI on
its consumer gear, it thinks DisplayPort makes more sense for future
business products.

I couldn't agree less. Why on earth should my work monitor, notebook,
or desktop have a different digital interface than my products at home
do? Every day I take my work notebook home, where I often connect it
to my consumer desktop monitor. Plus, small-business buyers mix and
match consumer and corporate hardware all the time.

DisplayPort backers like to point out that future implementations of
the interface could offer compatibility with HDMI, but such support is
optional, not required in the specification. In addition, it would
need an external dongle and chip sets that can interface with both
standards, since the two technologies work in fundamentally different
ways (unlike, say, HDMI and DVI). In the end, both the vendor--and the
consumer--would end up paying more for the luxury of using HDMI
through a DisplayPort connector. Wouldn't it be easier, and less
expensive, if everything used just HDMI?
Future Promises

Other arguments in favor of DisplayPort also fall apart upon closer
examination. For example, backers suggest that because DisplayPort is
royalty-free, the interface will be less expensive to implement. But
in reality there's no guarantee that contributors to the specification
won't ask for royalties later. Meanwhile, the up-front hardware costs
of supporting the new standard are undoubtedly higher than that of
HDMI--even considering HDMI's 4-cent royalty fees--since HDMI's parts
are already produced in high volume and enjoy economies of scale. And
for every monitor that a vendor such as Dell creates with both
DisplayPort and HDMI, the company must pay the hardware cost of
implementing both standards, plus the HDMI fees it originally sought
to avoid.

Engineers agree that DisplayPort's micropacket architecture is pretty
slick. It can drive multiple monitors using a daisy-chain
configuration, and it could enable future setups such as integrated
USB hubs and Webcams that run through a single DisplayPort cable.
However, a USB-based technology called DisplayLink already offers
multiple-monitor support. And the USB and Webcam features aren't
included in the current DisplayPort specification, which means owners
of first-generation products won't have access to them even if they
become available later. Anybody can promise future features.

Finally, Dell says DisplayPort will let the company build what it
calls direct-drive monitors, models that contain fewer internal
electronics, which could mean potentially lower prices and allow
thinner designs. That sounds great, too, until you realize that such a
"dumb" monitor could work only with DisplayPort-enabled PCs or
notebooks and not with the millions of laptops and desktops that exist
today.

DisplayPort was a good idea that missed its window of opportunity. By
forcing the issue, Dell and other DisplayPort backers are only going
to bewilder consumers. If you're in the market for a new laptop,
desktop, or monitor in the coming months, be sure to take a close look
at the connectors on the back. How irritated would you be to find that
the best connection on your new high-end monitor won't work with the
best connection on your high-end notebook?

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the expensive
HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger profit percentage-wise
on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

"Journey" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:09:58 -0700 (PDT), Ablang
wrote:

DisplayPort was a good idea that missed its window of opportunity. By
forcing the issue, Dell and other DisplayPort backers are only going
to bewilder consumers. If you're in the market for a new laptop,
desktop, or monitor in the coming months, be sure to take a close look
at the connectors on the back. How irritated would you be to find that
the best connection on your new high-end monitor won't work with the
best connection on your high-end notebook?

Thanks for the info. I would choose a computer with HDMI because
that's what my HDTV uses and it seems to be the standard with home
theater too.

I would like to know why HDMI cables cost so much though.

Journey wrote in
:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:56 -0400, "Rich"
wrote:

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the
expensive HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger profit
percentage-wise on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

Yeah... before I had a HDMI cable for my Apple TV, I used composite
video (or component, I get them confused) and the picture was great.

I'd like to find a good basic learning remote. I love my Samsung TV
but to get to different sources I have to cycle through them -- there
isn't a button to jump right to a source.


http://tinyurl.com/yrfma7

I was given one for Christmas. Works pretty good. If you can find one
on sale, I'd give it a try.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:51:06 -0500, Journey wrote:

I guess there are always things to learn in geek-world. The first
thing I need to find out is whether my Samsung accepts a command to go
directly to a specified source, or if it only cycles through.

The Samsung 4061 remote doesn't have buttons for each source, so even
if I have a learning remote I don't know if I could program different
buttons for different sources. Oh well, I think I'll just live with
it this way for now. Googling didn't bring up anything right away --
maybe Samsung has tech. support that I could call.

-----Original Message-----
From: Journey ]
Posted At: Monday, March 24, 2008 10:51 AM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Dell's DisplayPort Folly
Subject: Dell's DisplayPort Folly

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:07:51 -0500, Boris Boris wrote:

Journey wrote in
:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:56 -0400, "Rich"
wrote:

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the
expensive HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger
profit
percentage-wise on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

Yeah... before I had a HDMI cable for my Apple TV, I used composite
video (or component, I get them confused) and the picture was
great.

I'd like to find a good basic learning remote. I love my Samsung
TV
but to get to different sources I have to cycle through them --
there
isn't a button to jump right to a source.


http://tinyurl.com/yrfma7

I was given one for Christmas. Works pretty good. If you can find
one
on sale, I'd give it a try.

Thanks for the link. I like the way it looks. Some of them look like
they came out of an old sci-fi movie.

I guess there are always things to learn in geek-world. The first
thing I need to find out is whether my Samsung accepts a command to go
directly to a specified source, or if it only cycles through.

I've started to watch over the air HD broadcasts and wow, the quality
is amazing.

Far as I know it just rotates. If you figure it out, let me know.

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:6A7C570E0BA44F0CAF3C401BE5229F67@M2010...


-----Original Message-----
From: Journey ]
Posted At: Monday, March 24, 2008 10:51 AM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Dell's DisplayPort Folly
Subject: Dell's DisplayPort Folly

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:07:51 -0500, Boris Boris wrote:

Journey wrote in
:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:56 -0400, "Rich"
wrote:

Because people are dumb enough to believe the salespeople that the
expensive HDMI cables are better. They probably make a bigger
profit
percentage-wise on the cable than on the TV.

Rich

Yeah... before I had a HDMI cable for my Apple TV, I used composite
video (or component, I get them confused) and the picture was
great.

I'd like to find a good basic learning remote. I love my Samsung
TV
but to get to different sources I have to cycle through them --
there
isn't a button to jump right to a source.


http://tinyurl.com/yrfma7

I was given one for Christmas. Works pretty good. If you can find
one
on sale, I'd give it a try.

Thanks for the link. I like the way it looks. Some of them look like
they came out of an old sci-fi movie.

I guess there are always things to learn in geek-world. The first
thing I need to find out is whether my Samsung accepts a command to go
directly to a specified source, or if it only cycles through.

I've started to watch over the air HD broadcasts and wow, the quality
is amazing.

Far as I know it just rotates. If you figure it out, let me know.


I have a Harmony 880 remote made by Logitech and a 42" Dell plasma. The
source change, using the original remote or the buttons on the TV itself,
was the rotating type. However, the 880 has individual input buttons you
can program to show on the remote control's screen. Maybe call Logitech
support and ask them if they know if it would be similar on a Samsung.

alien