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About HDMI (or DVI), USB, DisplayLink USB Interfacing

By Art Feierman

About HDMI (or DVI), USB, DisplayLink USB Interfacing

We’ve reached the point where HDMI is effectively the new standard on projectors.  Every projector in this year’s report offers HDMI.  True, they all still have VGA outputs, but the trend is digital, and HDMI.  DVI accomplishes the same thing, but with a more suitable commercial connector (that screws in), but is rarely found these days on all but them most expensive install projectors, and even then, those are likely to have an HDMI, and a DVI.

HDMI still has distance limits but those should not be a problem in the traditional K-12 classroom, and even in a huge university lecture hall there’s always a way.  With various extenders, HDMI can be run 100’s of feet, (usually using inexpensive CAT5 or CAT6 cable) so while there’s an extra cost for the extenders, distance issues are surmountable.

HDMI offers the advantage of being digital, and of carrying the sound as well as the video over a single cable.

If there’s a challenge to HDMI as the new standard, its likely to be interfacing over USB between projector and computer.  Displaylink is now supported by Windows, and Mac environments, allowing many computers to output their “display” information over US.  A few of this year’s projectors offer that capability.  It just provides another alternative for school IT/AV folks to sort out, one that may affect some purchase decisions.

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