The computer world is no stranger to format wars, and we’re about to have another one, with the new connection format to the next generation of computer monitors.
Oh yes, we’re about to mix it all up again.
We used to connect monitors via those blue plugs and get the so-so VGA picture. A step up from that is the white DVI plug, the bigger, flatter one that started showing up on video cards and monitors a few years ago. That gave computer users a digital output and a pretty glorious picture, if consumers knew enough to use that connection instead of the blue one.
Now comes the confusing part.
Many manufacturers now are shipping monitors with HDMI ports, the USB-looking ports found on many HDTVs. These are cool ports (when they work, but that’s another column) that also are capable of carrying digital audio. There is a large push to make HDMI the standard for computer monitors going forward. However, manufacturers have to pay a 4-cent per-device royalty for the right to use the HDMI technology.
Four cents! That will never stand, so some, including Dell, are trumpeting a competing (royalty-free) format called DisplayPort, which is not compatible with HDMI, of course. There are nerds and geeks who are trumpeting the merits of both in Apple bars everywhere, but the bottom line is we have another war on our hands.
The good news is the winner is already at hand. HDMI is already installed on every high-def TV on the planet and will be crowned the winner in the monitor wars, as well. Everyone knows what it is, everyone knows how it works, and the cables are in Wal-Mart.
For a while, we will see monitors that have both jacks on it, but in the end, it will cost lots more than 4 cents to…