this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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The short answer is HDMI was mainly developed by a consortium of Stereo and Television manufacturers whereas DisplayPort was firmly always developed as a modern replacement for VGA.
Somehow, I trust the people in the computer industry to make better and more strict standards than I expect from the audio/visual industry. There's a lot more advertising fluff from those groups while PC stuff can generally be nailed down by checking benchmarks against each other. How would you even benchmark two different stereo systems? (If I'm wrong and there is a way to benchmark them, cool, please share!)
Anyway, yeah, HDMI was for "Home Theaters" and pushed by the industry that builds that kind of thing and DisplayPort is for computers, period.
I used to think DisplayPort was the future, about 10-13 years ago.
By now I feel it has come and gone.
HDMI 2.1+ is making its way in everywhere.
Pretty sure the PC desktop segment will keep the port alive for a while, but right now it doesn’t seem like a very useful port apart from having a plug that claws itself in place and is often unnecessarily hard to unplug.
With Ultra High Speed HDMI (these names are ridiculous, seriously, look at the standard names) there’s very few, if any, reasons to use DP, apart from compliant HDMI cables costing an arm and a leg.
To be honest I’m struggling a bit to understand why it’s not just all pushed through a CAT6/7 Ethernet cable at this point.
DisplayPort is a better system than HDMI. It even can ride piggy back on USB-C, which means a display can both power a computer on the same line as it connects to a laptop with. DisplayPort also supports daisy chaining(although it's not a common feature on monitors), so you could potentially have a single USB-C cable going to a laptop and then have multiple monitors connected with needing a dock or anything of that sort.
But (most of that) that’s the display port standard, not the plug.
DisplayPort over USB-C works mostly fine, except that it’s “fine”, not perfect. Daisy chaining tends to make it less fine.
It’s a better standard, but a worse plug. Important distinction.
That doesn’t matter in the long run though. Better doesn’t always win.
Just look at how USB won over FireWire. And FireWire could daisy chain too
My iPhone 13 Pro syncs slower over USB than my second generation iPod did over FireWire.
While I obviously can’t blame that fully on USB, it’s an ironic observation, especially since my OG iPod would be 21 years old now, if it still worked.
Your iPhone 13 syncs slower over USB because Apple decided to stay on Lightning connectors, which use USB 2.0 on the other end. Although FireWire was faster back when it co-existed with USB, the USB standard has surpassed it a long time ago with more power, faster speeds, and better physical connectors.
Shift the argument back to 2012 before Lightning and it still holds. Their point is that USB 2.0 is slower than FireWire was. FireWire had been dead for years by the time USB 3.0 came around, and USB 3.0 required bulky connectors that never really caught on with mobile devices. It wasn't until USB 3.1 with the C-type connector came along in 2015 that mobile devices finally started seeing wired transfer speeds that could meet or exceed FireWire.
I know, and commented on it (just not explicitly).
The irony is still there though.
And for many years it was an actual limitation of the USB interface as well. Only with USB 3, which didn’t see widespread adoption until 2009-2010 did USB surpass FireWire 400 speeds. And let’s not forget there was FireWire 800 as well.
Say what now?
I don’t like the DisplayPort connector.
Apparently an unpopular opinion, but hey. It’s mine, and I’ll keep it.
So it's not actually a worse connector, then? Gotcha.
My arguments is that is. But, hey, read it whatever way makes you feel better about your own opinion.
You've not even presented an argument; you've only made a statement that it's a worse connector. What are you basing this so-called argument on?
Double standards much? What is your argument for it being better?
You're the one who made the original claim, buddy. The burden of proof is upon you. I've made no such claims about the superiority of either connector here.
My preference would be using displayport but the actual connector is usb c
Worse plug how? You can buy DP cables without the locking mechanism.
Example
Go to your local electronics store and see if that is true when you want a cable “today”.
There’s a difference between theory and practice.
Different countries and regions may have better markets for DP cables, but I can’t recall having had options other than length.
Why would you even want that, the locking mechanism is imo one of the advantages DP has over HDMI, I had one too many instances of the HDMI plug getting lose in the socket causing signal loss (granted, not a big issue for Home Theater but def. an issue for some people for PC usage).
YMMV, obviously.
Locking DP is a pain in the ass for me. HDMI disconnecting was never an issue either.
I just wish I had a choice, but in practice I don’t as selection of cables is poor.
I never screwed in VGA or DVI connectors either.
Personally I prefer the plug falling out instead of the connector and/or cable getting damaged if you pull on it.
Thanks for the FireWire memories. I got the first Windows compatible iPod and bought a FireWire card just to use it.
Same here, actually.