Designer HDBaseT Alliance Hot pluggable Yes | Designed June 2010 Daisy chain Yes | |
Type Consumer electronic networking cable Length 100 metres (330 ft), including the support of multi hops (8 x 100 m) | ||
HDBaseT, promoted and advanced by the HDBaseT Alliance, is a consumer electronic (CE) and commercial connectivity standard for transmission of uncompressed high-definition video (HD), audio, power, home networking, Ethernet, USB, and some control signals, over a common category cable (Cat5e or above) using the same 8P8C modular connectors used by Ethernet.
Contents
History
The HDBaseT Alliance, incorporated on June 14, 2010 by Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, LG Electronics and Valens, was developed to promote the HDBaseT standard originally created by Valens. The HDBaseT 1.0 specification was also finalized in June 2010. External accessories, such as dongles, were on the market in 2010 for devices not yet embedded with HDBaseT. Products were demonstrated at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. In mid-2013, the HDBaseT Alliance issued Spec 2.0, an update to the original specification, which enriches the HDBaseT offering to the pro-AV market, and enables a multimedia home connectivity solution. Spec 2.0 specifies the HDBaseT network protocol, defining the required adaptations across all layers of the Generic OSI model, to provide the optimized services for time sensitive applications, such as high throughput video and audio. Spec 2.0 maintains all the features of Spec 1.0, but also adds networking, switching, and control-point capabilities such as flexible and fully utilized mesh topology, distributed routing, and end-to-end error handling, enabling multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity and multistreaming.
Spec 2.0 also embeds USB 2.0, enabling touch-screen functionality and keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) for no-latency transmission of ultra-high-definition audio and video. It also specifies either category cable or fiber as the transmission medium.
The IEEE has announced that HDBaseT has been accepted as the IEEE 1911 standard.
Features
HDBaseT is transmitted over category 6a cables or above up to 100 m (328 ft) long, with 8P8C modular connectors of the type commonly used for Ethernet local area network connections.
HDBaseT transmits uncompressed ultra-high-definition video (up to 4K), audio, power over HDBaseT (PoH - up to 100W), Ethernet, USB, and a series of controls such as RS and IR.
HDBaseT is complementary to standards such as HDMI, and it is an alternative to radio frequency, coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA. HDBaseT connects and networks CE devices such as set-top boxes except Cisco and Scientific Atlantic boxes, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles, switches, matrices, projectors, and AV receivers to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, and digital televisions.
Video
HDBaseT delivers uncompressed ultra-HD video (up to 4K) to a network of devices or as a point-to-point connection. Uncompressed content supports all video sources, including legacy products, accurately renders gaming graphics and features such as electronic program guides, and does not degrade video quality or add latency. It supports TV and PC video formats, including standard, enhanced, high-definition, ultra-HD (4K), and 3D video. Due to bitrate limitations of 10.2 Gbit/s instead of the required 18 Gbit/s in the HDMI 2.0 specification, HDBaseT 2.0 can only support 4K at 30 Hz not the full 60 Hz.
Audio
Audio is a requirement for most consumer electronics devices. Audio is passed through the same media as video, so all standard formats are included. HDBaseT does not support ARC, a feature found on HDMI 1.4.
Ethernet
HDBaseT supports the 100 Mbit/s version of Ethernet over twisted pair. This can provide Internet access, or enable televisions, stereos, computers and other CE devices to communicate with each other and access multimedia content, including video, pictures and music stored on the local network.
Power over HDBaseT
Sending power over the same LAN cable gives the option to forgo plugging devices into the wall for power. HDBaseT uses a variation of Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard called "power over HDBaseT" to provide up to 100W of power to CE devices, such as Blu-ray players, monitors and TVs, and eliminate the need for external power cables. HDBaseT can power remote TVs and other devices up to 100 watts. A 60" TV connected via an HDBaseT-enabled Cat5e/6 cable requires no power source.
Control signals
HDBaseT delivers control signals starting from CEC that operates basic functionality such as power-on, power-off and play/stop, to RS232/USB and IR that operate remote equipment even when it is located in a different room.