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DisplayPort takes a big step forward to being the next major High-bandwidth, high-speed display standard

Digital display standards are anything but stabilized right now, with a total of three standards vying for the spot as the main one in the industry. DisplayPort, HDMI and UDI have all been formed and designed with the intention of replacing all current display standards. The most popular standard being used right now is DVI. The ancient VGA DB-15 standard, which is second in popularity, is still being used in a large number of applications.

The industry's video display standards group, VESA, recently approved DisplayPort 1.1 as an industry standard, marking a significant milestone for the interest group and all the companies involved. Now, a company called Luxtera has received the go-ahead from VESA to develop DisplayPort technologies using CMOS photonics. Luxtera is hoping that its development into the DisplayPort standard will help replace copper cables with optical ones as the medium for transferring high-bandwidth digital video signals. According to the press release:

The DisplayPort task force and subgroups, led by Luxtera and other member companies, unanimously approved the addition of Hybrid Devices to the specification as a standard alternative solution to copper cables. High performance optical video interconnect based on Luxtera’s CMOS Photonics technology is now possible with the addition of Hybrid Devices to the standard resulting in an improved visual user experience.

According to Luxtera, no other video standard offers the advantages of DisplayPort. Luxtera is confident that without its participation, DisplayPort would still only be limited to a slower copper standard. Eileen Robarge, group leader for the Luxtera DisplayPort task force said that optical technology will be the future of display interconnects.

"Optical technology, particularly single mode technology, can most effectively address the longer reach market needs for digital signage, projectors, imaging, quiet office and digital home and support much higher performance picture quality for the end user at both short and longer distances," said Robarge.

As of right now, all current mainstream video standards use copper-based connections. UDI is currently on the drawing boards and is posed to replace DVI and VGA at the same time according to Silicon Image. An important fact to note is that Silicon Image sits on the boards of both the HDMI and UDI  interest groups and previously indicated that HDMI and UDI are not meant to compete with each other -- both technologies however have many overlapping underlying technologies.

With full support from VESA as well as a host of major industry leaders, DisplayPort appears to be heading to the finish line first as the next major computer display standard. With Luxtera developing a fiber optic version of DisplayPort, more industry interest will surely follow.

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I feel LOW TECH
By Niv KA on 4/18/2007 6:26:29 PM , Rating: 2
I feel as if I am using SUPER OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY.

I still use VGA... and maybe its just because I am too lazy to go get a new screen that supports DVI,but it makes mee feel like I am using outdated tech that soon will be 2 generations old (in terms of display ports...)

Can anyone give my the noticeable advantages in DVI over VGA? I do feel the need for a new screen... (my new C2D beast is still stuck with my old 15" LCD that I have been using for already 4 PCs, so an upgrade might be coming up)




RE: I feel LOW TECH
By phatboye on 4/18/2007 6:35:29 PM , Rating: 5
If you are OK with your screen then don't upgrade. Stop tying to keep up with the Jones. Who cares if you are two generations behind just be satisfied with what you've got.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By mendocinosummit on 4/18/2007 7:14:34 PM , Rating: 2
Until you sit in front of a 200 to 220 dollar 20.1 inch wide screen LCD with DVI. Then you think, shit wouldn't that be nice to have. I wouldn't have to move scroll as much and I will never have to scroll left and right again. My movies and TV shows (which are almost always wide screen) would be a lot bigger. Damn, I wonder if my grandma needs a new screen for her 1998 HP.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By GlassHouse69 on 4/18/2007 7:56:52 PM , Rating: 2
eh.

i sit in front of an 800 dollar mitsubishi crt, 22 inches. I'm exceedingly happy ;)


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Hydrofirex on 4/18/2007 9:09:55 PM , Rating: 1
Yeah, and I'm sitting in front of a wide screen 20.1" $500 dollar LCD that is in every way superior to my Trinitron CRT I ditched it for.

Trust me, the required quality panels are just becoming mainstream, but flat panel displays are finally ready to replace the venerable CRT in almost every application imaginable.

You can have you're 22 inch monster. I promise you there is no non-professional level task My NEC is bested at by a CRT (Yes, even hard-core gaming) - Not one I've ever seen. Just wait for the next gen panels.... and good luck if you ever have to move that thing.

HfX


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Zurtex on 4/19/2007 10:45:47 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've yet to see a TFT which doesn't make DIVX, XVID or low bit-rate H.264 movies look horrible compared to my CRT, far far more pronounced blockyness, which to my understanding is just inherent in the way TFT monitor technology is built.

Also when I'm playing games, I like colours, I find that TFTs just don't tend to match up in that area, particularly considering I bought my 19" CRT 1600 x 1200 for £90 (about $150 at the time of purchase, thought that's about $180 these days).


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Araemo on 4/19/2007 12:01:37 PM , Rating: 2
Check out the NEC 20WMGX2

I believe it's the one the GP is talking about for a bit over $500. It's only 20.1" widescreen, but it actually outperforms some CRTs for color reproduction, and has a (rated) 6ms (gtg?) response time. It's one of the best monitors out there, and the cheapest available AS-IPS panel monitor. I just hope I can buy one before they discontinue it. Contrary to what he says, I don't think AS-IPS is ever going to go mainstream, they seem to discontinue the cheaper products as they get older, and keep moving it up into higher-margin applications. This makes me think AS-IPS is just too expensive to be a mainstream technology. Maybe some day after patents expire it'll become common..

CRTs definitely do colors better, when they're new.. but they tend to get dim with age(LCDs do the same), and my current 19" CRT (Purchased 5+ years ago for ~$450) is starting to go. I would really like to replace it with a bigger LCD that is just as good if not better than my CRT was when it was new.. and for about the same price, I MIGHT be able to do that. (And what refresh rate do you run your 1600x1200 CRT at? I think I would need 1600x1200 to be 85hz or higher.. with LCDs I don't have to worry about that.)

So yes, for the time being, I expect extremely hard-core design types who NEED exact colors will stick to the tried-and-true CRTs for the time being, but LCDs have finally gotten close enough. (Again, the 20WMGX2 has an almost perfect color curve after calibration, and a damn good one from the factory. See forums.anandtech's LCD buyer's guide thread for good links to reviews and information)


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By idconstruct on 4/19/2007 3:53:41 PM , Rating: 2
Dell 2407wfp ftw!

http://picasaweb.google.com/idConstruct/MyDell2407...

Thats a temporary location btw... my room is being recarpeted


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Runiteshark on 4/19/2007 2:23:53 PM , Rating: 2
Pretty sure my CRT can outdo any resolution on a sub $4000 LCD monitor.

Yep, It "Normally" does 2048x1536 @ 85hz, but I have no problems pushing it to 3200x2400 @71hz. And its either I get a few crappy LCDs (that you say totally dominate a CRT) to make up the real estate I loose, and have to put up with lower DPI, Or I can just collect the nice CRTs that people like you throw out, or want to sell for $30.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By tjr508 on 4/18/2007 11:46:56 PM , Rating: 2
I'm sitting in front of a crt QXGA monster myself and I like it better than anything else I have ever seen.


By Laughing all the way 2220 on 4/19/2007 2:19:24 PM , Rating: 2
I tried both connections using the same video card and same lcd monitor. My video card has both connections and the monitor supports both. Switching from one to the other shows DVI is brighter to the point of washing out the colors. I have to turn the brightness down to get a decent picture. The VGA port showed the picture just fine without a need to adjust so much. Games still look fine- Oblivion, NWN 2, F.E.A.R, Quake 4, and WOW. For my NEC 19" everything is fine. Just because the industry wants to come out with a new standard every 2 years for everything under the sun doesn't mean that you have to buy it. I still haven't bought Hi Def. I've seen my uncle's Mitsu at 1080P and yeah it looks damn good but not enough for me to fork out 2 large. If what you have works good then why upgrade if it's going to change in a year and a half. Same thing with Vista and Microsoft's newest slated to come out in 2009.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By techfuzz on 4/18/2007 10:15:34 PM , Rating: 2
I have a 5 year old 19" CRT at home and 1 year old 20.1" LCD at work. An LCD at home would be nice, but I certainly don't feel like I have to replace the CRT just because I also use an LCD.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By defter on 4/19/2007 6:13:43 AM , Rating: 2
Expect 200-220 dollar LCD monitors are crap. They cannot even display 256 shades of a single color (they are limited to 64 shades, 6bit/color). Then you need to take into account other things, like the inability to display black, low contrast ratio, poor response time and so on.

Now it is very difficult to find medium quality (8bit color) LCD displays that costs less than $400. Good LCD displays (8bit colors, high contrast ratio, low light leakage) cost much more than $500.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Moishe on 4/19/2007 9:19:01 AM , Rating: 1
What are you smoking?

Even if the screen is using 6 bit color *the avg person* is not going to look at the screen while they're doing average PC use and notice. True color is nice and we all agree that it's better, but lets not walk around saying that everyone *needs* it.

Screens use frame rate control methods and/or dithering to smooth out the color reproduction and it really works to hide the underlying problem. In most cases you're not going to use a cheap LCD and see a difference unless you're a videophile or doing important work.... but IF you are one of these folks who can see and must have true color than you most likely already know it.

This is just like how most people don't give a rat's behind if a sound card has 192kHz, 24bit and some amazing freq. response. Not that it's not technically better but I, for one, cannot tell the difference between a high or medium quality sound card. It may be because the other components won't allow the quality to shine, but we're talking about spending our dollars wisely so that we can get most of the way there without spending the extra dough.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Zurtex on 4/19/2007 10:41:31 AM , Rating: 2
I don't disagree, the average person doesn't need it. But the average person doesn't really need a machine that does billions of calculations per second, they still have one.

I have a 19" CRT at 1600 x 1200 and I'm not letting go of it and moving to the TFT era till I see something with better colours and an equivalent pixel pitch. Though I do love using wide-screen monitors, movies look worse on them than on my CRT so the extra display area doesn't quite feel worth it at the moment.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Moishe on 4/19/2007 12:24:50 PM , Rating: 1
You're an enthusiast (which is why you'd wait for a nice high quality LCD) and my point is still valid.
If the guy spending the money can't tell it's better or if the "betterness" of it doesn't actually help him, then it's NOT better in any tangible way that matters *for him*. Spending money on a Ferrari to get to the store and back is a bit of a waste, especially if you're on a budget.

Take avg Joe on the street and ask him if LCDs are as good as CRTs. He won't have the slightest clue about color depth or pixels. Why? Because he doesn't know and doesn't care to know and because he probably can't tell the difference. On top of that you've got stores flooded with LCDs at a reasonable price with very nice clarity and brightness.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Runiteshark on 4/19/2007 2:25:33 PM , Rating: 2
Disagreed, I bought an Acer laptop that had a 6 bit panel it it was so glaringly obvious that the color reproduction totally sucked on it. Even small gradients looked like crap.

I had an Inspiron 9300 awile back and it did just fine.


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Niv KA on 4/19/2007 6:24:00 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Damn, I wonder if my grandma needs a new screen for her 1998 HP.


Well, grandma has a 1993 homebuilt (by my father, back then...) Pentium(1)(something "S")133Mhz (I believe... I used it maybe 5 times, she used it 0...). I don't think she needs a new screen...


RE: I feel LOW TECH
By Zurtex on 4/19/2007 10:46:18 AM , Rating: 2
My Gran plays MMORPGs, building a new gaming computer for her this summer :D