HDMI hooks up with USB-C in cables that reverse, one way

30 Hz is fine for playing movies, the overwhelming majority of which are 24 fps, which is realistically almost all the 4K people will be playing from a device with USB-C out to HDMI in (i.e. from a phone, tablet or laptop to a TV/monitor)

If you are gaming in 4K@60fps or whatever you will have a device with HDMI out and connects with a standard HDMI cable to your 4K display.

The long term fix will be yet another speed upgrade for USB to 20 Gbps, which will allow 4K@120 fps 4:2:0 at 10 bit color depth - that covers the highest possible spec for future 4K broadcast TV.

I wonder what they will call it, supercalifragilistic speed USB?

Re: 'pfaff'?

That one left me puzzled, too - I only ever knew 'Pfaff' as a maker of sewing machines.

Re: So now you can fry your TV too

Only if you are are a cheapskate and buy your cables from ebay and car boot sales.

you'll still need a cable tie to (in the darkness) bind them!

Reminds me of this; XKCD - Standards.

Re: When?

Yep, my PC has both USB2 and USB3 ports. They're not labelled any differently, so no way to tell them apart.

At least with USB-C, there a big label saying 'plug in here to fry device'

> will there be a set of symbols introduced to help inform people what they can and can't use a particular USB-C port for?

Yes, there is already a highly confusing set of symbols, which will now need to be extended.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/usb-31-usb-type-c-refresher,news-51106.html

I think many punters are going to be very annoyed when they buy a USB-C to Foo cable, but it doesn't work with Foo - and will blame the cable.

(Similarly, I remember you could buy a TV which was labelled both "Freeview" and "HD Ready", but was not actually able to receive Freeview HD when it came along)

Re: No need for dongles?

I don't get this either.

I can already buy a USB-C to HDMI dongle. I didn't realise that I couldn't buy an HDMI to USB-C cable I hadn't considered that it would be a different thing.

Re: Can we just use an Ethernet cable already ?

"Oh, right, it doesn't do DRM. Damn."

No but it does do reporting back to the mother-ship.

I must admit that my reaction to the article was to wonder whether this was a ploy to sneak DRM into USB by the back door.

Re: Can we just use an Ethernet cable already ?

There is a standard for HD video over ethernet - HDbaseT. Managed to fry my network cable tester by plugging it into one of the ports, so not sure that's the perfect solution either...

Re: Problem.

"properly made"

There's your problem. Well, that and no one could agree on the right size. I remember about ten years ago (before the rise of iPhones and Android) when there was a cheapo store that had an entire wall full of cell phone adapters. And no two pegs were alike. AND they were pretty cheaply made. Do you REALLY wanna to go back to THAT jungle?

PS. As for USB, that's a requirement anyway for device<-->PC communications, and it can still provide power WHILE communicating so why not put them together? If you're worried about an evil device disguised as a charger, you probably have other issues (such as an Insidious Insider).

Re: Only vaguely USB-C related rant incoming...

USB-C will solve this problem for you in the future. Sort of. Both ends of the cables will fit in any device. Even Tesco will sell cables that fit. The only question remaining will be: will it fry? Don't believe the CPCW-guy when he says it won't.

Re: Only vaguely USB-C related rant incoming...

I went through a very similar trek a few weeks back.

Had a bit of a move around at home, which meant having a larger desk space. I realised I could fit three monitors on the desk now (from two previously), and I had an old spare 1920x1200 one sat on a shelf doing nothing, so I figured why not!

I too ended up buying new cables on line, as no local shops (Maplins, .*PCWorld, large Tescos, Asda living etc) had anything of any use to me.

In fact I'd go so far as to state that most of these shops, were essentially only stocking what I'd class as 'legacy' cables, and not one of them was stocking anything that could be used to connect 'modern' devices to another 'modern' device.

Same was true for USB-C.

I get the feeling that whoever is in change of stocking things like cables in these shops, is working of a list that's about 5+ years out of date, and so they simply don't cover current 'standard' connectors, like DisplayPort etc.

Re: Why not...

Because juggling power and data on the same wire is a tricky thing, which is why USB separates power leads from data leads (it's just better all around; ask anyone who's had to juggle with Power-over-Ethernet). Plus you have to consider the size of the target device. Slim is in, so expecting phones to get fat to accommodate a BNC receptable is a nonstarter. Furthermore, there's only so much you can shove through a thin copper wire.

BTW, there was a time I handled BNC cables in an ad-hoc 10Base-2 network. Ditched it the moment I could switch it out for 100Base-T. It was just a whole lot easier all around.