USB, HDMI, what can we screw up next?
Is it incompetence? Malice? I'd really like to see an in-depth investigation of this phenomenon
IIRC, every manufacturer must pay a fee to the HDMI consortium for every device with HDMI they sell.
DisplayPort, by contrast is a more open standard only requiring a flat fee for the standard documentation and membership instead of a fee per unit sold IIRC.
For this purpose, it succeeded and did a much better job at it than alternatives. HDMI still makes far more sense for use in a home theater environment than DisplayPort thanks to features like ARC.
I'm using my LG TV as monitor for a PC and forced to use HDMI.
Model name is AORUS FO48U.
While HDMI is nice for consumers because it carries audio/data, SDI cables are cheap (just a single coax cable!) and easy to route (T-splitters are a thing!).
SDI does not support HDCP, however.
My current TV will only put out an inferior "headphone" mix over the 3.5mm connection, and the SPDIF connection is co-axial on the tv, but optical on the speaker. Having to run a powered converter box just to get audio from my tv to a speaker feels like such a step backwards.
I know 3.5 is worse on a technically, but I've never been able to actually notice the difference.
SPDIF (both optical and coaxial) support sending multiple audio channels in their original encoding, to support surround sound. The receiving device needs to support decoding of the audio, which is why there is often an option to force the SPDIF output to use PCM stereo instead of surround sound.
If you have a cheap TV and a good hifi, you'll want to use SPDIF or HDMI so that your audio isn't ruined by poor quality of the audio chipset in the TV.
(Also, unique for optical connections, it's easier to avoid ground loop hums.)
But the difference is definitely noticeably, even to my relatively forgiving ear.
It sounds like you just got bad luck with your TV having a bad 3.5mm jack and not supporting toslink, as most I've seen will at the very least support the latter, and often have a separate "line out" port for the former.
The parent post is correct in that the mandatory HDCP was a major feature (for the involved cabal of organizations).
This is wrong. HDCP isn't mandatory to implement HDMI, they are two separate technologies. I'm not defending HDCP or DRM encumbered content but I wish folks would get their facts straight.
It's not the HDMI interface that enforces copy protection it's the software, firmware and additional hardware on the devices that do this. You can use HDMI perfectly fine without the additional DRM crap.
I wish all cables were equal too, but c'est la vie
If it becomes too big of a problem, each cable and device will be required to have a challenge-response Obscure Brand Inc. proprietary U9 chip burned with a valid secret key and serial number at the factory that must return a valid response for the link to be enabled.
"Word of advice. Agents are bad, but whatever you do, stay the hell away from Marketing."
- Thomas A. Anderson