Re:Upcoming HDMI 2.1 Features
by magila on Sunday December 03, 2017 @11:54PM
(#15841528)
The real reason why both continue to be developed in parallel is industry politics. HDMI is the product of consumer electronics companies while DisplayPort is from PC hardware manufacturers. For various reasons these two groups rarely cooperate. One big point of contention is royalties. The consumer electronics companies like standards they can charge royalties for, while PC companies like royalty free standards.
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Since DP is royalty free, why wouldn't most consumer electronics companies push for it as well? Only minority would demand royalties, while majority would be forced to pay them. So why not ditch the patent encumbered standard if majority would benefit from it?
The consumer electrons industry is dominated by a handful of companies. Those companies also happen to be the ones who own the patents on HDMI. They control enough of the market that the smaller players are forced to pay up to be able to interop with the dominant companies' products.