The HDMI HD equipment interconnect standard has been updated, the seven companies behind the technology announced today. One of them, Sony, said its PlayStation 3 will support the new version of the interface.

HDMI 1.3 adds a number of enhancements to the current specification. For starters, it increases the interface's data transfer rate from 4.95Gbps to 10.2Gbps by upping the signal clock speed from 165MHz to 340MHz.

The greater bandwidth is needed to support the higher colour depths HDMI 1.3 adds to the 24-bit colour support of the previous version. HDMI will now support 30-, 36- and 48-bit colour in both RGB and luminance-chrominance (YCbCr) colour spaces, allowing suitably capable screens to show more colours. HDMI 1.3 also supports the next-generation xvYCC colour space.

The new version also adds automatic synchronisation between video and audio tracks - dubbed 'lip sync support' - and extends the list of audio formats it can handle with the addition of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless compressed codecs.

The technology's founders also have their eye on the mobile market: HDMI 1.3 introduces a new mini connector aimed at camcorders, digital cameras and other portable devices.

The HDMI founders - Sony, Matsushita Panasonic, Hitachi, Philips, Silicon Image, Thomson and Toshiba - announced their plans for HDMI 1.3 in January this year. ®

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