HDMI Standards Body Tells Planet It Is Illegally Selling Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Cables

Well, this is insane. According to HDMI Licensing, LLC, which comprises of Panasonic Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Silicon Image, Sony Corporation, Technicolor S.A. (formerly known as Thomson) and Toshiba Corporation, everyone who is currently selling a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable is doing so, illegally.

The report arrives via TechRadar who highlights HDMI.org, the standards body for HDMI, has declared that Mini DisplayPort to HDMI is “unlicensed and should not be sold”.

Last week that it was rumoured that hundreds of thousands of Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables are to be recalled because HDMI Org has deemed the cable system to be out of HDMI spec.The DisplayPort system is used primarily by Apple in its Mac range, but there’s a number of other manufacturers who use the port – including Toshiba.HDMI Org has exclusively contacted TechRadar about the situation and confirmed that any cable that has a DP male connector on one end and an HDMI male connector is unlicensed and should not be on sale.

The issue? – according to HDMI Licensing, LLC, the HDMI standard was originally licensed only for cables which feature HDMI connectors on both ends. Thus, cables which feature connections from HDMI to other formats are not licensed for sale.

“Our HDMI specification defines an HDMI cable as having only HDMI connectors on the ends. Anything else is not a licensed use of the specification and therefore, not allowed.”