Last month I had no idea that the banter on Twitter surrounding a CE Pro story about HDMI-related issues would touch off a minor flame war, and inspire Gary to write a very good blog post about the opportunities that HDMI affords to integrators.

For my part, I took advantage of the discussion to Tweet a series of haikus about HDMI. In case you missed them, here they are:

Clients barking mad
All black screen, no Stanley Cup
HDMI is crap

Only studios gain
HDCP locks you out
Installers lose

Seven hours on site
Eight screens, and six sources
Intermittent fault

TV bought last year
New Blu-ray won’t sync up
HDCP strikes again

Staring at blank screen
Third firmware update today
Matrix switch my ass

TV and Bluray
One off, one on. CEC only works
If all are same brand

However, I’d like to clarify my stance on HDMI. I don’t hate HDMI. I used to, but I don’t anymore.

I had the good fortune to be in the field with HDMI 1.0, and yeah, there were some fun moments, staring at a black screen, with no idea how to fix it. But that was then, and this is now.

Back then, seven-odd years ago we didn’t have any solutions to the problems that HDMI can pose. Today, we’ve got hand-held field testers that can validate HDMI connections. We’ve got vendors whose HDMI hardware, especially matrix switchers are much more sophisticated and reliable than they used to be. We’ve all got a much clearer understanding of the reasons why HDMI connections can fail, and what to do about them, and related to that, we’ve got a common knowledge base that’s readily available in a variety of forums via the Internet.

Like Gary said last month, we’ve got answers, and we can charge for them.