MHL 3.0 to bring support for 4K resolution
The MHL Consortium — a group of companies who came together to create the MHL standard for USB-based HD output –has announced specification 3.0 for their platform. MHL 3.0 will bring a lot of under-the-hood changes that most folks won’t care about, but it’s the convergence of all those changes that will bring the most interesting and exciting changes of them all.
The biggest deal is the standard’s new support for 4K resolution, a technology poised to take off with 4K-based displays already beginning to seed the market. The MHL Consortium says the device is capable of handling double the bandwidth than the 2.0 spec was. MHL 3.0 will also allow people to have several displays showing content in 4K simultaneously. We’re not sure what sort of crazy setups you have that will need all of that, but it can’t hurt to have just in case.
MHL has quickly grown into a desirable option for smartphone and tablet OEMs who want to keep the amount of external ports on their devices down, and it’s only getting better from here on out. We’ll be looking to see who might be the first OEM to take a swing at MHL 3.0, but for now be sure to read the rest of the technical details down below.
- 4K (Ultra HD): Support of 4K formats up to 2160p30
- Simultaneous high-speed data channel
- Improved Remote Control Protocol (RCP) with support for peripherals such as a touch screen, keyboard and mouse
- Power charging up to 10W
- Backward compatible with MHL 1 and MHL 2
- Latest HDCP 2.2 content protection
- Enhanced 7.1 surround sound with Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD
- Connector agnostic – uses as few as five pins
- Support for simultaneous multiple displays