Stay with me for a second here. Let’s say that you were good this year. So, in the last week you got a brand new Gemini Air, Roku Streaming Stick, Chromecast, or Fire Stick. These devices are pretty cool, but in the first five minutes you’ll come up with a way they could all be cooler.
Every device that connects to an HDMI port needs power. Either it needs to be plugged into the wall, like a streaming box or satellite TV box, or it needs to connect to a USB port. Yes, most TVs have a USB port now but it might not work to power your device.
What if your TV could power a streaming stick or dongle, right through the HDMI port?
The dirty little secret
The technology to put power over HDMI has been around for a while. It’s now part of the official HDMI 2.1b specification, so every compatible TV should have it. But as I’m writing this, no one supports it yet. Why is that?
The dirty little answer: it takes time
As I said, the tech’s been around for a while, but there hasn’t been a true standard for it until fairly recently. It takes about 3-4 years for TV makers to roll out a new HDMI standard to their entire TV line. Makers of products like the Gemini Air aren’t going to change their devices until there’s enough support out there from TV makers.
When you think about devices like the Gemini Air, Roku Streaming Stick, and the like, they tend to be attractive to budget-conscious customers. These same customers aren’t going to buy a top-of-the-line TV, and that means you need to have support for this tech in low-end TVs. Not only that, you need to have that support long enough that most of your customers will have it in their TVs. This could take a very long time indeed.
Can’t there just be two versions of the thing?
Yes, there could be a Gemini Air that got power from the port and one that didn’t. Or there could be a new version that detects whether power is coming from the HDMI port and requires USB if it doesn’t. But that would add to the cost of these units, which tend to be very competitively priced. It also adds to the level of tech support needed, and that increases the price of the product too.
So is there any hope?
Yes, absolutely. There will come a point where HDMI Cable Power (that’s the catchy name they’ve given it) is so common that new versions of these devices just use it by default. People with older TVs will probably have to get some sort of adapter that costs extra. By the time this tech becomes common most people won’t need that adapter.
But as I said, it’s going to take a while. Even with the fast pace of technology, expect it to be a minimum of 3-5 years before you see this technology in common use. In the meantime, you’ll have to power those devices over USB, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s a pretty minor annoyance.
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