MHL consortium slandering Displayport?

[soresu]

I know that this isnt specifically about GPUs, but it is about Displayport, which all GPUs now incorporate.

I was reading up on Displayport over USB type C cables and came across some rather imaginative distortions of the truth on the MHL consortium webpage.

http://www.mhlconsortium.org/usbtype-c.aspx

They seem to have forgotten that displayport is actually a royalty free standard, which I could have sworn is one of its defining attributes, and claim that anyone licensing MHL for their device is less expensive. They even point to a MPEG LA webpage, which gives no specifics about royalties pertaining to per device numbers.

 

[3DVagabond]

Displayport is free for VESA members, which everyone who's anyone in the monitor and graphics card industry is. It might cost more to join VESA though than to license their tech.

The real issue would be compatibility with hardware. Who uses USB-C?

 

[NTMBK]

If it plugs into HDMI, then that's cool with me. Makes it easier to chuck films onto a hotel TV.

I just hope that all these different USB alt-modes don't become too much of a compatibility nightmare.

 

[soresu]

Considering that USB-C can carry everything under the sun, I would say that adoption should become widespread quickly, assuming that the port doesnt cost drastically more to implement, or more to license from USB-IF.

Considering the docks and adapters that I have seen so far, it would seem that it can carry either displayport or HDMI, possibly even both when adapters are involved (Apple have one already).

I wonder if there is any possibility of an ethernet alt mode, for passive output from a type C port to an ethernet hub?

 

[NTMBK]

Considering that USB-C can carry everything under the sun, I would say that adoption should become widespread quickly, assuming that the port doesnt cost drastically more to implement, or more to license from USB-IF.

Oh, it's not adoption of the physical port I'm worried about. It's keeping track of which USB-C device supports which different alt-mode. "Oh cool, I can pipe video from my phone to my monitor over USB! Oh wait, this monitor only supports Displayport altmode, and the phone only supports HDMI altmode."

 

[ViRGE]

Considering MHL is developed by Silicon Image/Lattice, the guys behind TMDS tech and at the core of DVI/HDMI, yes, they are in fact probably slandering DisplayPort. They have been the VESA's rivals since the earliest days of DP.

Anyhow, this is the first I've heard of an MPEG-LA patent pool. It looks like it was launched back in March. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150305006071/en/MPEG-LA-Introduces-License-DisplayPort

Oddly it looks like most of the patents are in Japan, and Lattice/SI holds just under half of the US patents. Though it's somewhat telling that no one that matters is on the Licensee list other than the companies who are also holding claimed patents.