ASRock Shows Off HDMI-in Feature for Haswell Motherboards
ASRock shows off the HDMI-In feature as part of its A-Style feature set.
ASRock is showing off many features for its next generation of motherboards for the Haswell CPUs, all part of ASRock's A-Style feature set. These features include Purity Sound, HDMI-In, 802.11ac WiFi, Waterproof by Conformal Coating and Home Cloud. Now, we have a direct demo video of ASRock illustrating the HDMI-In feature.
The video shows an iPad connected through the HDMI-In port of an ASRock motherboard and the image appearing on the monitor. Using a hotkey, users can switch between the image from the device connected to the HDMI-In port and the computer's image. No cable changes will be needed. The most notable bit, though, is that the feature works even when the computer is powered down. Presumably, when the system is powered down, the video from the HDMI-In port will automatically be passed through. The big question that remains is if any of these features will still work if the monitor is connected to a display output on a discrete graphics card. We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, enjoy the video below.
I guess the card would have to have HDMI in port and all the circuitry for that to work
Since this feature also works when the CPU is "off", this means the multiplexer is either operated on 5VSB or uses reed switches or relays. In any case, using the GPU output would require powering up the GPU and the 5VSB supply would be a rather tight fit for that even if you have absolutely nothing else using it. Not to mention that the HDMI-In chip would need to pipe video through PCIe to the IO Hub, the IO Hub pipe that to the CPU and then the CPU to the GPU over the x16 interface... that's a lot of power.
I agree with rolli, almost certainly only works with IGP. No physical path between the GPU's HDMI out and HDMI-In makes it effectively impossible on 5VSB's ~5W budget.
This feature would be most useful on tablets you could for example use a high quality screen on a tablet to preview images from a DSLR camera without buying those ridiculously overpriced low quality bulky monitors.
I believe the PC will function as a 'super switch' between other devices and the screen. Maybe ASRock wiil be adding more features based on this technology in the (near) future
Same here, I though you can hook up a tablet or mobile phone via HDMI adapter and use it directly to the HDTV without a computer. Maybe this is only useful for monitors with HDMI since computer monitors are different from HDTV?
This would allow the dedicated card to do what it does, while still letting the system use the feature when off.
So you screen would ALWAYS be plugged into the board, but the dedicated would also be plugged into the board to allow its signal to pass to the screen when needed as well.
Low power and still gets the job done
This would allow the dedicated card to do what it does, while still letting the system use the feature when off.
So you screen would ALWAYS be plugged into the board, but the dedicated would also be plugged into the board to allow its signal to pass to the screen when needed as well.
Low power and still gets the job done
I saw two hdmi's in the video, should get the job done
It is a Haswell motherboard. Since the IGP and TMDS outputs that drive HDMI ports are directly in the CPU, just about every Haswell motherboard will have some combination of DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and Thunderbolt outputs.
Very good idea.
Hard to say before release. Seems to have a good bit of delay so maybe it does just that, would be nice to emulate the screen at all times(but may be illegal) so the delay would not be so long like it is in the video.