Kramer says it can provide advanced EDID capture and emulation with its VA-2H HDMI EDID reader-emulator.
The high-resolution VA-2H is a diagnostic and debugging tool for installers working with HDMI devices. The unit can switch three different EDIDs to the HDMI input and has a USB connection and a software editor. It supports up to 2.25Gbps bandwidth per graphic channel, and high-resolution graphics up to 1080p in video and up to UXGA in computer graphics video.
It can store and recall a default EDID setting in non-volatile memory. EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) is 256 bytes of data that a display provides to the graphics card of a connected computer source. The EDID describes the display’s capabilities so that the source can output the best possible signal for that display. The source and the display exchange this information over the Display Data Channel 2 (DDC2) using pins 15 and 16 of a standard HDMI connector.
The VA-2H is designed to ensure that if a display is turned off, temporarily disconnected or is out of communication with the source, the source continues to output the best possible signal resolution. The EDID emulation makes the source think that the display is still directly connected even when the EDID information is unavailable directly from the monitor.
If systems, including matrix switchers, and distribution amplifiers, are unable to pass EDID information from the monitor to the source the VA-2H captures the EDID information from the display and provides the EDID communication to the source. Kramer points out that an HDMI cable must be used that passes all 19 pins between the source and VA-2H.
The VA-2H is HDMI 1.3, HDCP 1.1, and DVI 1.0 compliant. This unit also comes equipped with Windows- based application software that enables the user to edit and save EDID settings, and create custom EDID timings.