Why do HDMI cables have such high bandwidth capability when most of the content we watch is usually at a much lower bit rate?

Question

Why do HDMI cables have such high bandwidth capability when most of the content we watch is usually at a much lower bit rate?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Because the data stream you get from YouTube or Netflix is compressed and needs to be processed to create an image. A 1080 TV has 2,073,600 pixels it must draw 60 times a second. Each of those pixels has has 3 color elements that require 10 bits of data to encode for. 2,073,600 pixels * 30 bits (pixel color value) * 60 frames per second = 3,732,480,000 bits/second. Divide that by 1,073,741,824 bits in a gigabit and you get 3.47 gigabits/second required to stream a 1080p video at 60hz