High-Definition Multimedia Interface technology has been around since the advent of high def TVs, camcorders and cameras. It provides a digital audio and video connection between devices. HDMI supports any TV or PC video format including basic, enhanced, and high-definition video as well as up to 8 channels of digital audio. HDMI is independent of the various digital television standards such as ATSC and DVB as these are encapsulations of compressed MPEG streams (which can be decoded and output as an uncompressed video stream on HDMI).
CEC is a related technology which is part of the HDMI technology. Read more about CEC.
