HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface it is the “latest and greatest” interface for your visual and audio equipment. New home theater equipment and high-definition televisions will have HDMI connections. There are 19 to 29 wires tightly wrapped in a one cable that looks kinda like a USB wire, HDMI can handle bandwidth of up to 5 gigibits per second, which is more than enough bandwidth for audio and video. This is just one of many reasons why HDMI is more favorable than other audio video interfaces such as S-Video, composite, and component video.
HDMI is all digital and uncompressed. The ones mentioned above are using analog signals. When analog cables are used to watch a High Definition movies the picture that is sent to the tv is not as good as sharp or rich. HDMI keeps the integrity of the digital source without any distortion or loss of picture quality.
HDMI makes setting up easier because it’s only one single cable, the other interfaces needed separate video and audio cables. HDMI gives you the best performance for video and audio while simplifying setup.
HDMI can play standard video formats, high-definition and enhanced video formats. HDMI is backward compatible with DVI, if your graphics card in your computer has a DVI port you will be able to connect a HDMI cable to it via DVI/HDMI cable which is basically a cable HDMI connection on one end and DVI on the other. You can buy the cheapest HDMI cables you can find just as long as they are under 15 ft anything longer can degrade the signal.
Most HD Television come with a least one HDMI interface. I would look for one that has at least two HDMI connections for the convenience of hooking up other equipment such as a gaming console.
