HDMI Retimer Redriver

[electosleepy]

I'm looking for a component that works as a 1.2V to 3.3V level shifter for HDMI. It must be able to support more than 3.4Gb/s per TMDS output lane. I think I have found the component (TMDS181) I need but what is a HDMI retimer and what is a HDMI redriver? Will it work for my application?

http://www.ti.com/product/tmds181

[hamster_nz]

Redriver - It receives the incoming signal, and then passes it straight to the output drivers. Any skew and jitter on the input signal will be passed through to the output signal.

Retimer - it performs clock data recovery on the incoming signal, and then transmits the same bitstream but using the recovered clock as the reference clock. Skew and jitter on the input interface should be removed, giving a nice clean output.

[electosleepy]

So the retimer would be useful in applications where skew and jitter has been introduced due to long traces between the GPU and HDMI connector? As seen in the attached picture where the GPU is on one side of the HDMI connector is on the other side of the display.

What is the purpose of the redriver if it doesn't remove skew or jitter?

[marshallh]

Read up on transmission line theory and current mode logic.