TFTCentral on "fake" HDMI 2.1 and the hdmi org's response saying that's fine

xthomas

n00b
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
2
https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/when-hdmi-2-1-isnt-hdmi-2-1

This was kicked off by a Chinese monitor marketing their monitor as having two HDMI 2.1 ports. It was 1080p, 240hz, and used TMDS.

here's a quote from the article with imo the most important information.

We contacted HDMI.org who are the “HDMI Licensing Administrator” to ask some questions about this new standard, seek clarification on several questions we had and discuss the Xiaomi display we mentioned above. Here is what we were told:

  1. HDMI 2.0 no longer exists, and devices should not claim compliance to v2.0 as it is not referenced any more
  2. The features of HDMI 2.0 are now a sub-set of 2.1
  3. All the new capabilities and features associated with HDMI 2.1 are optional (this includes FRL, the higher bandwidths, VRR, ALLM and everything else)
  4. If a device claims compliance to 2.1 then they need to also state which features the device supports so there is “no confusion” (hmmmm)

I understand that this is my first post, so if someone else wants the post karma go ahead. I can't afford a pretty monitor anyway

Maybe someone can repost this in the tech news forum, I can't post there until I have 100 posts :D
 
Ya the HDMI consortium has been known to be pretty slimy and purposefully confusing the consumer.
 
They leave it up to monitor manufacturers to clearly label products. The manufacturers predictably don't, which means potential customers have only reviews to go by. I've noticed this with the recent plethora of 32" 4k high-refresh rate monitors which supposedly have HDMI 2.1 but lack the required bandwidth to use their full capabilities. It's surely going to lead to a lot of people buying products that don't do what they expect them to.

Let's hope DisplayPort 2.0 arrives soon.
 
HDMI 2.1 has been one of the jankiest standards of all time. It has been around for 3 years, but devices that legitimately support it are few and far between. Nearly everything you see only supports part of the spec. Most love to give the hollow promise of "additional features will be added via firmware updates" that of course rarely actually come.
Even HDMI 2.1 cables have compliance issues left and right...and oddly many HDMI 2.0 cables work just fine. It has been a colossal mess. After attempting to build an HDMI 2.1 setup back in 2019, I've only just now finally been able to make it happen in the last 8 weeks.
 
HDMI 2.1 has been one of the jankiest standards of all time. It has been around for 3 years, but devices that legitimately support it are few and far between. Nearly everything you see only supports part of the spec. Most love to give the hollow promise of "additional features will be added via firmware updates" that of course rarely actually come.
Even HDMI 2.1 cables have compliance issues left and right...and oddly many HDMI 2.0 cables work just fine. It has been a colossal mess. After attempting to build an HDMI 2.1 setup back in 2019, I've only just now finally been able to make it happen in the last 8 weeks.
Agreed. I wanted to buy a HDMI 2.1 receiver to replace my 10 year old Denon but so far haven't because seems many of the current ones have issues.

HDMI.org can go pound sand with this bullshit. At least they could have added some tiers here describing different capabilities. Now you need to hunt down each optional feature or ask the manufacturer if these are supported or not. Get your magnifying glasses ready folks, this stuff will only be described in some small print kind of like that datasheet about the Samsung 43" QN90A's lack of 4K 120 Hz.
 
Agreed. I wanted to buy a HDMI 2.1 receiver to replace my 10 year old Denon but so far haven't because seems many of the current ones have issues.

I can tell you from personal experience that the Denon AVR-760H (which is exclusive to Costco and only $450) *does* actually work fine. Pretty much every single other AVR out there has weird caveats. I have experience with 2 others from Onkyo and Yamaha and they were both nightmares to deal with. This one will output 4/4/4 at 4K/120 in HDR with Atmos audio no less. It doesn't have the sheer wattage that a serious audiophile might want, but it's pretty ideal for nearly everyone else. That said, it's absolutely stupid that it's literally the only mainstream HDMI 2.1 AVR that's worth a damn right now...and Denon ninja released them to Costco without any warning or product information.
 
If you have to pore through a specsheet in the hopes a device does something it probably doesn't do it. It certainly wouldn't do it reliably. Have some trust in the marketing departments of these companies. HDMI 2.1 means the HDMI consortium got paid, nothing more or less.
 
So according to what they have told us, this means that in theory all devices with an HDMI 2.x connection should now be labelled as HDMI 2.1

That is just strange, why would they stop to have an HDMI 2.0 standard, because it is taking too long for 2.1 to take off ? Or help to make a buzz for 2.2 which will not add anything meaningful, but would help someone to demark itself from the meaningless 2.1 tagged device....

I would imagine that anything that do support 120k 4K uncompressed will shout it on is marketing material anyway too (like said above)
 
I would actually argue that having the display send arc to your receiver is the best solution right now because there will be less input lag. My LG C7 webos got an update yesterday and it's still a phenomenal tool. I bought an Nvidia shield last year, it crashed constantly no matter what app it was running. I returned it and went back to Webos and haven't had a problem since
 
At least on my setup (LG C1), ARC introduces a little bit of delay in the audio vs. what's onscreen. It isn't always noticeable, but when it is, it's unnerving. That's with multiple different AVR's and with/without game mode. It doesn't affect every manufacturer, but LG's also won't send DTS of any sort over ARC, too.

CES is in a few weeks. Whether the manufacturers actually show up in person is up for debate, but there should be a boatload of new tech announcements in January. I'd pretty much guarantee there will be some more full-spec HDMI 2.1 AVR's rolling out and the various OEM's are going to shout it from the rooftops.
 
At least on my setup (LG C1), ARC introduces a little bit of delay in the audio vs. what's onscreen. It isn't always noticeable, but when it is, it's unnerving. That's with multiple different AVR's and with/without game mode. It doesn't affect every manufacturer, but LG's also won't send DTS of any sort over ARC, too.

CES is in a few weeks. Whether the manufacturers actually show up in person is up for debate, but there should be a boatload of new tech announcements in January. I'd pretty much guarantee there will be some more full-spec HDMI 2.1 AVR's rolling out and the various OEM's are going to shout it from the rooftops.
Very good point about the lag and lack of DTS. Super weird because the cx can do dts
 
Back
Top