When HDMI 2.1 Isn’t HDMI 2.1 – The Confusing World of the Standard and Likely Future Abuse

[Richdog]

First of all a BIG congrats to TFTcentral.co.uk for making this excellent article which really exposes a big future concern in HDMI 2.1 feature standards that will undoubtedly affect the PC gaming market and lead to a lot of frustration for buyers in the coming years.

You can read the article on TFTcentral here which goes into detail how HDMI 2.1 labelling can be applied without devices actually supporting many of the HDMI 2.1 featues that you would want or expect in a new display device https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/when-hdmi-2-1-isnt-hdmi-2-1

Part of this is due to HDMI.org saying that HDMI 2.0 no longer exists and that evewryone should just use the term HDMI 2.1, as long as they specify somewhere which features are supported This means that HDMI 2.0 monitors can then be sold as HDMI 2.1 as long as there is some spec blurb somewhere that says which features are supported. You can imagine how difficult manufacturers will make it to see this info on the pages while still scraping the boundaries of legality.

There is also a good follow-up video from Techtesters on Youtube which fully credits and praises TFTcentral for this research and provides a good summary overview of the information:

In short: this is a very concerning development that manufacturers will surely take advantage of to cut costs and move older stock, and gamers looking to buy a new monitor in 2022 are really going to have to look with a careful eye at the specs of HDMI 2.1 monitors to make sure they don't make any regrettable purchases.

Shame on HDMI.org for causing another layer of confusion and misdirection on top of everything that buyers have to deal with.

 

[Richdog]

Absolutely mental - I don’t see how this has not been thought about

The worst thing is that it has very likely been thought about and still the decision was made. I will bet by bumcheeks that this will be due to manufacturers complaining that the HDMI 2.1 standard was too strict and costly to produce at the needed pricepoints.

 

[Richdog]

Just been reading about this going to have to go on word of mouth from someone who has bought a true HDMI 2.1 lead or whatever as you wont be able to trust what the product details actually says. Amazon is definitely one place to avoid if you actually want a proper HDMI 2.1 item.

You don't need to avoid Amazon, you just need to do your research and read the reviews, basically do your due diligence. All my HDMI 2.1 cables were bought from there.

 

[Richdog]

yeah as the Amazon reviews are never fake/made up.
.

So because some reviews are fake or made up, that means all reviews are untrustworthy? Obviously not and you have to use some basic common sense when doing said due diligence.

 

[Richdog]

General public doesnt have common sense.

We are not posting to the general public, we are posting on OCUK where most people are generally a little more savvy than the average muggins.

 

[Richdog]

Unfortunately



is not confined to just PC Gaming Market or dont you think the general public will get "frustrated" or be exempt from "Likely Future Abuse" over the misleading HDMI 2.1 moniker ? Your original words.

Of course the public will be confused, self-explanatory.

 

[Richdog]

So correct me if I'm wrong but they may as well now call all hdmi cables simply "hdmi" cables without specifying version. That's essentially where we are at? Then you have to read the specs to see what it supports?
How utterly pointless. A backwards step hampering progress.

HDMI cables are actually technically version-free, but they support HDMI 2.1 (providing up to 48Gbps bandwidth) features though quality and thickness of the cable. But yeah, they usually list which HDMI versions they are capable of supporting although historically this was also not always clear. Best to buy certified cables if you really want to be sure, though for longer cables (3m+) this may be more tricky to find.

It's a bit messed up.