2024-02-16 08:05:02
In the fast-paced IT industry, finding hardware that supports an industry-wide standard that is now almost seven years old sounds like an immediately achievable task. After all, after this extremely long period of time, the standard should have become a commonplace component that, thanks to broad industry support, can be found everywhere, if not itself outdated again. With HDMI 2.1, however, it becomes apparent that this pattern, which reflects a truth learned and experienced over decades, is no longer correct. This doesn’t bode well for the entire HDMI ecosystem on classic computers.
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HDMI 2.1 is not widely used in PC monitors
To see this, all you need to do is take a quick look Online offering of current PC hardware and especially monitors. There is now a good selection of monitors from all large and well-known manufacturers that support HDMI 2.1. That alone is significant progress compared to the situation a few years ago. But the sheer mass of hardware – that for everyday use – continues to rely on HDMI 2.0 or even HDMI 1.4.
Instead of dominating the market, the modern connection standard is still more of a niche product. This is probably due to the properties associated with it. With HDMI 2.1, techniques such as the display of 4K video with 10-bit color depth for HDR or with high refresh rates of more than 60 frames per second are possible, as is the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). These are not commonplace functions, as they are mostly used for modern video games, rarely in the office or on the desk. Here HDMI 2.1 actually only plays a role for particularly large resolutions.
Another reason for the low acceptance is probably the more complex hardware compared to previous versions: With HDMI 2.1, the standard switched to fixed bit clocks, which DisplayPort has always used. Previously, with HDMI, the bit clock, which determines the transmission speed of the interface, depended on the resolution selected. This leads to a broad requirement profile: HDMI 2.1 requires bit clocks of several GHz, the old versions set 27 MHz as the minimum clock. Compared to DisplayPort, this makes the transceivers that send and receive serial data significantly more complicated and therefore more expensive.
Laptops are increasingly relying on USB-C
The situation is different with current laptops. There are a variety of different devices that support HDMI 2.1, and not just the much older standards, as is the case with monitors. Anyone who buys a new laptop with the latest CPU can assume that it at least theoretically supports HDMI 2.1. However, there can hardly be any talk of market dominance here either, as the HDMI connection in consumer laptops has clearly been in decline for years.
This text is not only created on a laptop that is now more than six years old and no longer has an HDMI port. Actually Many modern laptops often do without an HDMI port altogether, in favor of a smaller overall height. The Displayport Alternate Mode for USB-C serves as the video output, which enables the video signals to be transmitted via USB-C.
The HDMI LA, as the standard-setting industry association, announced an alternate mode for HDMI back in 2016. Unlike DisplayPort, HDMI Alt Mode always used all gigabit conductors of the USB cable exclusively for image transmission.
Displayport is much more flexible and can also work with two lanes instead of four. A USB-C socket can transmit DisplayPort and USB 3.0 at the same time. In HDMI Alt Mode, however, USB devices could only be connected via USB 2.0, for which there are separate conductors. HDMI is also unsuitable for tunneling, which is used with USB 4 to embed a DisplayPort data stream into the USB 4 data stream, due to the rudimentary packet format.
The lower flexibility compared to DisplayPort is probably one reason why the idea could not establish itself on the market. Ultimately, HDMI LA also had to accept this and announced a year ago that it no longer wanted to develop the technology any further. So far, most adapters have instead relied on active signal conversion from DisplayPort to HDMI.
Driving factor is missing
The only driving factor for a possible broad market penetration of HDMI 2.1 and other subsequent HDMI versions, especially on monitors, are actually only a few niche applications with high resolutions – and classic gaming.
So in 2020 we hoped that with the launch of the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X, new displays that support the standard would come onto the market. This hope also applied similarly to the current hardware generations of dedicated PCIe graphics cards.
As mentioned at the beginning, corresponding monitors remain a niche mostly for gaming. Other content and applications that require HDMI 2.1 are very rare. For example, 8K, which has been expected for more than ten years, is still a long time coming, What industry representatives now also have to realize. And there are still a variety of televisions available for both.
But what does it mean for manufacturers of PC peripherals when the driving factor for supporting modern HDMI on monitors hardly seems to exist anymore and the hardware with a physical connection that serves as a feeder for the video signal is becoming more and more of a niche?
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#USBC #Displayport #slow #death #HDMI