Beware the New 'Fake' HDMI 2.1 !

You now need a PhD to understand what you're buying!

▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
1:50 - What to Know
2:16 - Current Highest Speed
4:32 - Bandwidth & Speed Summary
5:16 - The New Features
5:36 - Dynamic HDR
7:35 - eARC
9:53 - Variable Refresh Rate
10:31 - Quick Media Switching
11:10 - Quick Frame Transport
12:38 - Auto Low Latency Mode
13:56 - WHAT Are They Thinking?

This video explains the new changes in the HDMI naming system and the features of products that carry the HDMI 2.1 label. I explains that, contrary to popular belief, the label does not indicate the capabilities of the device and that the device manufacturers have no say in the naming. So in order to know a devices capabilities, you need to know all the possible features and look for them in the device specs. These features include: Dynamic HDR, Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Quick Media Switching (QMS), Quick Frame Transport (QFT), and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). Then I explain the supposed reasoning for why the went with the dumb naming system.

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[chubbysumo]

If you're curious why they did this, because TV and device manufacturers paid them to do it. Remember that the HDMI Consortium, the company that controls the HDMI standard and Licensing, is run by all of the TV and device manufacturers. Recently, those manufacturers took over, and made it so that everything will have the same number attached to it so that consumers are more confused. It is a vastly anti-consumer move, and is 100% done to be confusing, so somebody might get an old device that doesn't support 4K 120 hertz, but it's still HDMI 2.1 in the marketing materials. This was solely done for marketing material. That's it.

[Perplexer]

Cool. My monitor got a free magical upgrade with this decision.

[afuturehobo]

Very informative video, thanks for that. I cannot believe the HDMI people are going down this route. Like did they not see the enormous backlash of the whole USB renaming scandal? I don't think there's a single positive thing about this change.

[bayaniw]

Why can't companies stick with a simple naming scheme. This is getting ridiculous

[MrLutijen]

There should be a class lawsuit action against HDMI Org for confusing specification and consumers. They should be forced by a judge to make the spec far more simplified and transparent for people. It cannot be that hard, unless deliberate by the Org behind which stand the biggest consumer electornics companies.

[_SJ]

I appreciate your effort to make longer videos. I learned a lot and enjoyed it. Thank you.

[unknownboy]

This all seems very similar to the USB 3.0 and 3.1 situation

[markusTegelane]

So, HDMI basically pulled a USB 3.1/3.2

[TheMAZZTer]

HDMI is just a connector. I would never use a connector spec to determine capabilities of the device anyway. It's like saying a PC has USB-A connectors. That tells me nothing about it's CPU or GPU or RAM.

Similarly just because a device has USB 3 capability does not mean it will necessarily be able to completely saturate the bandwidth. You have to look at the device specs.

While it's definitely concerning there is no clear spec for consumers to determine their TV capabilities easily, , bundling it together with the HDMI spec was always going to cause problems at some point.

[KabukeeJo]

Back on the old days of ThioJoe, we had to wrap our cables in aluminum foil and duct tape to get any of these features.

[jenovaizquierdo]

Dude this is FREAKING AWESOME, thank for this video man is really helpful.

[shikhanshu]

Awesome. My CRT from 1980 with VGA only is now HDMI 2.1 compatible. Yay!

[quaaam]

I remember shopping for an HDMI 2.1 cable, I thought it will be straight forward to buy, but it wasn’t as the marketing did not make it clear.

And now, we have this. Sheesh 😢

But thanks for detailed information about this.

[BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

This is USB 3.2 all over again but even worse. I genuinely think this needs to be reported to consumer protection agencies because this is getting out of hand.

[Cotten-]

*I used to hate you for pranking me, but you've started to grow on me.*

[photonboy]

I have a 12-cylinder, Ford Tempo.
It only has four physical cylinders, but it got upgraded to eight cylinders and now twelve cylinders on paper. Oh, and the RANGE has now been extended.

[dany_fg]

company: "from now on all HDMI is HDMI 2.1"
also company: "Sometimes my genius…It's almost frightening"

[TheSimArchitect]

It would be nice if our computers could turn our TVs on and off when used as a monitor. I have to do everything manually while computer monitors have been doing it for decades.

[kinsley]

just love that you read tech so I don’t have to …
just found you fairly recently, and am really appreciating your uploads … thank YOU

[reoproedros]

nice video, you didnt mention anything about the little elephant in the cable, the hdcp addition to the equipment that does not offer anything to the user experience (it might retract )