- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.zip
The TL;DR is that the organization that controls the HDMI standard won’t allow any open source implementation of HDMI 2.1.
So the hardware is fully capable of it, but they’ll get in trouble if them officially implement it.
Instead it’s officially HDMI 2 (which maxes out at 4k @ 60Hz), but through a technique called chroma sub-sampling they’ve been able to raise that up to 4k @ 120Hz.
However there are some minor reductions in picture quality because of this, and the whole thing would be much easier if the HDMI forum would be more consumer friendly.
In the meantime, the Steam Machine also has display port as a completely issue free display option.
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DisplayPort rocks
Yeah fuck the video codec mafia and all these proprietary shits like HDMI
Fun fact, all of the audio codes are proprietary too. You won’t find a HDMI surround sound splitter on Aliexpress. Say no to HDMI, say no to E-ARC.
You know it reminds me of the academic publishing mafia of Elsevier and the like
Both cartels are leeching off often-publicly funded research.
I used to find it took forever to start showing a picture compared to HDMI on my PC. Getting a new GPU so maybe that will improve things.
What display are you using as well? That sounds quite unusual.
fuck HDMI
all my homies hate HDMI
Is this why DisplayPort looks better for me on Linux???
Yes. DP is the right choice for civilized people.
Yep it’s pretty much better in all regards.
The only downside is no ARC support, but I suppose support for that is pretty hit or miss anyway.
Honestly arc is a great idea that never seems to work for me. I’ll always be RIGHT there, but my Blu-ray player turns on randomly when I’m doing something else, or something like that. So I end up turning it off.
HDMI needs to die.
I mean the many incarnations of usbc are slowly making headway. For better and worse.
I hated HMDI when it came out, and I continue to hate it.
Fuck HDCP.
I tried to stick with DP only, but the tvs with it are getting rarer and much more expensive.
And what do you use?
Displayport
DisplayPort?
I see.
AMD already spent a significant amount of effort implementing HDMI2.1 in their open driver in such a way that it would be compliment. The suits from HDMI consortium still said No.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/HDMI-2.1-OSS-Rejected
AMD Linux engineers have spent months working with their legal team and evaluating all HDMI features to determine if/how they can be exposed in their open-source driver. AMD had code working internally and then the past few months were waiting on approval from the HDMI Forum… Sadly, the HDMI Forum has turned down AMD’s request for open-source driver support.
AMD Linux engineer Alex Deucher commented on the ticket:
"The HDMI Forum has rejected our proposal unfortunately. At this time an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation is not possible without running afoul of the HDMI Forum requirements."I really wish I could find a TV within my desired specs that had DisplayPort. We will buy a Steam Machine to use it in place of our docked Steam Deck in the living room, so being able to use DP would be amazing.
Adapting DisplayPort to HDMI with minimal quality loss is child’s play. It’s the other way around that’s misery.
Any cheap adapter cable that supports DisplayPort In to HDMI Out should be perfectly fine.
But the big thing with HDMI 2.1 is the cec protocol which doesn’t translate over an adapter unfortunately. But it is a very tiny thing most people won’t care about.
I just realized I have such cable in my desk (brand new), DP to HDMI 4k 60fps
My spouse need something for the other way around for his desk setup
Those specs sound like HDMI 2 anyway. HDMI 2.1 can do 4K @ 144Hz with HDR. Or apparently even 10K @ 120Hz.
Would be cool if they put one in the box. Would save many sad christmas days as you wait for Amazon to come round with an adapter.
i want to say you can buy an adapter to get dp 1.4 out of steam machine and into hdmi 2.1 on a tv and should be fine. just has to be a powered adapter i believe
The powered adapters are for the other way around. DP has support for HDMI out without additional components, but ofc the HDMI forum makes converting HDMI to DP like pulling teeth.
You also need a powered adapter for HDMI 2.1 in this case. The passive adapters work, because the DP output on the computer usually supports switching to HDMI output. But for that to work, the driver must support it, so it has the same problem as the HDMI port (which supports 2.1 on a hardware level, but not with AMDs open source drivers)
Ship a high quality DP adapter with each onr 😂
The communication protocols are just different enough that an adapter won’t work.
The adapters have circuity inside, they exist. It’s small enough to still just look like a cable because they fit the chip in a plug end.
Til
DP has an option to transmit HDMI signals instead, this is what passive adapters use and will still have the same HDMI 2.0 issue. A DP source can be passively adapted to HDMI, but a HDMI source cannot be passively adapted to DP.
You can also get active HDMI adapters which actively convert the signal, and can work with HDMI 2.1. Intel actually has an active converter chip built into their ARC GPUs, and is how they get around this issue.
What a bummer. I guess TIL that i, in fact, don’t use one literally every single day.
Is it 2.1? Does it transmit cec commands? No? Strange…
It’s almost like we are commenting under a post that is saying exactly that.
I’m an idiot and i apologize.
¡Yo tambien!
Pfft. People using monitors or tvs. I just plug into it and play it in my head.
That’s what the Steam Frame is for.
Better Than Life™
At this point just make an “adapter” that captures the disaply port signal and outputs it from a “supported” device
. And players that want to avoid the issue can use the Steam Machine’s DisplayPort 1.4 output, which supports even more bandwidth than HDMI 2.1 (and which can be converted to an HDMI signal with a simple dongle).
So, ship with a dongle.
At this point stop using HDMI
I’m not fully up-to-date with bleeding edge display technologies but is there any reason that a passive DP to HDMI adapter couldn’t easily solve this issue? And would it cause Valve any strife to include one in the box?
Passive DP-to-HDMI adapters only work if the device on the Displayport end supports Dual-Mode, i.e. using the Displayport to send an HDMI signal. They often do, but it would require the same driver support for HDMI 2.1. So this would require an active adapter.
Bother 😒
I have a HDMI splitter, like a 5 input 1 output thing. I have not used it in awhile. Does HDMI pass through the DRM or is the DRM in the splitter?
The source device (the steam machine in this case) will check with the display and see what the highest HDMI standard they both support is. It may also check if your splitter supports it, but I suspect the splitter is just a passthrough device.
I figured. I also used the wrong term, it is a switch.
Because the machine can’t render at higher than that probably
While the steam machine might not be able to run super demanding titles at 4k 120hz+, there’s no reason it couldn’t do that for lower demand titles like indie games or older games. The physical hardware is HDMI 2.1 capable and can use those higher resolutions/fps if the device is running windows, so this is entirely the HDMI Forum limiting the capabilities of the device because it’s an open source device.
