WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.400 There's no question, HDMI has been a great convenience 00:00:03.400 --> 00:00:06.840 for the consumer. Aside from being a high bandwidth connection 00:00:06.840 --> 00:00:10.360 that enables high resolution video and lossless audio, 00:00:10.360 --> 00:00:15.680 it's a lot simpler to use than the old days where you needed three chords for an HD picture 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:18.880 and then up to six more for surround sound. 00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:22.640 But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its issues, 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.960 some of which are a result of its digital design. 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:33.200 Unlike old school analog AV connections, digital protocols like HDMI require a lot more processing, 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.200 introducing complexity and more potential points of failure. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:43.260 One such issue that's been making headlines recently has to do with new HDMI 2.1 connections. 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:49.120 You can learn more about HDMI 2.1 up here, but in a nutshell, it's an incredibly fast revision 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:54.120 that allows 8K 60 or 4K 120 Hertz pictures, 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:59.440 dynamic HDR and even variable refresh rate support 00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:04.480 for gamers to help cut down on ugly screen tearing. Sounds pretty good, right? 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.320 Well, it turns out that a widespread HDMI 2.1 chipset 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:11.520 is causing lots of headaches for early adopters. 00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:15.200 You see, although tons of companies make HDMI components, 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.880 many of them source the actual chipsets that run them from the same places. 00:01:19.880 --> 00:01:23.120 In this case, AV receivers from Denon, 00:01:23.160 --> 00:01:30.200 Yamaha and Moranze have all been using a faulty HDMI 2.1 chip from Panasonic. 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:35.200 The problem is that when a device is set to 4K 120 Hertz mode 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:39.400 and connected to an HDMI 2.1 port on one of these receivers, 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.600 the video signal won't be passed through to your display 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:45.960 and no sound will come out of the speakers connected to the receiver. 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:50.160 So congratulations. Your festival of high resolution video and immersive sound 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:54.680 just amounted to a whole lot of nothing. This has been especially disappointing 00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:58.160 for folks who bought an Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:01.240 or NVIDIA RTX 3000 series graphics card 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:05.480 as all of these devices boasted 4K 120 Hertz support 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:09.240 as big selling points. The only workarounds right now then 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:12.960 are either to connect your gadget directly to your display 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:17.840 and use HDMI audio return channel to send the audio signal back to your receiver 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:22.160 or just settle for 4K 60 mode until a patch is issued. 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:25.280 That is, assuming that the problem can even be fixed 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:29.280 through software. Although the companies involved are working on a solution, 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:35.280 it appears that they don't even know exactly what the problem is as of the time we shot this video. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:40.240 But hold on a second, HDMI is a standard, meaning all the manufacturers have to do 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.720 is build a product according to the spec, right? How is this broken? 00:02:44.720 --> 00:02:52.040 Well, one potential trouble spot is the way that HDMI handles sending and receiving non-video information. 00:02:52.040 --> 00:02:56.600 This includes identifiers that are exchanged between two connected devices 00:02:56.600 --> 00:03:00.960 so that one device knows what's connected to it and what it can do. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:04.880 It also includes plug and play features and HDCP, 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:09.480 which is HDMI's content protection system designed to counter copyright infringement. 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:14.660 All of these features are handled by part of the connection that is vulnerable to electrical interference 00:03:14.660 --> 00:03:18.600 from other parts of the system, making it a common source of problems. 00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:24.520 And of course, if you've ever seen a blank or snowy display over HDMI, there's a good chance 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.720 that's because of the HDCP handshaking procedure 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:32.000 that's used to ensure that connected devices are compliant with copy protection. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.700 It ain't perfect and often necessitates a power cycle. 00:03:35.700 --> 00:03:38.920 Additionally, packing so many features into one cable 00:03:38.920 --> 00:03:42.680 not only means that it can be a little hard to switch between inputs, 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:48.420 which is part of what a receiver has to do, but it also means that it is basically impossible 00:03:48.420 --> 00:03:53.740 to test every configuration of different HDMI compatible hardware that's out there. 00:03:53.740 --> 00:03:58.560 It's similar to how sometimes PC components just don't play nicely with each other, 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.080 even though they're all supposed to be compliant with certain standards. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.700 The nuances and idiosyncrasies of each individual component 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:08.980 can affect a standard protocol in unforeseen ways, 00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:13.400 which is possibly part of what's going on with the current HDMI 2.1 fiasco. 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:18.680 Now, we're not saying that any specific issue we just discussed is the actual culprit. 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.040 We're gonna have to wait possibly into next year to find out. 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:26.420 In the meantime, hopefully we can all settle for 4K 60 00:04:26.420 --> 00:04:31.420 or 1080p 120 or go outside and like play with a stick. 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:38.000 Basically, that's just as entertaining, right? Stick play, no? 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.440 Thanks for watching guys, check out our other videos, leave a comment if you have a video suggestion 00:04:42.440 --> 00:04:48.060 and don't forget to subscribe and follow or it's possible that, oh man, I wanted to come up 00:04:48.060 --> 00:04:52.760 with a threat that was something to do with the topic of this video, but I've already forgotten what it was. 00:04:52.760 --> 00:04:57.360 What were we talking about? I don't know. Yeah, me neither, I wasn't listening. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.160 HDMI, that's right, or all your HDMI connectors will fall off, ha ha!