Valve tells Ars its "trying to unblock" limits caused by open source driver issues.

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.

  • bus_factor
    3·
    8 months ago

    PC monitors routinely have 2-4 different inputs. Old ones would be VGA and DVI, then they had DVI and DP, now it’s often DP and HDMI. TVs usually have multiple HDMI ports today, but they could have had some DP ports as well.

    The real reason it’s not happening is because HDMI has features to prevent copying the signal, so it’s harder to pirate the media you’re playing back. So there’s some industry pressure there.

    • Buddahriffic
      2·
      8 months ago

      Though on that note, are there any streaming implementations that serve higher quality only for HDMI connected users on PC?

      Also, has any of this shit ever actually stopped any media from being pirated despite it?