HDMI 2.1 and the faulty chip

[harshness]

Here's a firestorm of uncommon ferocity in the CE industry.

Bug in HDMI 2.1 chips Affect AV Receivers, XBOX Series X & NVIDIA Graphic Cards

Certain HDMI 2.1 AV receivers from Denon, Marantz and Yamaha have a bug in their HDMI 2.1 chipsets that causes blank screen for 4k/120Hz & 8k/60Hz resolutions. Sound United gives work around and promises future fix.

www.audioholics.com

The short version is that devices that use uncompressed video (the latest and greatest XBox, PS5, nVIDIA 3000 series display cards) can't be passed through by any of the HDMI 2.1 "capable" Denon, Marantz and Yamaha AVRs.

The rumor is that the PS5 may be able to send compressed video but otherwise, gamers will need to plug their consoles/computers directly into the TV and use ARC for sound.

Those who thought they could avoid CEC are in for a battle as ARC usually requires it to be enabled.

Speculation is that this problem may not be solved (other than using a direct-to-TV connection or reducing frame rate) until 2022.

 

[Foxbat]

Vincent Teoh also lays the blame on the Panasonic chip used in these receivers, but points out it’s not the same Panasonic that makes TVs since they sold the chip business.

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I’m not too worried since I’m not planning on getting a next-gen gaming console, but it does make you wonder what other shortcomings their HDMI 2.1 might exhibit. Also, my C8 LG doesn’t do 2160p120 so a non-issue for my current setup.

 

[lakebum431]

I don't understand the hate around CEC. I use it in several of my setups and love it.

 

[harshness]

I don't understand the hate around CEC. I use it in several of my setups and love it.

The hatred comes from the fact that some well-known companies (You know who you are, Samsung and Denon) are perennially sloppy about their implementations and the HDMI group is relatively lax about compliance. The upshot is that CEC too often doesn't behave as it should and there's nothing the end-user can do about it other than disable it (assuming that the manufacturer thought to make that a working option).

HDMI compliance up to now has been a matter of if you have a unit that passes testing (i.e. a Blu-ray player), you don't have to test similar pieces (any of your other Blu-ray players) going forward.

 

[lakebum431]

That's the part that I don't get. I have 4 different Denon receivers that are from 1-5 years old in various setups and all work very well. I also use it on several TVs (Panny, Pioneer and LG) without AV receivers and haven't had any issues. Strange that others have so many.

 

[harshness]

The inconsistency of performance is why people are frustrated.

 

[Foxbat]

Evidently the lack of 4K/UltraHD/120Hz HDMI receivers will be coming to an end. Vincent Teoh reviews a pre-production Onkyo TX-RZ50 with the new “A” variant of the Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipset.

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[Houston Rockets]

Wow would love to have one, but not at 1,400 bucks..

 

[harshness]

Wow would love to have one, but not at 1,400 bucks..

Assuming that Onkyo survives, the lesser models should get similar treatment.

 

[Houston Rockets]

Assuming that Onkyo survives, the lesser models should get similar treatment.

True I have a Yamaha 4k receiver now nothing like that one. I wish but I only paid like 800 for mine last year