Xbox Game Pass Family: the trial subscription at €22 for 5 people!Xbox and Activision: Sony says it fears Call of Duty and the Xbox Game Pass in a documentXbox Game Pass 2022 and 2023: ALL the next games listed!“The complete guide” SauroneMX338 on November 12, 2021 @ 11:46 2021-11-12T11:46:00+01:00 2021-11-12T16:10:57+01:00" - 2 reaction(s)What allows you to take advantage of the latest technologies on the Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles is certainly HDMI 2.1.This latest version of the HDMI standard now equips all the latest TV models sold commercially.Today, we explain in detail what HDMI 2.1 is exactly, what it is for and what it allows you to do with the new consoles available on the market.It's notably at the heart of our buying guide to the best TVs for Xbox Series X.HDMI, for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, is a standard intended for the consumer market allowing the processing of various digital video and audio formats.It was initiated by a consortium including in particular Hitachi, Sony or Philips in the early 2000s and succeeds the SCART and YUV formats.Today, more than 80 representatives from industry giants make up the HDMI Forum.We find Microsoft, Google or even Dolby alongside Nvidia, AMD and even Netflix.HDMI uses TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling) technology and can now transmit up to 48 Gbps of data.Available in fifteen versions over the years, the ones we are mainly faced with now are HDMI 2.0 introduced in 2013 and HDMI 2.1 which appeared in 2017.As technological advances progressed, it was necessary to adapt to the ever-increasing quantities of information to be transmitted.4K, HDR or even Dolby Atmos... All that takes up space!If you've bought a TV in the last 6 years, chances are it supports HDMI 2.0 and its 18 Gbps capacity, enough for 4K HDR at 60 frames per second with the added bonus of HD audio.But with the previous generation mid-consoles such as the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, VRR, ALLM...Behind these barbaric terms hides a new wave of data to be transmitted, which has highlighted the limits of HDMI 2.0.This is why HDMI 2.1 appeared.Aiming to meet new industry requirements, HDMI 2.1 is the latest major breakthrough in this field.Its 48 Gbps capacity allows in particular the processing of 4K streams at 120 Hz and 8K streams at 60 Hz, all in dynamic HDR and with a VRR solution.It is even capable of supporting 10K resolution at 24 and 30 Hz.HDMI ARC gives way to eARC which allows the return of uncompressed digital audio tracks such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X.HDMI 2.1 also allows you to take full advantage of dynamic HDR such as HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision.Other features are also available to manufacturers and among them are things that will please players.The Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5 have increased power, and are therefore capable of new technical feats.For example, they allow games to run at 120 frames per second.We are talking about 120 FPS.Microsoft and Sony also mention 120 FPS in 4K, which requires even more bandwidth between the console and the TV to pass all this data flow.This is where HDMI 2.1 comes in and its 48 Gbps capable of processing ultra high definition images with a high framerate (FPS).Nowadays, games that support 120 FPS are more and more numerous, and we can for example mention Fortnite, Call Of Duty Warzone or Rocket League among the most popular.If you don't have a TV with an HDMI 2.1 port, these games will still work, but you will benefit from a lower framerate, and therefore a slightly less fluid game than at 120 FPS.HDMI 2.1 also makes it possible to take full advantage of VRR, for “Variable Refresh Rate”.Thanks to VRR, the framerate of a game dynamically adapts to the refresh rate of the television in order to obtain a sharp image without tearing (this is called tearing), even if the game is not capable of deliver a stable framerate.If the Xbox One X was already able to offer VRR via HDMI 2.0, we are talking here about higher supported frequencies and resolutions with the bonus of HDR.To understand everything on the subject, you can already find our complete guide and the FreeSync and the VRRFinally, HDMI 2.1 also makes it possible to democratize ALLM, for Auto Low Latency Mode.Simply put, this allows the TV to automatically switch to “game” mode when such content is detected.This ensures that you play in the image mode with the lowest input lag.If you buy an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S today and have a TV with at least HDMI 2.1 connectivity, you are guaranteed to be able to enjoy 4K at 120 FPS, and generally VRR as well. than ALLM.Be careful though, several manufacturers like Sony or Panasonic, will offer these compatibilities later this year via a software update for some of their products.On paper, HDMI 2.1 is a blessing for gamers, but in reality there are a few hiccups.With the release of new generation consoles, the first problems also appeared and it is mainly compatibility with these new gaming features that are concerned.If televisions are the main peripherals to take into account, there are also amplifiers and other sound bars that can come and play the spoilsports.As we mentioned in our article which aims to know how to properly connect your Xbox Series X|S according to your equipment, the whole chain must be compatible in order to be able to make the most of these features.It is therefore essential to know the capacities of your equipment and to respect certain rules under penalty of curbing the capacities of your new console.If until now we avoid talking about the HDMI 2.1 “standard”, it's precisely because it doesn't really exist.In concrete terms, a television manufacturer can, for example, affix an HDMI 2.1 logo to its product, without it being VRR or ALLM compatible.There is indeed no guarantee of compatibility with all of the features made possible by HDMI 2.1.Each brand somehow picks what interests it.If in general the main features are present, they are not necessarily guaranteed, whether at launch or later.Several compatibility problems are indeed to be deplored and we recently had examples to report at the level of home cinema amplifiers or even the implementation of features such as Dolby Vision.As we mentioned above, some TV manufacturers are also slow to offer compatibility such as VRR on their products, which are nevertheless stamped with HDMI 2.1.We talked about it several times on Xboxygen, the release of the first HDMI 2.1 amplifiers was a real fiasco and continues to make many customers cringe.In July 2020, several industry giants such as Yamaha, Denon and Marantz unveiled their new HDMI 2.1 compatible products that were supposed to support new gaming features.A few months later, with the release of the Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and other HDMI 2.1 compatible graphics cards, a major problem appeared.A “bug” on the HDMI chips supplied by Panasonic Solutions, which notably made it impossible to process 4K 120 Hz streams, caused a stir, prompting brands to offer various solutions with varying degrees of success.If Denon and Marrantz opted to send an external box, Yamaha chose to replace the defective cards.Unfortunately, changing these cards didn't have the desired effect.Offering a bandwidth of only 24 Gbps, playback of 4K/120 Hz 10-bit RGB streams sent by the Xbox Series X was impossible.The brand defended itself by invoking the fact that it had complied with the regulations of the HDMI organization,We display "8K60B, 4K120AB" on our website."8K60B" means the models have a 24Gbps limitation, and this has been regulated by the HDMI body.So we recognized that there was no problem.However, we found that this could be unpolite.Now we are considering posting additional information on our website.As often, the devil is in the details and nothing actually obliges Yamaha to offer a new solution, since the product is indeed “HDMI 2.1 compatible”.The other big problem encountered by gamers with HDMI 2.1 concerns Dolby Vision.For those who don't know, Dolby Vision is a dynamic HDR solution.This means that instead of only offering static data, we are dealing here with real-time information management.In a Dolby Vision-compatible film, this results in a television that dynamically adjusts its brightness settings scene after scene.In this case, this requires additional work carried out by a colorist in the Dolby laboratories.In games, we are currently only entitled to an automatic solution applied to each title already compatible with HDR Auto before seeing the first natively compatible games land on the market.Despite everything, we have already heard of several problems with the 4K resolution at 120 Hz which comes to play the spoilsports.Concretely, the surplus of information to process for the television is such in 4K at 120 Hz and Dolby Vision, that many compatibility problems are to be declared to the manufacturers.Among those who have taken the case head on, there is in particular LG, which has already deployed patches on the models of its 2021 and 2020 ranges. Panasonic, Philips and Sony are struggling to solve these problems since they all use a processor that does not seem able to process the signal correctly.We have extensively covered the question of Dolby Vision in a complete file which is already online.We can only recommend that you take a look at it if you want to know, for example, the list of compatible games, the various issues or even choose a suitable product.As you will have understood, the problems related to HDMI 2.1 are quite complex.Below, you will find a detailed table of all the supported resolutions according to the color depth and the desired refresh rate as well as the bandwidth required to broadcast these streams.As you can see, a 4K/120 Hz 10 Bit (4:4:4 RGB) stream requires up to 40 Gpbs of bandwidth.In 2019, LG introduced its first HDMI 2.1 compatible OLED TVs.In 2020, during the presentation of the manufacturer's “X” series, we learned that the ports of the television which were 48 Gpbs the previous year, would now be “only” 40 Gpbs, immediately arousing strong reactions.In reality, if LG has made this choice, it is because it is not currently necessary to offer products whose ports are capable of transmitting up to 48 Gbps of data.12-bit panels do not yet exist in the general public and 40 Gbgs seem sufficient to take advantage of the main gaming features.The Xbox Series X also has a 40 Gbps HDMI 2.1 output.Also remember that an automatic compression called DSC takes place in order to be able to broadcast certain signals.Small shell: “which highlighted the limits of HDMI 2.0.This is why HDMI 2.0 appeared.»Otherwise, good article which summarizes the others already published.It still lacks a few details like how to activate certain features depending on the brand.In addition, it lacks Philips, TCL or Hi-sense which have also released their HDMI 2.1 models.In my case, owner of an LG G1, all the options are checked green in the console and a big congratulations to the brand for their software monitoring.Good morning !Since the time are there solutions to recover the SPDIF optical output for my Astro Gaming amp on Xbox Series X?I had bought an HDMI extractor but no more VRR, and also the Astro extractor but the same... So I've been in stereo since the day one release of the Series X!!!I bought the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X app, the first is sickening and the second doesn't please me...I launched a game on my small laptop and the dolby digital signal is processed via the usb on the PC!!I had forgotten this feeling of not wearing headphones and the precision of the sounds offered by the Astro amp mix in Dolby.Thank you to those who will read me ^^You must be logged in to comment !HDMI 2.1: all about its possibilities (4K/120 Hz, VRR, eARC...) from xboxygen.com is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons license: Attribution - Non Commercial Use - Sharing the Initial Conditions Alike 3.0 Unported.Xboxygen is an online magazine dedicated to the Xbox One console.You can find all the Xbox One news and everything about Xbox One games or Xbox Live, the online game service on the Xbox console.Xboxygen also helps you in your choices with Game tests as well as with the Xbox One game release schedule.Everything that directly or indirectly affects the Xbox One console is here!Also find our guides to get started in games such as the PUBG Xbox One guide or the Destiny 2 guide and tips.