How hard is it to have a good time with PS5?
When you grab one at excellent hand speed, unbox excitedly, and can't wait to get a game, you will find that the starting game lineup is not much, and the HDMI 2.1 interface, which is regarded as an important hardware upgrade feature, also needs ultra-high-speed transmission lines to work with.
Fortunately, the PS5 comes with a high-quality transmission line, and after crossing the second threshold, you may still find that it is not silky and refreshing enough to play.
The culprit is EXACTLY HDMI 2.1, which may not work.
The HDMI 2.1 monitor you buy may be "fake"
HDMI is a common video lossless transmission interface, today's monitors, TVs are mostly equipped with this interface, HDMI 2.1 protocol interface supports 4K 120Hz, up to 10K resolution, the previous generation of HDMI 2.0 protocol interface supports 4K 60Hz.
It seems to be a common technology upgrade, but the HDMI Association has done some operations to cancel the HDMI 2.0 protocol interface, and now there is only one HDMI 2.1 protocol left, that is to say, the display manufacturer applies to the association for product certification, even if the product does not support 4K 120Hz and other new features, it may also be certified as an HDMI 2.1 interface.
Secondly, the new features of HDMI 2.1, such as the variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low-latency mode (ALLM), and fast frame transmission (QTF) that gamers are more concerned about, are all options that are conducive to improving fluency and display frame rate.
That is to say, monitor or TV manufacturers are equipped with HDMI 2.1 interfaces, but they may not support these features that make you play games more coolly.
A typical example is that there are a few products in Sony's Ready for PS5 series TVs that do not support variable refresh rates, automatic low-latency modes, and so on.
Sony Z8H, which has an HDMI 2.1 interface, does not support VRR variable refresh rate
According to The Verge, the HDMI Association says the optional features give manufacturers the flexibility to choose new features, adjust costs, and price of products.
Whether it is 4K 120Hz or higher 8K resolution, the significant improvement in image quality and frame rate requires higher transmission bandwidth, AND HDMI 2.1 also brings the characteristics of 48Gbps bandwidth, which often means that the cost rises, and it is not surprising that an ultra-high-speed HDMI transmission line costs hundreds of yuan.
Not everyone needs such a high-quality product, for example, there are almost no games on the PS5 that support 4K 120Hz display, so many players do not choose a higher transmission speed and more expensive ultra-high-speed HDMI transmission cable, mainly playing games at 4K 60Hz or 2K 120Hz.
Borderlands 3 is one of the few PS5 platform games that supports a 120Hz refresh rate
At first glance, this reason seems to be very reasonable, from the entry level to the professional level, manufacturers manufacture corresponding products, set the price range from low to high, you and I as consumers can also choose the right products for themselves, spend the right money to buy.
When you really want to buy, you will find the logical loopholes, before HDMI 2.0 is still there, the association and the promotion and publicity of various hardware manufacturers, has established in people's minds 4K 60Hz equivalent HDMI 2.0 cognition, the difference between the 2.0 interface and the 2.1 interface can be seen at a glance, the purchase is quite direct.
Now that everyone is HDMI 2.1, it is not clear what the functions of different HDMI interfaces are different.
▲ HDMI 2.1 feature list
In addition to the difficulty of purchasing, the misleading purchase of hidden dangers is also one of the current HDMI 2.1 interface problems, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, want to use PS5 to play 4K 120Hz games, from the host, the cable to the monitor, even if they meet the labels, may still not be able to play.
Because you simply do not know which of these interfaces is not a full-featured HDMI 2.1, it is basically difficult for the average person to distinguish the functional features indicated by manufacturers in small print in the product description, and few people will pay attention to them.
And that's not all, the HDMI Association is also recently introducing a new HDMI 2.1a protocol, adding a new feature to the original protocol to promote HDR content support.
According to the operation of the previous HDMI Association, 2.1a will also replace 2.1 as the only standard, and the previous functions, so that HDMI features are more and more, people's difficulty in distinguishing will also increase, and the choice will only become more and more troublesome.
Under the operation of the HDMI Association, the HDMI 2.1 protocol interface became a blank check.
There are too many agreements and too messy, what to do?
Too many protocols and chaotic transmission are actually common phenomena in the field of data transmission.
▲ USB-C
HDMI interface transmission is difficult to distinguish, but also in a variety of forms in the USB-C staged, even the cable can be plugged in and out, charging power, data transmission rate, current power, various functional characteristics arranged and combined, forming a different protocol.
USB-C 3.1 Gen 1、USB-C 3.1 Gen 2、 USB-C 3.2 Gen1 E-Marker PD3.0 3A……
Can you tell the difference?
Fundamentally, the development of the industry has prompted interface management associations such as HDMI Association and USB-IF to constantly update technology and protocols, and technology upgrades and patched updates are parallel.
▲HDMI interface type, A port is more common. Image courtesy of: wiki
From 2003 HDMI consumer goods sales, as of January 2021, the world has sold 10 billion HDMI devices, in recent years, the HDMI protocol has also undergone a 1.0 version to 2.1 version of the transformation, the quality of transmission content has also been upgraded from 1080P to the highest 10K resolution.
It is also not uncommon to introduce minor updates to the protocol shortly after the launch of a major version, with the HDMI 2.0 protocol being released in 2013 and the subsequent 2.0a and 2.0b distinctions being introduced in 2015 and 2016.
There is also a lag period after the release of the new protocol and the corresponding product launch, and the ultra-high-speed HDMI transmission line used with the HDMI 2.1 interface will not be launched until around the fourth quarter of 2020.
This often leads to confusion in the early stage of the introduction of new protocols, on the one hand, the alternation of new and old, on the other hand, more intensive protocol updates, ordinary people are not professionals, it is not easy to distinguish the difference between various technical protocols.
The HDMI Association does try to solve this problem, such as actively combating piracy, requiring products that use the HDMI interface to complete certification, and setting optional features for the HDMI 2.1 protocol interface, while also requiring manufacturers to mark what functions they support.
In addition, we can often see digital instructions such as 8K on some HDMI cables, and USB-IF is to distinguish functions and protocols by cable color, which is to reduce the difficulty of consumer differentiation.
▲ HDMI cable marked with the word 8K
Objectively speaking, these settings have improved to a certain extent, but they are limited to this, and they cannot solve the chaotic situation in one fell swoop.
Institutions like the HDMI Association, such as Sony, Toshiba, Nvidia, MediaTek, Nintendo and other large companies are members, but for the majority of hardware companies, its appeal is still limited, especially after the HDMI Association abandoned the old agreement and offered optional feature options.
Once the choice is given, it is not easy to take it back.
The situation of chaotic interface function support will still last for a long time, leaving the solution for ordinary consumers such as you and me, and the only solution is to carefully review the product description provided by the manufacturer, especially the small print annotation at the bottom of the poster or product introduction page.
▲ A note on a monitor indicates that it has an HDMI 2.1 interface, but the bandwidth is equivalent to HDMI 2.0
See clearly the so-called HDMI 2.1 interface or transmission line, in the end support does not support 4K 120Hz, VRR variable refresh rate, 48Gbps bandwidth and other features.
Of course, the premise is to confirm their own use needs, after all, "do not buy, save 100%".