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Worried about Buying a "Fake" HDMI 2.1 TV? Here's How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off.
ParaSeoul
Member
Regional differences in models if you're not American,RTINGS even point that out
CamHostage
Member
...How about you avoid getting ripped off by reading the feature list, like you have every other TV you have ever bought in your life before now?
Who are you people buying an "HDMI 2.1 TV" ? This is a category you shop for? This is what you're asking the clerks for in the store? When have you ever shopped before on the HDMI version number? The certification it is stamped under has never been the selling point before, but because 2.1 includes protocols for some exciting (and, frankly, just about necessary) features such as VRR and ALLM, we just lost our minds and assumed that the HDMI stamp equaled the quality of the TV in the box.
HDTVTest has been around since 2007, where's his screed against "Fake HDMI 1.4b TVs" without 1080p 240fps or Ethernet Channel? Why wasn't he out there when HDMI 2.1 was announced two years ago educating people that TVs don't all run all the features their video input plug is certified for.
Who are you people buying an "HDMI 2.1 TV" ? This is a category you shop for? This is what you're asking the clerks for in the store? When have you ever shopped before on the HDMI version number? The certification it is stamped under has never been the selling point before, but because 2.1 includes protocols for some exciting (and, frankly, just about necessary) features such as VRR and ALLM, we just lost our minds and assumed that the HDMI stamp equaled the quality of the TV in the box.
HDTVTest has been around since 2007, where's his screed against "Fake HDMI 1.4b TVs" without 1080p 240fps or Ethernet Channel? Why wasn't he out there when HDMI 2.1 was announced two years ago educating people that TVs don't all run all the features their video input plug is certified for.
ParaSeoul
Member
I don't really see your point.
Soodanim
Member
Why are you so mad at HDTVTest?
LegendOfKage
Member
So for anyone who might know, what is HDMI 2.2 then? I've seen TV's with that feature as well. Is it something to be concerned about when it comes to compatibility? Should it be avoided or not? And does 2.2 also get to omit a feature list that should be standard with any 2.0 device?
YeulEmeralda
Member
There is tweakers.nl, a Dutch tech site that does the same. Great community always use them before buying electronics.
If you do your research you're not getting "ripped off" but consumers are too lazy.
STARSBarry
Gold Member
Buy a flagship Samsung, Sony or LG.... there you go.
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Kerotan
Member
You mean hdcp 2.2?
LegendOfKage
Member
From the way you worded that, I think you answered my question. I take it that it's a type of 2.0 or 2.1 HDMI then? That makes sense. I just know I've seen it mentioned. Thanks for responding.
ParaSeoul
Member
I always do but I bet most non enthusiast consumers would probably not beyond a few reviews.
ParaSeoul
Member
Just google,dude. HDCP is HDMI related but not the same as it.
ParaSeoul
Member
Sony had issues with HDMI 2.1 features, 4K 120hz mode cut the vertical res in half on some models,still don't support VRR. Also outside Europe Samsung's 4K tvs with HDMI 2.1 only have one 2.1 port.
STARSBarry
Gold Member
I believe the European models still only have a single 2.1 but I could be wrong. I have a UK Q90T and it only has a single port, unless this model is completely diffrent to the rest of Europe. However now I guess it has 4....
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ParaSeoul
Member
The Q90 is the flagship for the rest of the world but Europe gets the Q95 model with the one connect box and 4 HDMI 2.1 ports.
STARSBarry
Gold Member
The Q95T is available in the UK alongside the Q90T so are you saying the one connect box has multiple 2.1's?
It appears the Q90T is also available in Europe so I assume would suffer from the single HDMI port.
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YeulEmeralda
Member
I understand, but when you buy a car or house you have to go through contracts and lots of reading too.
Yeah it sucks that it is all complicated and that companies want to manipulate you but that's life innit?
ParaSeoul
Member
Made a mistake last years QN95T has 1 only but everything this year with a one connect box has 4
CamHostage
Member
I just feel like this channel was part of the problem, hyping HDMI 2.1 as an important bulletpoint to look for, and now he's putting himself out as part of the solution to combat the "misinformation" out there. Where'd that "misinformation" come from, HDTVTest? Also, the guy's not new, how is he just now learning that newly-specced HDMI features are not requirements?
I just don't get this "fake HDMI 2.1" panic. It's a spec. Nobody ever shopped for TVs based on the HDMI stamp before now. Everybody looked at the features listed on the box and picked the ones they liked for the price. Then 2.1 came along and for whatever reason shoppers assumed that to be an easy indicator of "good TV", which of course it was never meant to be. So I don't know how many angry gamers there actually will be, after opening their $buck-ninety-nine Costco Specials on Christmas morning and becoming enraged that the "HDMI 2.1 TV" they picked out for moms to buy them doesn't have all the big features that it takes costly specialized video processing chips to run... but I just don't get it. If you want VRR, shop for VRR.
Even if you do you shop for "HDMI 2.1 TV" on Amazon, it's actually harder to find the HDMI version than it is the actual features included in the TV. Most companies don't even bother listing their HDMI version. (Vizio is the only company putting "HDMI 2.1" in the title of its listings, probably because they were the first to jump on the spec across most of its line, but then even back when they made that announcement, they then listed the features specific to the different models of TV in the same news briefings.) So where did people get the idea that they should deceive themselves into buying TVs based on the HDMI cert?
Somehow, it is something a whole lot of people seem to have gotten wrong (including several tech-expert websites,) so ultimately it's something of a good thing to get the word out that HDMI 2.1 is a spec, not a standard, but where the mass-assumption came from that features were standard or why these tech experts are taking the "outrage" approach in communicating the situation, that I do not understand. This is not news. Anybody who knows about HDMI 2.1 should already know this, and anybody who doesn't know about HDMI 2.1 shouldn't need to know about HDMI 2.1 in the first place because it's not a shopping point.
And I'll tell you why I'm angry... because in some other thread, somebody wrote about all the poor nerds being deceived by the "fake" number in the HDMI databox... 'nerds' ?! Goddamned nerds? You're talking about a class of people known for consuming knowledge and spreading minutia and being stickers for the finer points of details, especially on techie shit... but now we're supposed to feel bad for them because they didn't do their homework? Nerds do their homework. That's what they do. Somehow, this whole thing is giving 'nerds' a bad rep...
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Magic Carpet
Member
I got the TV.
Still waiting for proper (afordable) Hdmi2.1 receiver.
Bestbuy aint got nuttun.
Costco had a new Denon for cheap but it sold out everywhere.
Still waiting for proper (afordable) Hdmi2.1 receiver.
Bestbuy aint got nuttun.
Costco had a new Denon for cheap but it sold out everywhere.
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CamHostage
Member
No feature is standard on any device. There are compliance regulations, which get you that certification, but the features are features and each TV has its own set of features.
Look, you have a home theater set-up, I assume? And that Surround Receiver, it has an HDMI input in the back of it, right? Let's say that's an HDMI 2.1 plug on your receiver. (It probably doesn't, but eventually there will be ones that do.) Does that mean your sound device would be capable of 8k 120Hz 3D HDR ALLM VRR display on the videoscreen it does not have? No, it just means the sound device complies with the spec; it'll pass through data appropriately from the receiver to the TV (which may have all those 8K bells and whistles) with proper handshaking, and it may make use of some of the audio features (or may not, depending on how much you spent for your "HDMI 2.1 Surround Receiver") enabled by the latest spec of HDMI.
That's all it is. Features are features, not standard functions. HDMI certifies that devices will be able to send signal to one another under a compatible standard; everything else is extra gravy.
Where the HDMI LA did make things a mess is not at least setting ground rules for data capacity (although they did come out with the "Ultra High Speed HDMI" cable and HDMI 2.1a certification, for support up to 48Gbps.) I'm seeing some stories of people with setups that they're not getting the bandwidth needed for 4K / 1440p or that they have 120Hz TVs but the HDMI port doesn't pull in any better than 1080p and they need to use DVI for higher-faster display... that stuff is a mess, and it's real hard to line up which features are supported on the player versus which are supported on the TV and how each outputs to each other. Ratifying minimum specs would have been a great benefit, to erase that headache. I'm not sure how they'd do that, though, since again, even Ultra High Speed HDMI is "up to 48Gbps", you can't promise sustained data and you can't set a requirement for a plug that's meant for devices which could never use that requirement. They could have maybe made separate specs for "HDMI Video", "HDMI Audio", "HDMI Media Player", etc, and maybe put some minimum requirements on that, but their business is synching support functions for devices that use their cords and jacks, they're not ratifying the devices themselves which use the plugs.