Over three years after the launch of the HDMI Specification Version 2.1, major products are now widely available that support HDMI 2.1 features including 4K@120Hz, 8K@60Hz, Dynamic HDR and eARC. Instead of asking when HDMI 2.1-enabled products will be available, people are now asking for advice about which new HDMI 2.1-enabled products to buy.

"It's exciting to see so many new products available with these new features," said Rob Tobias, CEO and president of HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. (HDMI LA). "And with the launch of the latest gaming consoles, consumers can now enjoy a thrilling HDMI 2.1 end-to-end experience with consoles, AVR's, cables, TVs and monitors. With shipments of HDMI products reaching almost 10 billion since it launched in 2002, HDMI technology continues to be the universal interface for consumer electronics products."

A German website, Heise.de, has discovered a bug in HDMI 2.1 chipset that causes black screen issues on specific hardware. On AV chipsets sourced by Panasonic, and used by Denon, Marantz, and Yamaha HDMI 2.1 AV receivers, the chipset experiences a specific issue of a black screen. More specifically, the bug happens once you connect Microsoft's newest console, Xbox Series X, or NVIDIA's Ampere graphics cards. When connecting these sources at resolutions like 4K/120 Hz HDR and 8K/60 Hz HDR to Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipsets, the black screen happens. This represents a major problem for every manufacturer planning to use the Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipset in its AV receivers, meaning that the issue has to be addressed. The Audioholics website has reached out to Sound United and Yamaha to see what their responses were, and you can check them out below.

Until NVIDIA rolls out Ampere-based Quadro products, the closest thing to a "professional" graphics card on this architecture has to be the new GeForce RTX 3080 VISION OC by GIGABYTE. The VISION brand by GIGABYTE is targeted at creators, and the company wagers it can sell the RTX 3080 to this market, hoping they get the hint to pair it with NVIDIA's Studio drivers. The RTX 3080 VISION OC combines a black PCB with a mostly-white cooling solution that's characteristic of the VISION design scheme, along with some brushed aluminium accents.

The top of the card features a large silicone ARGB diffuser that lights up in any color or transitions of color. The triple-slot, triple-fan cooler uses multiple aluminium fin-stacks skewered by six 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes that pull heat over a copper base-plate. The cooler is longer than the PCB, so GIGABYTE punched holes through the back-plate to let airflow form the third fan through. GIGABYTE ships the card with a yet-unspecified factory-overclock. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include two HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors. The card is 32 cm long and 12.6 mm tall, and needs three slots in your system. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Acer have recently unveiled the 4K 144 Hz XV282K KV gaming monitor with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. The XV282K KV is the first monitor from Acer to support HDMI 2.1 in addition to VESA DisplayHDR 600, and AMD FreeSync support. The monitor features a 28-inch 4K IPS panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz which is reportedly sourced from Innolux. The monitor has been certified as VESA DisplayHDR 600 compatible and should offer 98% DCI-P3 coverage along with a contrast ratio of 1,000:1.

The XV282K KV comes with an adjustable stand that can be easily removed to expose the 100 mm x 100 mm VESA mount. The monitor also includes a single DisplayPort 1.4 connection in addition to the dual HDMI 2.1 ports. The monitor features an integrated USB 3.0 hub with four Type-A ports along with a 3.5 mm audio pass-through. The monitor was found for sale on the Chinese shopping site Taobao where it is currently listed for pre-order at 8,499 CNY (~1,245 USD). The monitor may see an international release in 2021 once Chinese pre-orders have been fulfilled.

Just ahead of the September launch, specifications of NVIDIA's upcoming RTX Ampere lineup have been leaked by industry sources over at VideoCardz. According to the website, three alleged GeForce SKUs are being launched in September - RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and RTX 3070. The new lineup features major improvements: 2nd generation ray-tracing cores and 3rd generation tensor cores made for AI and ML. When it comes to connectivity and I/O, the new cards use the PCIe 4.0 interface and have support for the latest display outputs like HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4a.

The GeForce RTX 3090 comes with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory running on a 384-bit bus at 19.5 Gbps. This gives a memory bandwidth capacity of 936 GB/s. The card features the GA102-300 GPU with 5,248 CUDA cores running at 1695 MHz, and is rated for 350 W TGP (board power). While the Founders Edition cards will use NVIDIA's new 12-pin power connector, non-Founders Edition cards, from board partners like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte, will be powered by two 8-pin connectors. Next up is specs for the GeForce RTX 3080, a GA102-200 based card that has 4,352 CUDA cores running at 1710 MHz, paired with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory running at 19 Gbps. The memory is connected with a 320-bit bus that achieves 760 GB/s bandwidth. The board is rated at 320 W and the card is designed to be powered by dual 8-pin connectors. And finally, there is the GeForce RTX 3070, which is built around the GA104-300 GPU with a yet unknown number of CUDA cores. We only know that it has the older non-X GDDR6 memory that runs at 16 Gbps speed on a 256-bit bus. The GPUs are supposedly manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process, possibly the EUV variant.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced that its upcoming 43-inch gaming monitor is the first monitor to receive HDMI 2.1 certification, passing all compatibility and validation tests conducted by leading Allion Labs, Inc - an international company specializing in product testing.

The new ROG monitor is compatible with next-generation consoles, with HDMI 2.1 giving it a full bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps to support 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) visuals at variable refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. Auto Low Latency also enables the game console to control the processing mode of the display, prioritizing low latency or processing quality depending on the content. Allion Labs subjected the monitor to stringent Fixed Rate Link (FRL) tests, including FRL Electrical, FRL Pixel Decoding and FRL Protocol tests, to ensure full compatibility with upcoming HDMI 2.1 devices.

Xiaomi is looking to grab a piece of the premium TV market with the new Master Series. Xiaomi's new flagship TV, to be announced for the Chinese market on July 2nd, will be offering up a 65-inch OLED panel with a snappy 120 Hz refresh rate, which means it will be able to take full advantage of next-generation consoles' "up to" 120 Hz FPS delivery. Besides the OLED chops, there's Dolby Certification for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Other specs include HDMI 2.1, VRR support, and ALLM (Automatic Low Latency Mode). A quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 custom chip will be powering the TV's graphical and OS processing. Apparently there will be some sort of RGB lighting on the TV's frame, and a metallic remote control with NFC support aims to increase the premium feeling. Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun described it as "Xiaomi's ultra-high-end OLED TV" and "very amazing." Well. We'll have to see now won't we. If it's actual competition to today's premium mainstream LG C9 and Samsung Q90R TVs, it's bound to sell like hotcakes.

Samsung is introducing a slew of new features for its recent QLED TV sets to create "more immersive and responsive gaming sessions". Samsung is bringing adaptive sync and HDMI 2.1 to its latest QLED sets which will bring significant gaming improvements when paired with a high-end PC or next-generation console. HDMI 2.1 enables 4K 120Hz support with next-generation graphics cards and consoles, along with FreeSync Premium to benefit existing systems with stuttering and tearing reductions. Samsung is also advertising low input lag of 9.8 ms, automatic game mode with motion blur minimization, Dynamic Black EQ to improve object clarity in dark scenes, and Multi-View PiP capability.

LG Electronics (LG) has joined forces with NVIDIA to make gamers' dreams come true, adding support for NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatibility to its stunning 2019 OLED TVs (model 65/55E9, model 77/65/55C9). LG's newest OLED products offer blazing speed and stunning color reproduction, their superior performance and image quality validated through NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible testing to ensure a smooth and immersive gaming experience without flickering, tearing or stuttering.

With exceptional picture quality, low input lag and an ultra-fast response time, LG OLED TVs have already earned a reputation for delivering an optimized gaming performance. The addition of NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatibility raises the bar once more, guaranteeing even more immersive big-screen PC gaming on the company's industry-leading 4K OLED models, available in 55- to 77-inch screen sizes.

Xilinx, Inc., the leader in adaptive and intelligent computing, today announced that it has introduced a complete HDMI 2.1 IP subsystem to its portfolio of intellectual property cores, enabling Xilinx devices to transmit, receive and process up to 8K (7680 x 4320 pixels) ultra-high-definition (UHD) video in pro AV equipment, including cameras, streaming media players, professional monitors, LED walls, projectors and KVM, as well as broadcast products such as end points and infrastructure that are being upgraded to handle 8K video.

Customers are increasingly adopting machine learning to monetize and improve workflows in diverse applications such as broadcast, pro AV, automotive and surveillance. HDMI 2.1 data rates are provided by Xilinx's highly reliable high-speed I/O transceivers. This, combined with native 8K interfaces supported by HDMI 2.1 now make it possible to replace several ASSP's or fixed-function products support processing, compression, high-quality analytics and decision-making with a single Xilinx device.

So, that news title may be slightly too flashy for the actual product, but bear with me here: OLED is such an improvement over current mainstream display technologies that its transition to the PC monitor space is one of the most sought-after unicorns in this market. Alienware, via a partnership with LG (that's almost obvious), will be making this particular unicorn come to reality. The Alienware 55 OLED gaming monitor will feature 4K resolution @ 120 Hz, Variable Refresh Rate support via HDMI 2.1 (FreeSync? G-Sync? - all's still up in the air), DisplayPort 1.4, and 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 RGB spectrum with a candy of HDR support thrown in the mix.

Product context: HP showcased their new and upcoming Omen X Emperium 65 at CES, an NVIDIA BFGD (Big Format Gaming Display) with all the features the company deems premium and attractive to gamers: 4K resolution, a huge, 65" diagonal AMVA panel, HDR (1,000 nits of peak luminance and 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut) , G-Sync, and 120 - 144Hz refresh rate (144 Hz is overclocked) with a gray-to-gray response time is rated for 4ms. It features an incorporated sound bar with 120 W of power and three amps. An integrated NVIDIA Shield makes an appearance as well as a multimedia juggernaut solution. All of this in a $4,999 body, launching in February 2019.

Thoughts: Rollback. A $4,999 price-tag. Maybe this is just me, but NVIDIA seems to be finally introducing their BFGDs at the worst possible time, considering the company has just formally announced that their GeForce graphics cards would be finally supporting VESA's VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) standard. This brings with it FreeSync support - for monitors and, we'd expect, TV's as well, considering that the driver solution will be toggable by users even in a non-NVIDIA certified display.

As part of our company policy Club 3D always wants to be first or among the first to bring new connectivity technologies to the market. We have done it again and are proud to announce the availability of the first Ultra High Speed HDMI Cables 10K 120Hz (with DSC 1.2 support) 48Gbps (aka HDMI 2.1) in 2 different lengths. We introduce CAC-1371 (1m) and CAC-1372 (2m) as the first cables for the new standard which will set new horizons regarding highest resolutions at very high clock rates.

NVIDIA's BFGD solutions (Big Format Gaming Display) are meant to become the ultimate gaming graphics display solution for gamers. their 4K resolution and 120 Hz refresh rates with G-Sync support are meant to become the baseline for smoothness in gaming scenarios, and the 1000 NITS peak brightness is meant to make HDR images that are relevant - differing from other, less "refined", shall we say, implementations. However, the hardware specs for these systems are high, parts are expensive and difficult to procure, and the process of integrating so much technology (including Quantum Dot tech and NVIDIA Shield) seems to be giving integrators a hard time.

Just a while ago the first 4K 144 Hz monitors became available with the ASUS PG27UQ and Acer X27. These $2,000 monitors no longer force gamers to pick between high-refresh rate or high resolution, since they support 3840x2160 and refresh rates up to 144 Hz. However, reviews of early-adopters report a noticeable degradation in image quality when these monitors are running at 144 Hz. Surprisingly refresh rates of 120 Hz and below look perfectly sharp.The underlying reason for that is the DisplayPort 1.4 interface, which provides 26 Gbits/s of bandwidth, just enough for full 4K at 120 Hz. So monitor vendors had to get creative to achieve the magic 144 Hz that they were shooting for. The solution comes from old television technology in form of chroma subsampling (YCbCr), which, in the case of these monitors, transmits the grayscale portion of the image at full resolution (3840x2160) and the color information at half the horizontal resolution (1920x2160).

HDMI Forum, Inc. today announced the release of Version 2.1 of the HDMI Specification which is now available to all HDMI 2.0 adopters. This latest HDMI Specification supports a range of higher video resolutions and refresh rates including 8K60 and 4K120, and resolutions up to 10K. Dynamic HDR formats are also supported, and bandwidth capability is increased up to 48Gbps. Supporting the 48Gbps bandwidth is the new Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable. The cable ensures high- bandwidth dependent features are delivered including uncompressed 8K video with HDR. It features exceptionally low EMI (electro-magnetic interference) which reduces interference with nearby wireless devices. The cable is backwards compatible and can be used with the existing installed base of HDMI devices.

Version 2.1 of the HDMI Specification is backward compatible with earlier versions of the specification, and was developed by the HDMI Forum's Technical Working Group whose members represent some of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics, personal computers, mobile devices, cables and components.

In what could spell very interesting things for the uptake of the Freesync 2 open-standard, Digital Foundry has confirmed that Microsoft's upcoming "Project Scorpio" console will leverage AMD's FreeSync 2 standard so as to improve fluidity of frames. The objective is, as usual, to eliminate tearing and reduce stutter, allowing the GPU to trigger the display refresh rate at exactly the same frequency as it can churn out frames. The FreeSync 2 revision of the open standard is HDR-compatible, which means it supports what is being touted as The Next Big Thing in image quality. Like always, the available FreeSync-supported band will still depend on the panel's actual specifications. Additionally, the Scorpio is going to offer support for the upcoming VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) implemented within the HDMI 2.1 specifications.

Though TV panels don't support either of those standards currently, AMD has teased that FreeSync support on TVs would be possible - and upcoming. If true, and if this FreeSync support were to take off, this might spell an increased uptake on AMD's open standard implementation of VRR over NVIDIA's G-SYNC. The adoption of these VRR technologies would also allow developers to perhaps change their performance targets (say, from 60 FPS to 45 FPS), while also increasing fluidity of games that struggle to maintain their target frame rate. The Scorpio could be the first mainstream piece of tech to offer widespread support for VRR standards, thus increasing the user base and industry adoption rate of this technologies, which can only be good. To say that this adoption spells the death of NVIDIA's proprietary G-SYNC is nothing more than wild, boastful speculation; saying it could drive FreeSync and HDMI's VRR implementation towards mainstream usage is not. And that could mean a slow push of G-SYNC towards a niche PC-monitor solution with reduced uptake from monitor manufacturers.