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(Image: D-Kuru, Own work. Wikipedia.)
Fifty-fifty though the ink hasn't even dried on the last round of disruptive news regarding the HDMI ii.one specification, a new edition to the spec has been announced by the HDMI forum. It is likely to brand things more than confusing for people. Drum roll: say hello to HDMI 2.1a! This small-ish update, denoted past the alphabetic character a, plain, volition be on-brandish at CES 2022, pardon the pun, and contains just one addition to the bewildering specification stack: the addition of Source-Based Tone Mapping, or SBTM.

This addition to the spec is being offered equally a feature to improve HDR on TVs, as information technology volition allow the source of the content, such as your cable box, to do some of the tone mapping on content before information technology arrives on your television set. Equally The Verge points out, this is not a new HDR standard, but rather a way to make HDR content look adept on whatever Idiot box without requiring the user to specifically calibrate their display for it. Then for example, if you lot institute that SDR content looked fine, just you had to adjust your TV for HDR content, this update should let you to just sit on your burrow and savour both types of content without having to fiddle with anything. As the HDMI website notes, "As with other HDR technologies, rather than adopt a fixed set of color and effulgence ranges, SBTM allows the Source to adapt to a specific display. SBTM can likewise exist used by PCs and gaming devices to eliminate manual user optimization for HDR." This new feature will too let content that has both SDR and HDR qualities to be displayed together without looking weird.

Some of you may recollect the concept of source-based tone mapping from AMD'south FreeSync 2 / FreeSync Premium Pro standard. The application here is identical — it's a way for color data to be passed directly from GPU to device (or player to device). The difference is that the capability is being broiled into the HDMI 2.1a standard rather than supported in an AMD-specific product.

AMD discussed FreeSync 2 (later FreeSync Premium Pro) in terms of gaming, but the HDMI 2.1a feature can be used for video equally well.

This new update to the spec adds to what is widely considered to be a messy situation, as the rollout of the HDMI 2.1 specification has caused head-scratching on a global scale. Though the list of features existence included in the two.1 update is indeed impressive — back up for 8K displays at 60Hz, and 4K at 120Hz amid many welcome upgrades — precisely none of the new features need to exist supported past an HDMI 2.1 compatible device, and that includes this new characteristic as well. Since HDMI ii.one is replacing HDMI ii.0, and all the new features are optional, you could notice yourself with a brand-new HDMI 2.i uniform device, that actually delivers naught new features over the previous spec.

HDMI 2.i volition require a new, high-speed cable, and so even choosing the right cablevision will require reading advisedly.

Toss SBTM on the pile of confusing and optional features that may or may non be supported past the new Television receiver yous will buy in the future. And if yous are in the market for some new hardware, be sure to pay very close attending to the fine impress that accompanies information technology, because just existence "HDMI 2.ane"-compatible means admittedly nothing.

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