New Yamaha receivers alleged to host 24 Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports by Phil Jones
In this recap talk on HDMI 2.1 spec, Phil Jones from Sound United alleges that Yamaha has implemented HDMI 2.1 chips with 24 Gbps speed only, which means DSC compression for higher bandwidth signals in pipeline, especially 4K120 with higher colours and HDR. The allegation is that these AVRs effectively have half of possible bandwidth of 48 Gbps.
If true, owners of home theatres with at least one device that can only work with uncompressed signals, such as LG TV 9 series, would not be able to use new Yamaha's receivers fully, beyond 4K60 HDR RGB or beyond 4K120 HDR 4:2:0 content, as this is where compression kicks in. LG C9 is expected to show black screen if run above those settings, as it does not support DSC in its EDID.
It could potentailly be a serious bottleneck issue and deal breaker for many people, rendering those receivers unfit or with limited use with majority of HDMI 2.1 gen devices with uncompressed traffic above 24 Gbps, such as TVs, consoles, GPUs and incoming monitors, PCs and NUCs.
(minutes 14-15 in the video)
Is Phil Jones telling us something that Yamaha does not want customers to know about their HDMI 2.1 multiple ports? He might be throwing a bit of dirty water into competitor's garden. It's a great way to divert attention from Denon's shameful black screens when connected to Microsoft's console and unstable dynamic images from games and renderings played by graphics cards connected to it. Sound United still owes the public and owners of their AVRs a permanent solution for these serious problems and the solution cannot be a permanent silence.
However, if alleged HDMI 2.1 port speeds are true, Yamaha'd better think twice before releasing those high tier models until new, faster chips come in later on this year. They have not published the speed of their HDMI ports. It will be important for many customers to know. They should inform current owners about it too.
Few have encountered bigger problems with new Yamahas because they still have not enabled HDMI 2.1 features through firmware. The HDMI 2.1 FRL mode (speeds mostly above 18Gpbs) and the higher resolutions and frame rates it allows will be enabled in a future firmware update. If anyone buys all these new AVRs now or already owns them, they won't know if it's limited to alleged 24 Gbps until that update is released. It could probably be long after their return period has expired, if owners find published alleged speed unacceptable interpretation of HDMI 2.1. Many would think that this is "bare bones" HMDI 2.1. That's why we need to know the true speeds of HDMI 2.1 ports on these AVRs sooner rather than later. Thank you.
