Announced at the beginning of November this year, the new version of the Steam Machine caught some people’s attention for not adopting the HDMI 2.1 connection standard. While at first Valve didn’t mention why it stuck with the older 2.0 standard, this week the company clarified the situation.
According to the company, while the name HDMI 2.0 will appear on the console, it in practice provides what is necessary to support the newest standard. With this, the device will be able to provide images of up to 4K resolution at 120 Hz, as well as HDR and FreeSync. However, a dispute prevents the full implementation of the technology.
The limitations of the new Steam Machine are the result of a disagreement between Valve and the HDMI Forumwhich establishes the standards that connections of this type must follow. The group simply does not allow an opensource implementation of version 2.1, which means that the AMD driver used by SteamOS cannot fully implement some of its features.
Valve is trying to resolve the Steam Machine situation
To Ars Technica, Valve explained that this is the main reason why, although it technically brings HDMI 2.1 features, the new Steam Machine cannot use the nomenclature, nor all of its functions. The company also stated that it is trying to find ways to deal with the dispute — while this doesn’t happen, the only way it can validate the most modern functions is using custom drivers in Windows, instead of directly through SteamOS.
Despite being able to “extend” some HDMI 2.0 features, the new hardware also ends up being limited by current restrictions. The version implemented on the device, for example, is not capable of using variable frame rates (VRR), which should limit its use on some televisions that support the technology.
This driver and licensing conflict is relatively common in the industry and also affects some Intel GPUs. As the VideoCardz website explains, many third-party Arc cards offer HDMI 2.1 through converters manufactured by RealTek, which “translate” DisplayPort signals.
The situation involving the Steam Machine is the latest example of how the HDMI Forum has great control over the technology and may limit its use on “alternative” platforms such as Linux. While this shouldn’t harm the device too much, the situation is not very favorable for consumers who want to make the most of the features their televisions offer.
Fonte: VideoCardz, Ars Technica
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Source: https://www.adrenaline.com.br/hardware/valve-explica-falta-de-hmdi-2-1-da-nova-steam-machine/
