HDMI 2.1 CTS* and what it means to you


There has been some press that HDMI has finally released the HDMI 2.1 CTS*.
And yes this is (mostly) true, but these press releases are not telling the entire story.
HDMI did announce that the CTS* for Sinks, Sources, and Repeaters has been released to adopters, however they have not released the cable CTS* yet.
This could take another month or two.
So we are not there yet.

To add insult to injury, our sources have informed us that the initial release of the cable CTS* will most likely not, yes I said NOT, include testing parameters for any active products (this includes all copper and fiber products).
It is our understanding that HDMI will not release the active cable CTS* until after passive the cable CTS* is out.
We are guessing a few more months before that release (passive cable CTS*).

The bottom line is that we (and everyone else) are still in the dark on this.
Sure, we know the basics of the interface (the hardware CTS* helps a lot) and can provide some solid numbers to forecast with, but the CTS* will bring forward important procedures pertaining to the cables inter-action with the physical layer of the system.

So what does this mean to the integrator?
Well, while we know how the hardware will work and what is expected of the cable interface, we (and everybody else) are unable to claim any type of HDMI 2.1 certification.

Keep your eyes open at CEDIA for specious claims, of course bandwidth can be tested and verified under the current HDMI 2.0 specification and we (Metra/Ethereal) know that many of our HDMI cables have 4 equivalent High Speed channels (many cable have only 3). So we are very confident that we will get you into the 2.1 domain safely.

This is very important and should not be ignored as many did in the past with Rev 2.0.


• *Certified Testing Standards