AMD Intentionally Crippled Their HDMI Adapters

[mark45]

While being a bad practice it isn't news corporations screw people, e.g. right now Apple, Intel, Nvidia and others are doing something bad - we just don't know (?) about it, and this move is a small annoyance compared to much dirtier practicies, not only in software (monsanto, wall street), get used to it or fight for alternatives.

Thank god the open source ATI driver is about to become a viable alternative to the proprietary one.

[DanL]

This ought to be illegal. This is anti-competitive behavior. I think AMD should be fined for this.

It won't hold up in court. They'll make up some **** about hdcp, the lawyers and judges will get paid, and the people hurt by this deception won't see a penny. Business as usual...

[gamerk2]

...wait, you guys didn't know about this? This is really, really old news we're talking about here...

[r1348]

Hmm I'm waiting for a technical or leagal explanation of this, otherwise...
If the DVI-to-HDMI adapters market is so fundamental for AMD to implement such dirty tricks, well AMD employees: leave the sinking ship!

[kaprikawn]

I wouldn't agree with it, but I would understand it, if they were trying to sell you an expensive add-on. But if the adapter was included in the box, what's the point? It's just an annoyance. I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't have a clue where the contents of my graphics card box are.

[microcode]

The Benefit of a Doubt.

Phoronix: AMD Intentionally Crippled Their HDMI Adapters

For some AMD Radeon graphics cards when using the Catalyst driver, the HDMI audio support isn't enabled unless using the simple DVI to HDMI adapter included with the graphics card itself... If you use another DVI-to-HDMI adapter, it won't work with Catalyst. AMD intentionally implemented checks within their closed-source driver to prevent other adapters from being used, even though they will work just fine...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTQ4MDE

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say, they introduced the check for early versions because they found one or two adapters which break the standard, then forgot to remove the test harness since they only tested with their own adapters.
I don't see any financial incentive in causing this issue personally, regardless of where it would come from.

[DanL]

Hmm I'm waiting for a technical or legal explanation of this, otherwise...

Don't hold your breath...

[GreatEmerald]

Wait, I don't get it... So if you have a monitor that only has HDMI, and you have a card that doesn't have any HDMI slots, and you have the ATI DVI in-HDMI out adapter, then you can get audio over the DVI slot? Just how often does such a situation occur?.. And how many "cheap" DVI in-HDMI out adapters even support audio over DVI, given that it's not exactly standard and that not a whole lot of graphics cards support such a thing to begin with? In fact, if a card has no HDMI slots, why would it have an integrated sound card to begin with?..

[rohcQaH]

So, did I get this right?
* HDMI audio works fine if you just use a HDMI cable in the HDMI port. As expected.
* HDMI audio is disabled on DVI outputs by default, since there is no "DVI audio" standard and thus no guarantee that all available monitors can deal with it.
* If you wish to use your DVI output to attach HDMI devices, AMD has made some special converters that, if detected, treat the DVI output as a HDMI output and will enable HDMI-only features such as audio.

Looks like a simple defensive move to me. Avoid support costs with that one monitor that explodes when there are additional signals between video frames, and avoid support costs with those people that checked "transmit audio over this output" and wonder why their DVI monitor doesn't play sound.

It's not a common problem, either. If you need HDMI audio, you can just use the HDMI output, which virtually all newer cards have. Or you just use the adapter that was included with your box at no extra charge.


Sure, it would have been nice to have a checkbox "force HDMI audio anyway", and of course closed source drivers suck for not giving you the possibility to code that checkbox yourself. But I doubt this is a big issue.

[AJSB]

This ought to be illegal.
This is anti-competitive behavior.
I think AMD should be fined for this.

WHY in hell should they be finned ?

Unless there is something i didn't understood correctly, the cards are sold with AMD DVI->HDMI adapter, so, the user of such video cards can use the HDMI as intended...there is no anti-competitive behavior because they supply the adapter anyway.

But again, i might be missing something here...

Yeah, i agree with the ones saying , one more reason for OSS drivers...but i believe that this might be because of some s+++y DRM laws/agreements.

Anyway...this doesn't affects me....i still use 15pin sub-D connectors....aaaaahhhh, the virtues of "low tech" :P

PS: ...and i completely forgot that DVI standard doesn't really support audio...so, what AMD done was to make sure that you don't screw up your card and/or monitor with some s+++y adapter that doesn't do the job properly and burns/damages something....really, i just changed my mind, i'm glad that there are blobs that prevent something go deeply wrong with my hardware (if i used DVI->HDMI that is, because i don't).