Nouveau Supporting HDMI 2.1 Won't Hopefully Be Too Challenging Thanks To NVIDIA Firmware

[torsionbar28]

So there's no possible mechanism to enable this for existing cards even if they wanted to then. It's pretty sad if they'll have to go down the route of putting a whole extra RISC-V CPU on their cards just to circumvent the HDMI Forum restrictions and allow consumers to use their hardware to its full capacity. I imagine that'll increase the cost of the cards too.

That's what happens with a closed proprietary interface like HDMI. This is why we should be using DisplayPort instead, as it's an open standard, unencumbered by patents and licensing and proprietary bullsh%t.

[Anux]

So there's no possible mechanism to enable this for existing cards

Sure there is, AMD could supply a closed binary that works with the open source driver. But it would be a troublesome solution.

DP will never replace HDMI in TVs because of the encryption it supplies and this is also the main reason for their anti open source position (my assumption). If the encryption got broken then either HDMI would come up with a new version or go extinct.

[CommunityMember]

Is this something they can feasibly do? Would it require flashing a whole new BIOS to cards or simply updating the firmware would be enough?

Well, we don't really know if the functionality could conceivably be moved to the binary firmware blobs (the blobs, by their very nature, don't provide clear capabilities, and the the functionality required might not fit even if such could be done in the blobs).

I am sure AMD engineers, should the product managers wish to support Linux customers to use proprietary capabilities going forward, will be looking into that, as it is a true lesson learned about open source and industry consortium's with restrictions on the specifications.

[Mani]

Sure there is, AMD could supply a closed binary that works with the open source driver. But it would be a troublesome solution.

DP will never replace HDMI in TVs because of the encryption it supplies and this is also the main reason for their anti open source position (my assumption). If the encryption got broken then either HDMI would come up with a new version or go extinct.

The part about encryption is the most likely "official" explanation, funnily though, all secure, standard encryption frameworks are open source. In cryptography communities closed source encryption has a very bad reputation.

I just hope HDMI goes the way of the Dodo...

[Mitch]

Sure there is, AMD could supply a closed binary that works with the open source driver. But it would be a troublesome solution.

DP will never replace HDMI in TVs because of the encryption it supplies and this is also the main reason for their anti open source position (my assumption). If the encryption got broken then either HDMI would come up with a new version or go extinct.

There are now 55 inch monitors they are basically TVs. Hope is not totally lost, but this is definitely a stupid dance to have to go through

[Anux]

In cryptography communities closed source encryption has a very bad reputation.

And whenever someone tries to protect it's encryption by obfuscation it's most likely insecure.

[CommunityMember]

It's possible they could. I don't know how the graphics pipeline works in enough detail to say. What's certain is that it'd cost them a lot of patching and QA on already-developed products if they did go for it and it wouldn't help 99%+ of their customers (Windows, console vendors, etc.) who are already using drivers that are HDMI NDA-compliant.

If the AMD product managers wish to support Linux users going forward when using proprietary standards (and at this point, we don't know if they will commit those resources for the ~1% (your estimate) of sales), it is possible that the engineering work for future gen products could be backported (if sufficiently small). But first AMD product managers need to commit to the work to support Linux with those proprietary standards so that the detailed engineering can be done. I would hope AMD makes that choice, but it is their choice to make.

[ssokolow]

Sure there is, AMD could supply a closed binary that works with the open source driver. But it would be a troublesome solution.

DP will never replace HDMI in TVs because of the encryption it supplies and this is also the main reason for their anti open source position (my assumption). If the encryption got broken then either HDMI would come up with a new version or go extinct.

DisplayPort 1.1 added support for HDCP as well as a DisplayPort-themed alternative named DPCP, so there shouldn't be any technical reason that a DisplayPort 2.2 couldn't add support for HDCP 2.2.

[back2未來]

HDMI (initial specification 2002) was ~4 years earlier replacement for (bulky) DVI(-A(nalog), -D(igital), -I(analog&digital), <=10m cable length) connectors and me always felt these being more handy connectors (micro, mini, standard) than DisplayPort (specified 2006). DRM difficulties did not occur with real needs (yet) and it was simply more widespread on computing and media. (including a ~$10000 licensing fee (each year) was on manufacturer side, so not directly visible to consumers)

[skeevy420]

Oh no, I fear a certain person will come here and sing it's praises for closed source.

It varies by the context, but closed source isn't inherently bad. Baldur's Gate 3 is closed source. If I had to put closed source on a scale of bad to good, hardware drivers and the OS would be on the bad end, patented stuff would be in the middle, and things like photography software and games would be at the good end.