The future of HDMI 2.1 for open-source systems has gone from bleak to non-existent. As reported by Ars Technica, an AMD engineer named Alex Deucher had been continuously documenting the progress of working with the HDMI Forum, the group responsible for the licensing of the HDMI standard, to provide access to HDMI 2.1 to those using open-source operating systems like Linux.
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“We have been working with our legal team to sort out what we can deliver while still complying with our obligations to HDMI Forum,” wrote Deucher in February of 2023. This was followed up in April of 2023 with the update, “We have the basic functionality up and running, now we have to go through each of the features with legal and determine if/how we can expose them while still meeting our obligations.”
Progress had been slow since then, culminating in Deucher’s most recent update, which was the death knell for the hopes of open-source users everywhere. “The HDMI Forum has rejected our proposal unfortunately. At this time an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation is not possible without running afoul of the HDMI Forum requirements,” wrote Deucher.
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The denial of HDMI 2.1 implementation means that users operating on Linux or other such systems will continue to lack access to the highest resolution and frame rates available via HDMI for the foreseeable future.
