Does the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter support HDMI 2.1?

By codewithb, 10 September, 2023

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Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Does the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter support HDMI 2.1? Will I have any issues if I connect an HDMI 2.1 cable?

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By Andy Lane on Friday, September 22, 2023 - 20:20

It’s been on the market for such a long time that I doubt it supports HDMI 2.1 thats a pretty recent standard but its unlikely you’ll need 2.1 unless you’re planning on running 4k with some very high frame rates. As for the question about cables. You can use a HDMI 2.1 cable on earlier versions of HDMI but you might not be able to use older certified cables on HDMI 2.1. The certification specifies that various speeds and standards will be supported which means newer higher certified cables will still work on older standards. They are better than needed for lesser versions but that isn’t a problem.

By Andy Lane on Friday, September 22, 2023 - 20:20

Sadly the Apple Store doesn’t specify which version of HDMI it supports however it does say it supports 4k at 60Hz and doesn’t say it supports 8K which means it will be HDMI 2.0. You’ll be able to plug an HDMI 2.1 cable into that with no problems at all. You can also plug it into a HDMI 2.1 receiver or TV with no problems too. The only thing you won’t be able to do is run either 8K or 4k 120Hz but nobody but gamers wants needs or uses that anyway.

By Andy Lane on Friday, September 22, 2023 - 20:20

I think the feature you mean is CEC. It’s got a really dumb name like consumer electronics control or something like that. Anyway, it’s been in HDMI since about version 1.1 ish. I think it would be worth looking into how to enable it on your devices because it should work. It’s not a very well implemented standard but theres usually a way to make it work. Unless theres something funky going on like Apple didn’t certify all of the features of HDMI 2.0 which might explain why they didn’t say it was HDMI 2.0 compliant but instead gave the resolution and frame rate it supports instead.