HDMI 2.0 is now, er, 2.1...

You will no longer be able to accurately ascertain the abilities of HDMI-equipped AV equipment following a fully-bonkers decision by the HDMI Licensing Administrator that all HDMI sockets are now 2.1, even if they’re not. A true HDMI 2.1 port is capable of supporting bit-rates of 40 or 48Gbps, required to enjoy all of the latest gaming features, along with the ability to pass Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks via eARC technology. It’s always been a problem that much lower bandwidth HDMI 2.0 ports could claim HDMI 2.1 support even if they supported just one or two of the HDMI 2.1-associated features — typically eARC and ALLM, even though eARC was introduced with the HDMI 2.1 spec. Now this complication has been compounded by the decision to allow brands to say that HDMI 2.0 ports are, in fact, HDMI 2.1 ports, even if they don’t support any HDMI 2.1 features at all. The hope is that this will make manufacturers more specific about the actual features supported. But fairly obviously, those without the features just won’t mention them, so consumers will be in the dark.