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Valve: HDMI Forum Continues to Block HDMI 2.1 for Linux
(www.heise.de)
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this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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But why does the HDMI fourm not want a open source 2.1-compliant implementation? Is it DRM related? I feel like it's DRM related.
Its fully DRM related.
My guess is if it’s open source it’s more easily cracked.
Likely moreso that they're facing pressure from other competitors in the industry that see Steam and open source in general as a threat to their business model. The HDMI forum is made up of industry leaders, and naturally Microsoft and Sony are there.
https://hdmiforum.org/members/
They've been refusing open HDMI 2.1 since 2017. I don't think that being afraid of Linux becoming the dominant gaming platform plays a role here; it's more likely that they're afraid people might find new ways to get at protected content.
Isn't getting at protected content pretty trivial anyway? At least that’s my impression from how easy it is to find basically anything.
To my knowledge they've never officially said but you can be sure that it has to do with Content Protection and that means DRM. An Open Source HDMI 2.1+ driver would make pirating much simpler, probably trivial and they don't want that.
It's possible anyway of course but there are a couple of hardware hoops to jump through and that's enough to keep most people from doing it.
Because that would open source certain implementations they want to hold captive.
It also enforces closed source drivers which can be shipped with spyware/crapware, further extending profits for companies... companies that happen to make up the HDMI Forum.
Part of being open source is subsequent licensing. This would allow any others to piggyback and avoid the fee.
They charge a fee for access to the spec and maintain who can claim their products are HDMI compliant and require compliance testing on those products.
An open source implementation would make that spec public and strip a lot of control they hold.