Ever since the HDMI Forum, an organization responsible for maintaining the HDMI standard, introduced HDMI 2.1 back in 2019, it has been somewhat of a mess over the past years. Now, as per reports, the HDMI Forum is looking to update it further by introducing a new HDMI standard dubbed HDMI 2.1a at CES 2022.
SBTM is primarily a new HDR feature that takes some of the tone-mapping load from the TV or monitor and loads them to the content source like a console, set-top box, or PC. Although SBTM is not a new HDR standard, but a feature that would allow better mixing of HDR and SDR content on the same device.
However, there is a major issue. As The Verge notes, much like every other unique HDMI 2.1 feature like automatic low latency connections and variable refresh rates, SBTM will also be an optional feature that manufacturers can support but are not required to. Hence, like it usually happens, once the HDMI Licensing Administrator releases the 2.1a standard, all the ports in TVs and monitors will be labeled as HDMI 2.1a ports, even though they do not support HDMI 2.0 or even HDMI 2.1 features.
