VESA Publishes DisplayPort 1.4 Standard

[btarunr]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced it has published version 1.4 of the DisplayPort (DP) audio/video standard. The first major update to DisplayPort since version 1.3 was released in September 2014, DP 1.4 is also the first DP standard to take advantage of VESA's Display Stream Compression (DSC) technology. DSC version 1.2 transport enables up to 3:1 compression ratio and has been deemed, through VESA membership testing, to be visually lossless. Together with other new capabilities, this makes the latest version of DP ideally suited for implementation in high-end electronic products demanding premier sound and image quality.

DisplayPort is a packet-based, extensible protocol for transporting video and audio data. Initially introduced as a new external interface, its flexibility has enabled its adaptation to embedded displays and incorporation into other connectors like the new reversible USB Type-C interface and Thunderbolt. Its Multi-Stream Transport (MST) capability enables high-resolution support of multiple monitors on a single display interface.

In September 2014, VESA published DP 1.3, which has been the baseline for new system development. DP 1.3 increased the maximum link bandwidth to 32.4 Gbps, with each of four lanes running at a link rate of 8.1 Gbps/lane, a 50-percent increase over the previous DP 1.2a specification. DP 1.3 added extra protocol flexibility to enable more seamless operation over the USB Type-C connector in the form of the DisplayPort Alt Mode. The increased link rate increased the uncompressed display resolution support up to 5K x 3K (5120x2880), and also upped the MST resolution, enabling simultaneous use of two 4K UHD monitors, each with a pixel resolution of 3840x2160, when using VESA Coordinated Video Timing.

DP 1.4 further builds on the capabilities of the standard's prior incarnations. The use of video transport compression enhances the ability to take advantage of the USB Type-C connector, enabling both high-definition video and SuperSpeed USB, while also facilitating High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 8K video across the DisplayPort or USB-C connector. Examples of increased display resolution with the new standard include 8Kp60Hz HDR deep color and 4Kp120Hz HDR deep color. Other key new features include:

• Forward Error Correction - FEC, which overlays the DSC 1.2 transport, addresses the transport error resiliency needed for compressed video transport to external displays.
• HDR meta transport - HDR meta transport uses the "secondary data packet" transport inherent in the DisplayPort standard to provide support for the current CTA 861.3 standard, which is useful for DP to HDMI 2.0a protocol conversion, among other examples. It also offers a flexible metadata packet transport to support future dynamic HDR standards.
• Expanded audio transport - This spec extension covers capabilities such as 32 audio channels, 1536kHz sample rate, and inclusion of all known audio formats.

"This significant update to the DisplayPort standard is vital to continued growth of adoption for both DP and DSC, particularly in such fast-growing markets as digital television and automotive infotainment," said VESA Board Chair Alan Kobayashi, fellow and executive R&D management for Smart Connectivity Group at MegaChips Technology America. "New applications are demanding displays with better resolution, wider color gamut, and increased dynamic range. Consumers and others are also recognizing the value and ease-of-use associated with running multiple displays on one interface, which is another area we addressed in this new release with MST improvements. We believe the tools provided in this new DP standard release will enable a quantum leap forward in display quality, which leverage DSC compression along with transport of high-quality audio and video content."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[bubbleawsome]

Dang, that is some serious bandwidth. I bet you could manage 4k 144hz with slightly lower color quality.

 

[nickbaldwin86]

I just want 3440x1440 @ 144hz. which needs 38.52Gbps so DP1.4 will be plenty. now get to work ASUS!

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It should be possible using compression but it remains to be seen what kind of latency that will introduce.

 

[cracklez]

We probably won't see market availability of monitors that utilize DP 1.4 until at least 2018.

But with DP 1.3, is it possible to do 4K at 120hz?

 

[nickbaldwin86]

We probably won't see market availability of monitors that utilize DP 1.4 until at least 2018.

But with DP 1.3, is it possible to do 4K at 120hz?

I would think so. DP 1.4 is a reach out there still

4k @ 120hz = 53.75Gbps which I think is a bit more than 1.3 will support

DP 1.3 increased the maximum link bandwidth to 32.4 Gbps

 

[FordGT90Concept]

But with DP 1.3, is it possible to do 4K at 120hz?

Yes. 3840 * 2160 * 24-bit/pixel * 120 = 23.84 Gb/s. DisplayPort 1.3 can handle a maximum payload of 25.92 Gb/s. Can't handle 144 Hz 4K though.

 

[xorbe]

Low latency 4k oled + 120/144/165 Hz, who is going to make one first.

 

[Frick]

Low latency 4k oled + 120/144/165 Hz, who is going to make one first.

I'd take just OLED anything actually affordable.

 

[Steevo]

I would like to see 4K HDR 60hz before 144, the possibility to have colors more life like is the difference in gaming (6 or 8 bit color textures) 10-12 bit capable hardware between "the 10 passes of after effect"s and careful use of "glossy" surfaces to make colors and textures pop more to look kinda real, and it looks real, is one of the last pieces of what keeps gaming from looking spectacular. HBM giving us absurd amounts of texture storage space will also help immensely.

 

[bubbleawsome]

Honestly, everyone wants the dream 12-bit OLED 16k 200hz monitor, but that won't be happening anytime soon because of monitor, GPU, and cabling tech. Monitor progression will be as slow as ever, and even if someone got an affordable 4k 144hz 10-bit OLED monitor out tomorrow GPUs wouldn't be able to keep up.

 

[atomicus]

ROFL... a year and a half after it was announced and ZERO DP 1.3 capable monitors or GPU's yet (even though Pascal/Polaris will almost certainly feature it), and people are getting excited about DP 1.4. Mid-2018 at the absolute earliest folks, so just fugetaboutit.

 

[ZoneDymo]

I dont understand this crap at all, DP 1.3 is not even out yet, why cant we just skip that and go straight to 1.4?
Or better yet, why not aim for the stars, like 5 times this bandwidth and just be done with it gawd.

 

[cracklez]

Probably because they like milking us like the cows that we are

 

[ShockG]

ASUS GX700 notebook I have here is DP 1.3
Seiki supposedly has 1 DP1.3 4K monitor.
We can't go from DP 1.2 to 1.4 straight, because there are technological constraints. It takes time to develop new protocols, ratify them and test.
That's like asking why we didn't have a LaFerrari in 1974? Why didn't we have a GTX 980Ti in 2005, was NVIDIA milking us? It's a nonsensical question and assertion.

 

[ZoneDymo]

ASUS GX700 notebook I have here is DP 1.3
Seiki supposedly has 1 DP1.3 4K monitor.
We can't go from DP 1.2 to 1.4 straight, because there are technological constraints. It takes time to develop new protocols, ratify them and test.
That's like asking why we didn't have a LaFerrari in 1974? Why didn't we have a GTX 980Ti in 2005, was NVIDIA milking us? It's a nonsensical question and assertion.

Well no, those actually require development of technology, I can see getting more out of the same connection requiring extra work, optimizing things. (Example HDMI 1.4 and 2.0 working via the same cables).
But if we really wanted the bandwidth we would have had a cable capable of that already, its just we take mouse steps for no reason.

If we really wanted, we could easily have a cable now that could push enough bandwidth for 3 times 8k at 120hz.
That really would not be a problem if we wanted to.

 

[Dethroy]

Well no, those actually require development of technology, I can see getting more out of the same connection requiring extra work, optimizing things. (Example HDMI 1.4 and 2.0 working via the same cables).
But if we really wanted the bandwidth we would have had a cable capable of that already, its just we take mouse steps for no reason.

If we really wanted, we could easily have a cable now that could push enough bandwidth for 3 times 8k at 120hz.
That really would not be a problem if we wanted to.

As long as the hardware is the weakest link in this equation, it would serve no purpose other than higher R&D & manufacturing/licensing costs.

Edit:

I just want 3440x1440 @ 144hz. which needs 38.52Gbps so DP1.4 will be plenty. now get to work ASUS!

DP 1.3 already does 3.440 x 1.440 @ 144Hz + HDR.

 

[nickbaldwin86]

DP 1.3 already does 3.440 x 1.440 @ 144Hz + HDR.

Yes that is why I said "Now get to work ASUS. he asked if DP1.4 would work? and I said it would be plenty. guess what I should have said was "it will be more than enough because they could do it with 1.3 if they would just do it... yet no one does."

 

[ShockG]

Well no, those actually require development of technology, I can see getting more out of the same connection requiring extra work, optimizing things. (Example HDMI 1.4 and 2.0 working via the same cables).
But if we really wanted the bandwidth we would have had a cable capable of that already, its just we take mouse steps for no reason.

If we really wanted, we could easily have a cable now that could push enough bandwidth for 3 times 8k at 120hz.
That really would not be a problem if we wanted to.

That's not how technological development works mate.
We started at single speed CD-Rom drives at 150Kbytes/s. We used the same red laser that we were using by the time we got to 60x speed CD-ROM drives. We used the same electronic motor we used at 1x. We got to the 60x speeds by introducing constant angular velocity technology, using caches. Using a different torque mechanism to get there and make incremental improvements among many other advancements.

ADSL, works over exactly the same copper lines that were at at some point limited to 2400bps - 56K - ISDN - ADSL - VDSL etc.
They work on the same lines laid down in some places over 50 years ago. You're suggesting that we should have just started at 20Mbps+ ?
We went from 10BaseT,100 to 1Gbps using the same RJ45/Ethernet cable.
That "extra work" and "optimizing things" is exactly what we use to make the progress that we do when we make incremental changes.

There are limitations to bandwidth on cables that is both physcial (feedback for example) , some are protocol limitations, sync and clock limitations etc.

So - no, we could not have instantly started at DP1.4 or gone from DP1.1 to 1.4. And yes, the people concerned with this really want to go as quickly as possible.