Plugable Active Mini DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 Adapter Mini Review!

[AshleyAshes]

 

If you could could even call it 'Mini'.  On Friday I purchased a 65" Samsung 4K UHD TV but at home my main media player is a Kodi powered HTPC with an i7 3770K, 16GB of RAM, and Radeon HD 7950 3GB in it.  This also doubles as a 'Game Console' via Steam Big Picture Mode which is a bit more powerful than existing consoles (At least for another week or so. D:)  I like this box and it's basically made of spare parts after workstations get upgraded and as such it doesn't have the most modern graphics.  The GPU in it only has HDMI 1.4a which was fine for 60hz gaming at 1080p but not at 4K or really for 60hz anything at 4K.  But it has a DisplayPort 1.2 port which can totally do 4K @ 60hz.  So that evening I got the TV I ordered the Plugable Active Mini DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 Adapter off of Amazon because it was the cheapest DP to HDMI 2.0 adaptor they listed that would ship with Prime.

 

Today it turned up and upon getting home I gave it a test and it worked!  Turns out I have to toggle something on the TV but once that set, it's EDID happily reported that it could do 4K @ 60hz.  Interestingly, being an AMD chip this also unlocked 10bit and 12bit color modes however my TV only supports these at 4K in YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 modes when doing which is not possible with DisplayPort 1.2 for some reason.  I'm unsure if it's a driver issue or a hardware issue.  So 8bit is the only option in my setup if I want 4K @ 60hz but it's not like HDR on PC is even really a thing yet.

 

For a setup like mine, where I lack an HDMI 2.0, this $27 CAD adaptor was what I needed to get 4K@60hz out of this hardware.  Since this setup will get handme downed GPUs and it's next handme down will also lack HDMI 2.0, a Radeon R9 390X, this adaptor will see some use for a while.  It's a lot cheaper than buying a while new GPU just to get 60hz to my 4K TV.

[Enderman]

HDR already exists on PC, you just need a GPU and display that support it.

[AshleyAshes]

5 minutes ago, Enderman said:

HDR already exists on PC, you just need a GPU and display that support it.

I was referring to native HDR, being HDR10 and Dolby Vision (Sometimes referred to as HDR12), not just simply 10bit and 12bit color support (which is sometimes called 'Deep Color').

[Guest]

Some pics would be nice

[AshleyAshes]

2 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Reviewing an adapter? Don't they either work or not? 

Being an active adaptor, it' was possible that not all HDMI 2.0 features worked, like it may have been limited to 8bit in all scenarios. Or how I pointed out that it can't do YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 over DP where as the same GPU can do those over it's native HDMI 1.4a port.  (Not sure if this applies to all DP 1.2 or just my AMD GPU)

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, AshleyAshes said:

I was referring to native HDR, being HDR10 and Dolby Vision (Sometimes referred to as HDR12), not just simply 10bit and 12bit color support (which is sometimes called 'Deep Color').

Yes you can do that on PC.

Just get a GPU with HDMI 2.0.

The only problem is that you can't do 4k 60Hz 4:4:4 HDR10 with HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, you need to choose 3 of the 4 only.

[AshleyAshes]

20 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Some pics would be nice

Good idea, I'll update the first post with a product shot from Amazon.  Saying 'Adaptor' doesn't make it's size clear

20 hours ago, Enderman said:

Yes you can do that on PC.

Just get a GPU with HDMI 2.0.

The only problem is that you can't do 4k 60Hz 4:4:4 HDR10 with HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, you need to choose 3 of the 4 only.

HDMI 2.0a actually, 2.0 needed a firmware update to handle HDR metadata.   Of course that's what DP1.4 is for as well, as DP1.2 is not capable of HDR either.

 

Your assertion however is still not wholefully correct.  Nvidia has an API for handling HDR10 but it is a stop-gap solution as it only applies to apps running in exclusive mode on a limited range of their GPUs.  OS level support of HDR10 in the Windows operating system does not exist yet and Nvidia's solution is effective only in an application operating in exclusive mode, ruling out pretty much all desktop creative applications, image viewers, media players, and, well, just about everything that isn't a game.  We're here in the Home Theater section of this forum discussing Home Theater applications so your assertion is useless here and irrelevant to the topic of trying to feed 4K @ 60hz through to a UHD Television on less than modern hardware.

[Enderman]

33 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Good idea, I'll update the first post with a product shot from Amazon.  Saying 'Adaptor' doesn't make it's size clear

HDMI 2.0a actually, 2.0 needed a firmware update to handle HDR metadata.   Of course that's what DP1.4 is for as well, as DP1.2 is not capable of HDR either.

 

Your assertion however is still not wholefully correct.  Nvidia has an API for handling HDR10 but it is a stop-gap solution as it only applies to apps running in exclusive mode on a limited range of their GPUs.  OS level support of HDR10 in the Windows operating system does not exist yet and Nvidia's solution is effective only in an application operating in exclusive mode, ruling out pretty much all desktop creative applications, image viewers, media players, and, well, just about everything that isn't a game.  We're here in the Home Theater section of this forum discussing Home Theater applications so your assertion is useless here and irrelevant to the topic of trying to feed 4K @ 60hz through to a UHD Television on less than modern hardware.

Are you saying home theater is only useful for watching movies and nothing else?

Wow, you're close minded.

Maybe buy a bluray player instead of a HTPC then.

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, Enderman said:

Are you saying home theater is only useful for watching movies and nothing else?

Wow, you're close minded.

Maybe buy a bluray player instead of a HTPC then.

I'm saying that the focus of a home theater section, and specifically a thread about a DisplayPort 1.2 adaptor for getting 4K @ 60hz out of older hardware does not have HDMI 2.0(a) support, where I discuss the Windows operating system, which does not have OS level HDR support, that media playback, specifically SDR media playback, is really the focus, yes.