After the recent announcement from Denon and Marantz, it’s Yamaha’s turn to provide its solution to correct the HDMI 2.1 issue present on its A/V receivers. Like many other manufacturers, it is caused by the Panasonic chip that makes it impossible to play 4K/120Hz UHD streams from Xbox Series X consoles or computers equipped with an NVIDIA RTX30 graphics card.
Last week, the Japanese manufacturer expanded its Yamaha Aventage A/V receiver range with the Yamaha RX-A4A, Yamaha RX-A6A and Yamaha RX-A8A. These latest arrivals are equipped with new HDMI 2.1 connectors to ensure support for UHD 4K/120Hz and UHD 8K/60Hz streams. However, this is not the case for Yamaha receivers with the first generation HDMI 2.1, including the Yamaha RX-V4A, Yamaha RX-V6A, Yamaha RX-A2A, Yamaha TSR-400 and Yamaha TSR-700. The latter are equipped with the same Panasonic chip as the Denon and Marantz receivers and therefore have the same incompatibility issues with the 4K/120Hz streams of Xbox Series X game consoles, as well as computers equipped with an NVIDIA RTX30 graphics card.
As promised, Yamaha finally offers a permanent solution to correct the HDMI 2.1 glitch. However, given that this incompatibility with UHD 4K/120Hz signals is caused by a hardware issue, it is impossible to correct it by a simple update. A component change is therefore necessary. Marantz and Denon have managed to get around this problem by providing an external HDMI box to be inserted between the source and the receiver free of charge to any user upon request. But this solution is only viable on these receivers because they only have one HDMI 2.1 input. With their three HDMI 2.1 inputs, Yamaha amplifiers cannot use this solution. Instead, starting in the fall of 2021, Yamaha will provide a free HDMI card replacement for any user who requests it.
Upgrading the HDMI card of Yamaha A/V receivers is free for any change made within 24 months of the start of the replacement program. More information will be released this summer by Yamaha, including the exact terms of changing this card. It is therefore recommended that you register your receiver on the Yamaha website to be informed of the next steps and receive direct communication about the replacement program. In the meantime, these different Yamaha A/V receivers remain fully compatible with 4K/60Hz, as well as HDR10 and Dolby Vision streams.
