Some 2020 LG TVs have less than full-speed HDMI 2.1 ports, and apparently that's okay

LG marketed its 2019 TV line-up as having full-featured HDMI 2.1 ports, in response to some confusion caused by the possibility that other OEMs throttled the speed of the ports in question. However, this may not be the case in 2020.

The display standard in question is capable of delivering content of a 4K/120 hertz (Hz) nature that is uncompressed, 12-bit and has RGB 4:4:4 chroma sampling. However, the Forbes writer John Archer reports that this year's premium CX, GX and WX OLED TVs - some of which are of the ultra-high-end Wallpaper series - support uncompressed 4K/120Hz with the same coloring standard. However, this data is 10-bit, suggesting it needs an HDMI speed of 40Gb/s at the most.

This also holds true for some of the company's new NanoCell TVs (the NANO91, NANO90 and NANO86 models). The full 2.1 spec can support a 48Gb/s rate, which is necessary for the 12-bit aspect of the content in question. Therefore, it appears the HDMIs found in these TVs could be less powerful than those of their predecessors.

When asked for a response on this issue, LG highlighted the capabilities of its AI engine for these big screens, indicating that chipset resources had been reassigned to it rather than to supporting full HDMI 2.1 specifications. It also has what could be called a back-up excuse for this situation, namely that "real content that requires 48Gb/s is not available in the market".

Therefore, LG appears to believe that its 2020 AI for TVs can handle the reproduction of content just as well as dedicated hardware can.