‘Xbox Series X output at 4k, 120Hz and hdr has no color compression’

The upcoming Xbox Series X console has an output without color compression at a 4k resolution in combination with a refresh rate of 120Hz and with high dynamic range. That says the HDR expert Adam Fairclough based on information he has received.

Fairclough, better known on the internet as Evil Boris, says that he has been informed that the Xbox Series X offers this output. He does not mention his source, but he is known as a reliable expert in the field of high dynamic range in particular. Fairclough indicates that he previously assumed that some color compression would be applied, in the form of the 4: 2: 2 chroma subsampling.

If the information is correct, it means that the Xbox Series X does not use color compression at 4k, 120Hz and hdr. So there is a question of 4: 4: 4 chroma subsampling, where no color information is lost. That looks a bit better than 4: 2: 2 or 4: 2: 0, where image artifacts can be visible and colors can sometimes look a bit fainter.

Chroma subsampling is often used to reduce bandwidth. The idea here is that color resolution is sacrificed, but that is not noticeable in most natural images, because the resolution of the brightness signal is preserved.

The bandwidth at 4k, 120Hz and 4: 4: 4 chroma subsampling comes out at 40Gbit / s, which means it just fits into the maximum bandwidth of the HDMI 2.1 connections of, for example, the LG CX-OLED televisions. The HDMI 2.1 standard also assumes a maximum bandwidth of 48Gbit / s. That is the bandwidth that, for example, the C9, the predecessor of the CX.