HDMI 2.2 to be unveiled at CES 2025 - requires new HDMI cable
The HDMI Forum plans to unveil HDMI 2.2 officially at a press conference on January 6th, 2025. The organization plans to reveal the new specification of the next-generation of the HDMI standard.
The official press release does not reveal much about the upcoming standard, only this much: " The new specification, with next-gen HDMI(R) Technology and higher bandwidth, enables a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates and will be supported with a new HDMI Cable".
HDMI 2.2 is mentioned explicitly in the press release.
To sum it up:
- Will support higher resolutions and quality, and refresh rates.
- Requires a new HDMI cable.
Specifics have not been mentioned, but a look at the current standard HDMI 2.1 may help. It supports a bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps and uncompressed resolutions such as 4K at 120 Hz and 8K at 60 Hz.
HDMI 2.2 should improve that, for instance by enabling uncompressed 8k at 120 Hz or even 10K. The requirement for new cables could mean an even bigger jump.
May take years for devices to become available
As is the case with most standards, it may take years and not months before devices that support it are released.
HDMI Forum announced HDMI 2.1 in January 2017 at CES. Microsoft's Xbox One was one of the first devices to support HDMI 2.1 features such as Variable Refresh Rate. This started in 2018.
The first graphics adapters with support were launched in 2020. Nvidia released the GeForce RTX 3000 series and AMD the Radeon RX 6000 series in the year.
This means that the next Nvidia and AMD video cards will likely not support HDMI 2.2. The same is true for Nintendo's Switch 2 console, which is also expected to be released in early 2025.
Closing Words
It may take a year or even longer before devices that support HDMI 2.2 are released. The next PlayStation or Xbox could very well support it, but both consoles are years away at this point.
On PC, gamers and enthusiasts may also need to wait a year or more before the new standard becomes available.
That leaves entertainment, but 8K and beyond is still mostly an enthusiast's thing.
What is your take on HDMI 2.2, and 8K and higher resolutions? Is that something that interests you? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Is it too much to ask for major version number change for something as major as requiring a completely new connector that’s most likely not backwards compatible? No? Carry on then. Calling it HDMI-3 would have been less confusing but whatever.
“HDMI 2.2 refers only to an updated version of HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), improving the copy protection capabilities for 4K/HDR content. ”
So it’s just DRM protections. Fantastic!!! I bet the MPAA is happy about this. I’m even less interested consider HDMI 2.1 still doesn’t even support Linux. and I’m not trying to brag but I still use 1080p content.
Display Port > HDMI.
IMHO, this sounds like yet another unnecessary standards upgrade similar to blu-ray. If the resulting port and other hardware are backwardly compatible (so that I can still use older HDMI cables), then I won’t have a problem with it.
Nothing for Linux – still.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the only advantage of HDMI is it lets your other connected devices turn your TV on and off. Display Port offers much higher bandwidth.
Adding to TV’s the ability to let other devices put it to sleep is trivial and one can only wonder why all TV’s don’t already have this capability. PC monitors have always done it with any cable.
Additionally, my 4 year old Samsung TV in the living room upscales 720p sources to 4K beautifully so why use a 4K source with such high bandwidth requirements anyways?
That’s not even true. My TV won’t turn on and off automatically and it’s connected via HDMI. There’s really no benefit to HDMI besides being the most widely connector.
> Additionally, my 4 year old Samsung TV in the living room upscales 720p sources to 4K beautifully so why use a 4K source with such high bandwidth requirements anyways?
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You really should have gone to Specsavers.
720p does not upscale to 4K beautifully unless your eyesight is shocking or the TV is poor and you can't differentiate properly. Given that it's a Samsung…
New year, new problem.
8k is not possible to see with your eyes. 4k is the max that your eyes can handle.
Above 4k your eyes do not see the difference.
So nice but not a must to have.
It all depends on PPI (pixels per inch) and your distance from the display. 8K can be relevant.