Faster speeds are on the way for TVs, which won’t mean much for screens right now, but could be useful in the future.
It’s been eight years since HDMI 2.1 first arrived, and a lot has changed in TV technologies. We’ve seen 8K arrive, even if the content hasn’t really materialised, while other Ultra HD TVs in the 4K world have been seeing faster refresh rates.
Incredibly, it’s been even longer since HDMI became a thing in December 2002, and it has clearly changed the world. One cable for all video sources, with the audio return channel for soundbars also used over the same connection.
So what’s next? Faster speeds from the same port and new cables.
Announced at CES 2025, the HDMI standard is changing with support for more bandwidth, improving how much data can be carried through its cables, but you’d never know unless you knew what you were looking at.
The look will remain the same and how you plug the technology in will also remain the same; HDMI 2.2 will look exactly like the HDMI you’ve known and seen for ages. And that’s a good thing.
What will change is in the cable and supported ports, which will be improved to support twice the maximum data bandwidth from the HDMI 2.1 standard devices have evolved to support these past few years.
Instead, it moves from 48Gbps to 96Gbps, which means more frames and faster refresh rates for TVs, with potentially more resolution down the track.
Without the jargon, HDMI 2.2 effectively means faster 4K at up to 480Hz, handy for gamers and sports, while 8K will hit up to 240Hz, and we should see 10K at up to 120Hz.
There are no 10K TVs out and only a handful of 8K models, though Samsung just announced a new one there. However, it also opens up the possibility for 12K and 16K screens later on down the track, too.
Given the resolution there, it’s unlikely 12 or 16K would need to be on home TVs for some time, and may be more for projections or commercial displays, particularly the sort that need to be so big, they may as well just be a wall.
The HDMI Forum is also including some improvements for audio and video syncing with the HDMI 2.2 standard, because sometimes soundbars and TVs don’t always play nicely at keeping audio and video in sync even when the right cables are used.
Don’t expect HDMI 2.2 on the latest TVs, though. It’s the sort of thing that should make its way to hardware in the coming months and years, so is more one of those future-proofing technologies that’ll be useful in the near future.
