New HDMI standard coming to enhance your display, gaming experiences
The HDMI Forum will announce a new HDMI standard, tentatively dubbed HDMI 2.2 on January 6, just before CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The new version is expected to support "a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates," the forum said in an email to The Verge. The current standard, HDMI 2.1b (updated in 2023), supports up to 48Gbps bandwidth and 10,240x4,320 resolutions with up to 120Hz variable refresh rate.
HDMI 2.2 to surpass current capabilities
The HDMI 2.2 is expected to far surpass the capabilities of the current standard, possibly providing higher resolutions and frame rates without Display Stream Compression. To take advantage of these improvements, users will have to use a new kind of cable as emphasized by the HDMI Forum's communication. Existing cables may still work with the new spec but not all new features will be offered unless they meet certain requirements.
Impact on gaming and display quality
The HDMI 2.2 will benefit users by supporting higher resolution displays, and enhancing gaming experiences. Also, TVs supporting HDMI 2.2 will deliver even better quality sans any major compression that present standards use. The HDMI Forum has yet to reveal exact features/updates coming with HDMI 2.2 but it's likely to up the features on its predecessor by a good margin.
