Recently announced at the CES 2025, HDMI 2.2 is the next-generation HDMI standard that will double available bandwidth for higher resolution and refresh rate support. It will use a new cable to support all these new standards and introduce new advanced features for improved audio and video syncing between different devices.
HDMI 2.2 new cable won’t arrive until later this year and television sets won’t be supporting the new standard yet. In this article we explore everything you need to know about the new HDMI standard and its features.
HDMI 2.2 and its possibilities
The main feature of HDMI 2.2 is that it allows for up to double the bandwidth of existing Ultra High Speed HDMI cables with the 2.1 protocol. The HDMI 2.2 is rated for up to 96 Gbps, introducing support for native 16K resolution without compression. It also runs native 4K 240Hz without compression. Including DSC the new HDMI protocol should support monitors up to 4K 480Hz or 8K in excess of 120Hz.
There are no consumer TVs or monitor that support such resolutions and refresh rates at the time, but in the future augmented and virtual reality headsets will surely make use of it.
HDMI 2.2 will also support the new Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) to help make sure audio is synchronized with video, especially for configurations that include external A/V systems.
In order to support these new resolutions and refresh rates you have to use a new HDMI 2.2 certified Ultra96 cable design. These cables will be backwards compatible with all previous HDMI versions, but will only reach maximum supported speed of the lowest link in the chain. So a HDMI 2.2 cable plugged into a port of HDMI 2.0 won’t be using the full bandwidth of the cable.
HDMI 2.2 vs. HDMI 2.1
The HDMI 2.1 protocol was a great innovation back in 2017. But it only began working in 2020 and 2021 with full support devices. It triples HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and allows for true 4K 120Hz support. This is a very important feature for the latest generation of video game consoles.
HDMI 2.1 also introduced a wide range of new features that seemed hard to surpass by then:
- Dynamic HDR support.
- Display Stream Compression 1.2 support.
- Variable refresh rates.
- Enhanced audio return channel support (eARC).
- Quick frame transport.
- Quick media switching.
- Auto low latency mode.
The future HDMI 2.2 protocol doesn’t not include so many changes but it includes new LIP protocol support. The bandwidth uplift is also astonishing in gigabits per second and the largest in the standard’s history. It will double HDMI 2.1 from 48 Gbps to 96 Gbps. It even eclipses DisplayPort 2.1 and USB4, both only reach 80 Gbps. On the other hand, it’s still a weaker protocol than the Chinese GPMI.
When will HDMI 2.2 arrive?
The new HDMI protocol was unveiled officially in January 2025 with a launch date for the first half of the year. The HDMI Forum manages the ongoing development and suggested that new Ultra96 cables will be released before the end of 2025 but the support on devices won’t arrive until 2026. This is an optimistic lecture of the protocol times.
On the other hand, HDMI 2.1 arrived on 2017 and the first devices started appearing on 2020/2021. The experience indicates that full support for HDMI 2.2 may be even slower.
The new standard is incredible in terms of speed, but there isn’t a great demand for more advanced cable standards for living daily use. Computer users may need higher resolution for playing videogames. But it’s a special segment of the market.