Officially announced at CES 2025, HDMI 2.2 is the next-generation HDMI standard that promises to double available bandwidth for higher resolution and refresh rate support, and will require a new cable to support these new standards. It will also bring with it advanced features for improved audio and video syncing between devices.
But the new cable isn’t coming until later this year, and there are no signs of TVs supporting the new standard yet. Here’s everything you need to know about HDMI 2.2.
What can HDMI 2.2 do?
The standout feature of HDMI 2.2 is that is allows for up to double the bandwidth of existing Ultra High Speed HDMI cables using the HDMI 2.1 protocol. HDMI 2.2 is rated for up to 96 Gbps, opening up support for native 16K resolution support without compression, or native 4K 240Hz without compression. Throw DSC on and it should support monitors up to 4K 480Hz or 8K in excess of 120Hz.
While there aren’t any consumer TVs or monitors that support such resolutions and refresh rates at this time, it could be that the protocol finds use in future augmented and virtual reality headsets.
HDMI 2.2 will also support Latency Indication Protocol (LIP), which will help make sure audio is synchronized with video, especially in configurations that include an external A/V system.
To support the new resolutions and refresh rates, you’ll need to use a new HDMI 2.2 certified Ultra96 cable design. The new cables will be backwards compatible with all previous HDMI versions, but will only run at the maximum supported speed of the lowest link in the chain. So an HDMI 2.2 cable plugged into a port that is only compatible with HDMI 2.0 speeds will not be able to use the full bandwidth of the cable.
HDMI 2.2 vs. HDMI 2.1
HDMI 2.1 was a major innovation for the HDMI standard when it was ratified in 2017, but it was only in 2020 and 2021 when we started seeing real products using the design. It almost tripled the bandwidth over HDMI 2.0, and finally made HDMI capable of true 4K 120Hz support which was super important for this latest generation of games consoles.
HDMI 2.1 also introduced a range of new features. These included:
- Dynamic HDR support.
- Display Stream Compression 1.2 support.
- Enhanced audio return channel (eARC) support.
- Variable refresh rates.
- Quick media switching.
- Quick frame transport.
- Auto low latency mode.
HDMI 2.2 is much lighter on features, merely introducing the new LIP protocol, but that will still have its uses. Like HDMI 2.1, though, HDMI 2.2’s bandwidth uplift is dramatic, and indeed by gigabits per second, the largest in the standard’s history. Doubling HDMI 2.1 from 48 Gbps to 96 Gbps makes HDMI 2.2 the most capable video and audio transmission standard, even eclipsing DisplayPort 2.1 and USB4, both of which can only reach 80 Gbps.
It is however, still weaker than the new standard out of China known as GPMI.
When is HDMI 2.2 available?
HDMI 2.2 was officially unveiled in January 2025, and will officially launch in the first half of the year. The HDMI Forum who manages its ongoing development has suggested the new Ultra96 cables will be released before the end of the year, but we may not see devices that support HDMI 2.2 until sometime in 2026.
That’s the optimistic take, too. HDMI 2.1 was ratified and launched in 2017, but it wasn’t until 2020/2021 where we started seeing displays making full use of it. HDMI 2.2 could in theory take even longer.
At the time of writing there isn’t a great call for more advanced cable standards in the living room. While PC gaming does have a possible use for higher bandwidth cables to enable higher resolution and refresh rate gaming, most high-end PCs aren’t managing 200+ FPS at 4K — and they have DisplayPort 2.1 support, anyhow. Indeed, most still play at lower resolutions. While in the living room, 4K at 120Hz is the standard for the major games consoles. Without a new generation of Xbox or PlayStation to drive up to TV refresh rates, there isn’t much point in supporting more.
There are 8K TVs which could conceivably offer 120Hz or higher refresh rates, but games consoles and TVs can’t manage that anyhow, so again, little benefit. There are also no plans for 8K Blu-rays which could use the additional bandwidth for higher bit-rate video or greater HDR metadata.
HDMI 2.2 is likely to be the future of connecting all sorts of devices and has the bandwidth and features to compete with the best alternatives elsewhere, but it’s likely not going to become mainstream for some time to come.
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