HDMI Connectivity Set For Major Overhaul at CES 2025

The HDMI 2.1 standard, which came out all the way back in 2017, is finally getting an upgrade. The owner of the technology, HDMI Licensing Administrator (HDMI LA) has confirmed that it is holding a special event at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for an important announcement. The HDMI Forum could be hinting at the launch of HDMI 2.2, which will deliver higher bandwidths and better resolutions than the HDMI 2.1 standard, which is common in several devices currently.

As reported by Computer Base, the HDMI Forum has scheduled a press conference for January 6, a day ahead of the official CES 2025 schedule. While the company has not explicitly mentioned, speculations are rife that the successor of HDMI 2.1 is set to debut. While the exact specifications of the new standard are currently unclear, reports have suggested that HDMI 2.2 could take a major leap in terms of delivering data bandwidths.

For reference, HDMI 2.1 offers a 48Gbps bandwidth, allowing content with a resolution of up to 8K at 60fps. On the other hand, its predecessor HDMI 2.0 technology supported a bandwidth of 18Gbps, which was capable of delivering up to 4K at 60fps resolutions.

According to HDMI LA, the next-generation HDMI technology will offer higher resolutions, refresh rates, and enhanced transmission quality. The change in the HDMI standard could also upgrade the cable, which the company said will take advantage of all the benefits. The announcement, set for January’s second week, likely falls in line with the increased consumption of video content at higher quality. However, the commercial viability of content is still at a nascent stage. For instance, 8K videos have yet to catch up and become mainstream like 4K resolution.

However, hardware companies are preparing for the next-generation HDMI standard already. NVIDIA has hinted that its upcoming GeForce RTX 50-series could support HDMI 2.2, whereas AMD is also reportedly preparing for the new technology in its Radeon RX 8000 series GPUs. While both companies have not said anything publicly, they have their separate events scheduled for CES the same day as HDMI Forum’s press conference.