A new HDMI port standard is coming in 2025: What it means for users

HDMI

HDMI Forum, the group behind HDMI standards, is gearing up to announce a new standard that will improve the HDMI’s capabilities to transmit data from one device to another. The company has announced that it will announce the new HDMI standard likely to be called HDMI 2.2 via a press conference on January 6.

According to a report by The Verge, the updated HDMI standard is set to support “a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates.” That’s not it. The updated HDMI standard might also require an all-new cable altogether to support the added capabilities and features.

Right now, the HDMI Forum hasn’t revealed the exact features and updates that will be coming to HDMI, but compared to HDMI 2.1’s 48Gbps bandwidth and up to 120Hz variable refresh rate and up to 10240 x 4320 resolution support, HDMI 2.2 will likely up the features and supports by a good margin with support for even higher resolution and frame rate without Display Stream Compression.

From users' standpoint, the updated capabilities will enable support for higher resolution displays and even will make it a much better option for gamers considering the PC hardware is growing to support the best possible graphics and display settings. Also, the HDMI 2.2-supported TVs will deliver even better quality without any major compression that current standards use.

As noted in the email sent to The Verge, the new cable will be required by users to be able to use the added functionalities of the upcoming HDMI standard. This means devices that will support the newer HDMI will need a special cable to support those features. If users use the older cable or an HDMI cable that does not meet the said requirement, the functionalities will most likely be limited.