HDMI 2.2 debuts, with an ‘Ultra96’ cable for tomorrow’s displays

About seven years after the HDMI 2.1 specification was introduced, the HDMI Forum has announced the next generation: HDMI 2.2, which will require new cables to take advantage of its most high-performance features. It will not require a new connector, though, thankfully.

Though the HDMI Forum is officially calling the new specification HDMI 2.2, the accompanying cable will also receive a new name: Ultra96. All told, the selling point of both the Ultra96 cable and HDMI 2.2 specification are the increased bandwidth, which doubles the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth from 48Gbps to a staggering 96Gbps.

At this point, however, the HDMI Forum is only talking conceptually about the new specification. Companies who are part of the new HDMI adopter program will receive the full specifications in the first half of 2025, Forum representatives said at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. However, the Forum is promising a next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link technology and higher resolutions and faster refresh rates, though the Forum isn’t offering specifics. A new Latency Indication Protocol is designed to improve audio-video syncing, especially in TV applications where the sound has to pass from the TV to the soundbar or satellite speakers.

“Faster 96Gbps bandwidth improves demanding data-intensive, immersive and virtual applications such as AR/VR/MR, spatial reality and light field displays as well as various commercial applications such as large scale digital signage, medical imaging and machine vision,” the Forum added.

Even after the specification is released, however, it will take some time for both cables and logic to support the new standard. Remember, HDMI 2.1 supports uncompressed single-display resolution of 8K at 60Hz with 8-bit color depth at 4:2:0 chroma, and the same cables support compression at 10K120 resolution at 12-bit color depths. For most users, HDMI 2.1 is already too much. You will need an upgraded cable if your PC or TV supports the new HDMI 2.2 specification and you want to enjoy its full capabilities.

Alternatively, users have the choice of using DisplayPort, which was “upgraded” from DisplayPort 2.0 to DisplayPort 2.1 in 2022, tightening the specification for USB 4. In January 2024, DisplayPort added the 2.1a specification, whose bandwidth tops out at 80Gbps.

The HDMI Forum already provides a labeling program identifying cables as “Ultra High Speed,” with an accompanying HTML glyph that consumers can access with a smartphone camera to verify. The Forum showed an illustration of an “Ultra96 Certified Cable” where users can do the same.

So far, neither cable or device makers have come forward to support the new standard. But it’s virtually an inevitability, sometime in the future.