When HDMI 2.2 was announced last year, I was cautiously optimistic about it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for new HDMI standards, and HDMI 2.2 doubling the bandwidth to 96 Gbps, supporting up to 4K at 240Hz uncompressed, and even supporting 10K, 12K, and 16K resolutions is extremely impressive.
There’s no question that HDMI 2.2 is incredibly future-proof, and while I doubt many people will be watching anything in 16K anytime soon, especially given how much 8K has struggled to become mainstream, its support for higher refresh rates, particularly at 4K, is great news for gamers.
But I have one core issue with HDMI 2.2: while it’s remarkably powerful, I can’t help but feel it’s premature, especially when TV makers still haven’t properly implemented HDMI 2.1. Until TV makers finally get HDMI 2.1 right, I don’t think we should worry too much about HDMI 2.2 yet.
Let’s catch up to HDMI 2.1, then worry about HDMI 2.2
More TVs need to come fully equipped with HDMI 2.1 on all their ports
Typically, when a new HDMI standard is announced, it takes a few years for TV makers to start implementing it, and HDMI 2.1 is a clear example of that. HDMI 2.1 was released in late 2017, but it wasn’t until around late 2020, roughly three years later, that TV makers really started including it on their TVs. That was largely because devices with HDMI 2.1 support, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, were also starting to launch around the same time.
But with HDMI 2.2, I struggle to see the same thing happening, mainly because a lot of TVs sold today still haven’t fully caught up to HDMI 2.1. What I mean by that is that plenty of mid-range and even high-end TVs still don’t include four HDMI 2.1 ports. Instead, many TVs come with a mix of HDMI 2.1 and HDMI 2.0 ports, which can confuse less tech-savvy users about which HDMI port to use for the best experience.
Considering HDMI 2.1 launched almost a decade ago, you’d think that, nearly 10 years later, most TVs would be fully equipped with only HDMI 2.1 ports. But that’s simply not the case.
That’s why, when it comes to HDMI 2.2, I find it hard to see how or why TV makers would start widely implementing it in the near future when HDMI 2.1 still isn’t the standard across the board. Before HDMI 2.2 has a chance of becoming commonplace, I think more TVs need to come with a full array of HDMI 2.1 ports.
Quiz
HDMI Ports & History
Trivia Challenge
Think you know your HDMI versions from your ARC from your eARC — put your display tech knowledge to the ultimate test!
HistoryVersionsFeaturesHardwareStandards
In what year was the first HDMI specification (version 1.0) officially released?
Correct! HDMI 1.0 was released in December 2002 and became commercially available in 2003. It was developed by a consortium of electronics manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, and Philips as a successor to analog standards.
Not quite — HDMI 1.0 arrived in late 2002 and hit the market in 2003. It was a landmark moment for home entertainment, replacing bulky analog connections with a single digital cable capable of carrying both audio and video.
Which founding companies were part of the original HDMI consortium that developed the standard?
Correct! The original HDMI founders included Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba. Together they created a royalty-bearing standard that would go on to dominate home AV connectivity worldwide.
Not quite. The founding seven companies were Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba. Notably, Apple was not an early backer, and Samsung joined later as a major adopter rather than a founding member.
Which HDMI version first introduced support for 4K video at 60 frames per second?
Correct! HDMI 2.0, released in 2013, boosted bandwidth to 18 Gbps and introduced 4K resolution at 60Hz. It was a crucial upgrade for the emerging 4K TV market and also added support for 32 audio channels.
Not quite — it was HDMI 2.0, released in 2013, that first enabled 4K at 60fps. HDMI 1.4 could handle 4K but only at a sluggish 30fps, which was fine for still images but not smooth enough for video or gaming.
What does the ‘ARC’ in HDMI ARC stand for?
Correct! ARC stands for Audio Return Channel, introduced in HDMI 1.4. It allows a TV to send audio back down the HDMI cable to a soundbar or AV receiver, eliminating the need for a separate optical audio cable.
Not quite — ARC stands for Audio Return Channel. Introduced with HDMI 1.4, it was a clever addition that lets your TV send audio upstream to an external speaker system using the same cable already carrying video to the TV.
What is the maximum bandwidth supported by the HDMI 2.1 specification?
Correct! HDMI 2.1 supports up to 48 Gbps of bandwidth, a massive leap from HDMI 2.0’s 18 Gbps. This allows it to handle 8K at 60fps, 4K at 120fps, and features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for gaming.
Not quite — HDMI 2.1 delivers a whopping 48 Gbps of bandwidth. That’s nearly triple the 18 Gbps of HDMI 2.0 and enables next-generation features like 8K resolution, 4K/120Hz gaming, and Dynamic HDR all over a single cable.
HDMI was designed as a digital successor to which widely used analog video interface?
Correct! HDMI was conceived as a successor to component video, the analog standard that dominated home theater setups in the late 1990s and early 2000s. HDMI combined audio and video into one cable, something component video could never do.
Not quite — HDMI was designed to replace component video (YPbPr), the three-cable analog system common in home theaters. While DVI is a digital cousin of HDMI and shares much of its underlying technology, component video was the primary analog standard HDMI aimed to supersede.
Which HDMI version was the first to support Ethernet data sharing over the HDMI cable?
Correct! HDMI 1.4, released in 2009, introduced the HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC), which allows a 100 Mbps network connection to be shared between devices over the same HDMI cable. It was a forward-thinking feature, though rarely implemented by manufacturers.
Not quite — HDMI 1.4 was the first version to include the HDMI Ethernet Channel when it launched in 2009. In theory it lets devices share a broadband connection without extra cables, though in practice very few products ever took advantage of this feature.
What key improvement does eARC offer over the original ARC in HDMI 2.1?
Correct! Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) introduced in HDMI 2.1 supports high-bandwidth, lossless audio formats including Dolby TrueHD, DTS:X, and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. Original ARC was limited to compressed formats like Dolby Digital 5.1.
Not quite — the big leap with eARC is its support for uncompressed, lossless audio and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Standard ARC could only pass compressed audio, meaning audiophiles with high-end soundbars were missing out until eARC arrived with HDMI 2.1.
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Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some TVs that already do this. For example, many of LG’s OLED TVs come equipped with four HDMI 2.1 ports, as do Samsung’s OLED TVs. Sony also finally equipped one of its OLED TVs with four HDMI 2.1 ports for the first time this year with the launch of the Bravia 6.
But for the most part, TVs under $1,000 still have a confusing mix of HDMI 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 ports. Much of this comes down to cost, as cheaper TVs often use chipsets that can’t support the bandwidth required for multiple HDMI 2.1 ports, so manufacturers limit them to just one or two.
And until mid-range TVs can fully support HDMI 2.1 across all of their ports at an affordable price, it’s hard to see HDMI 2.2, which doubles the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, making its way into mid-range TVs anytime soon, let alone within the next couple of years.
HDMI 2.2 has another problem
Devices with HDMI 2.2 may not be coming for a while
Beyond the issue of TV implementation, HDMI 2.2 has another key problem: adoption on devices.
For the first few years after HDMI 2.1 launched, hardly any devices actually supported it. It wasn’t until the PS5 and Xbox Series X launched in late 2020 with HDMI 2.1 that the standard really started gaining momentum. Around that same time, the first GPUs with HDMI 2.1 support also started launching, including Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series.
The problem for HDMI 2.2 is that while it could be adopted by the next generation of consoles, presumably the PS6 and whatever Microsoft ends up calling its next Xbox, those consoles aren’t expected anytime soon because of the ongoing memory shortage raising costs. And even when they do arrive, I wouldn’t be surprised if they stick with HDMI 2.1 to keep costs down. After all, 4K at 120Hz is still a pretty high benchmark for consoles to hit, and it’s something not even the PS5 and Xbox Series X can do in games.
So, to paint the full picture, HDMI 2.1 took about three years before devices really started supporting it meaningfully. I could see HDMI 2.2 taking even longer, especially if TV makers are still struggling to fully implement HDMI 2.1 and new devices that could support it, like a new PlayStation or Xbox, might not come out until near the end of the decade.
Ultimately, while HDMI 2.2 is undoubtedly powerful and future-proof, it doesn’t seem particularly realistic right now. Before we worry about the 96 Gbps of bandwidth HDMI 2.2 offers, more TV makers need to fully implement HDMI 2.1 first.
