HDMI is in everybody’s home, and it has been for several years now. I don’t know anybody who’s trying to hang on to an older CRT TV, so whether they know what an HDMI cable is or not, they’re using one. HDMI is a nice format because that same cable from 20 years ago works with your TV made today. While it’s cool to see that HDMI has kept the same plug the whole time, something other cables can’t say, it’s also one of the biggest issues.
Technology has come a long way since 2006, and in those days we were getting the early HDTVs and pairing them with a PS3 or Xbox 360. Believe it or not, I still have some surviving HDMI cables from those days, and they still work fine. Of course, they don’t have the same speeds as modern cables. For a lot of things, that’s not important, but if you care about things like VRR, 120hz, and Dolby Atmos, you should be using the newest cables available.
It’s difficult to tell the difference between these cables if you don’t know what to look for. A good rule of thumb is to use the cable that comes with your device, as it’ll be bundled with something that can squeeze out the best performance. This means you might have to replace old cables, but it’s better to do that instead of bottlenecking your new game console.
HDMI cables all look the same, and it’s an issue
It’s hard to know what does what
When you look at USB, there are so many different cables available, and it always feels like you have one for specific situations. It’s only very recently that USB-C has taken over, and now it’s one size fits all, but they don’t all have the same performance. HDMI has been doing that for decades, but it’s started to create some issues as the generations overlap. HDMI 2.0 and 2.1 are both readily available, and 2.2 is here, so there are now three different cables to pick from. In most cases, a 2.0 cable is just fine, but for 120 FPS gaming and VRR, you need a 2.1 cable. If you want the best performance out of your Dolby Atmos sound system, you want a 2.1 cable plugged into your TV’s eARC port.
If you are using an older cable, you’re essentially choking your TV’s performance and holding it back from what it could be. If you want to make sure you’re using the proper cable, there are a few ways to check that. The easiest one would be to read what’s printed on the cable itself. If it’s a 2.1 cable, it’ll say Ultra High Speed HDMI directly on it. I don’t blame you for not being able to see this because it’s quite small, and I don’t know how many people actually read their cables to begin with.
Another way to check is to go into the settings of your PS5 or Xbox Series X console and see if you have access to VRR and 120 FPS. If you don’t, and you know your TV supports both of those things, then you know your cables aren’t up to snuff. The good news is that new cables don’t cost an arm and a leg to pick up, so it’s an easy problem to fix. Unfortunately, there are some other underlying issues plaguing the HDMI format that don’t have as much to do with HDMI as they do with devices themselves.
HDMI is progressing too fast
We still aren’t maximizing the format
Perhaps a bigger problem with HDMI is the fact that HDMI 2.2 is here, and I have no idea who or what it’s for. It boasts speeds of up to 96 Mbps, doubling the speed of HDMI 2.1 before it. That’s a great improvement, but the issue is that it feels like we haven’t really scratched the surface of what HDMI 2.1 can do. Aside from Dolby Atmos and game consoles, pretty much everything is fine using HDMI 2.0, so I can’t imagine we’re going to see much from what HDMI 2.2 can do. Faster speeds don’t mean much if nothing can utilize them.
HDMI cables aren’t some magical device that’ll get faster speeds out of things that don’t support it, so we’ll have to wait and see if there’s something around the corner that supports the faster format. There are some promising developments, like Dolby Atmos sort of came out of nowhere and benefits from the newer formats. I need to see something like that come along to really sell me on what HDMI 2.2 can do. As for right now, I don’t see much of a reason to go out and buy these cables. The only thing working in HDMI 2.2’s favor right now is the backwards compatibility. There’s no downside to buying an HDMI 2.2 cable since it’ll work with your current devices. In that way, you can future-proof your entire household. I’m not in a rush to do that, but it’s something you can consider.
