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. [me: not really very impressive considering it doesn’t allow much over 8k resolution]
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
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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.
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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.
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Source: HDMI 2.2 debuts, with an ‘Ultra96’ cable for tomorrow’s displays | PCWorld
So it’s not really there yet and will only support 4K at 480Hz and 8K at 240Hz. Too late and way too little.
Robin Edgar
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