We already know that CES 2025 is going to be big for TVs, but things just got even more interesting with the rumored announcement of HDMI 2.2.

The HDMI Forum confirmed via email that the “next generation HDMI” will be announced at CES 2025 on January 6. Details are not yet available.

So first, let's take a look back. Currently, HDMI 2.1b will be announced in 2023, supporting resolutions up to 10K and bandwidth up to 48 bps. This also allows for variable refresh rates of up to 144Hz (but you will find that most HDMI 2.1 sockets support up to 4K 120Hz - purely because of the on-board horsepower that would be required to feed a 10K image at this kind of speed, it would be bonkers (which would be nuts).

This is a dramatic increase in bandwidth from the 6Gbps seen in HDMI 2.0, but still falls short of the 80Gbps seen in DisplayPort 2.1. One standard is primarily used in televisions, while the other is almost exclusively a computing port. [However, HDMI LA promises “higher quality options” for game developers as well as TV and film studios, and I expect HDMI 2.2 bandwidth to get much closer to DP.

What I would like to note here is the focus on gaming for the hype of this standard: with Nvidia's RTX 50 series GPUs sure to be announced, AMD seems to be jumping the gun with their own RDNA 3 GPUs (and the next generation Ryzen Z2 for PC handhelds). [No word on HDMI 2.2 coming to gaming PCs or gaming laptops, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does, and that brings true native support for 8K gameplay.

Yes, I know that 8K is technically supported by this cable standard, but I hope that further improvements in bandwidth, alongside improvements in efficiency and fixed rate lane (FRL) implementation, will help move the entire industry forward. [For example, FRL 6 gives us a full 48, while FRL 5 gives us 40 and FRL 4 only 32. A bit geeky, but the issue I am pointing out here is that not all HDMI 2.1 ports are the same.

Display companies will have to play catch-up, and believe me when I say that it will cost a lot to buy the first one (plus the additional investment of a new HDMI cable), but this is a dream come true for pixel peepers.

Furthermore, these specs are worth paying close attention to, as they could also be seen on next-generation game consoles. No, I'm not talking about the Nintendo Switch 2, but rather the PS6 (or whatever Sony names it) and the next-generation Xbox.