Gaming Specs Coming Soon for HDMI, With Set-Tops Perhaps in 2019, HDMI LA President Says

Up next for HDMI 2.1 specifications is gaming, with set-top boxes and others to come later, its New York media event was told Thursday. A Microsoft upgrade for Xbox One X is enabling some features, said HDMI Licensing Administrator President Rob Tobias. The 48 Gbps high-bandwidth fixed-rate link signaling technology, a replacement for transition-minimized differential signaling, is under development, he said, and “toward the end of the pipeline.” HDMI 2.1 semiconductor and IP core technologies have been announced by AMD, LG, Lattice Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and others. The chips are “enablers” for TVs, PCs and set-tops to bring next-generation technologies to market, said Tobias. For 2019, he said “brand-name” HDMI 2.1 SoCs supporting set-tops, streaming media sticks and other products are expected to be announced.