HDMI 2.1 Specification Sees Strong Adoption Numbers and New Announcements at CES 2019

Since the HDMI 2.1 Specification was released in November 2017, manufacturers of several products including semiconductors, TVs, AVRs, soundbars, and game consoles have made announcements on upcoming releases supporting the specification. During CES 2019, the HDMI Licensing Administrator (HDMI LA) organization reported an increasing number of new product announcements covering a broad range of categories, and forecasted annual shipments with HDMI interface to reach almost 1 Billion devices in 2019.

Initially unveiled at CES 2017, Version 2.1 of the HDMI Specification is now published and brings so much more than just support for resolutions up to 10K and Dynamic HDR. In fact HDMI 2.1 is a huge leap forward, introducing a new Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable, which also supports Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), multichannel uncompressed 24-bit/192 kHz audio, and support to advanced audio formats - including DTS Master, DTS:X, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and more.

During NAB 2017, intoPIX, a leading provider of innovative compression technologies, announced new TICO compression IP-cores managing up to ultra-high-definition 8K video combined with low power consumption for FPGA and ASIC implementations. The cores offer unique performances at a very light implementation cost for handling HD, 4K and 8K content. The technology is particularly suitable for reducing bandwidth and preserving image quality without any delay in new 8K applications.