The HDMI Forum is using CES — the annual showcase of all things home theater — to announce the new HDMI 2.2 specification. In a press release this morning, the trade association confirmed that the new spec will up total bandwidth significantly to a new high of 96Gbps. And yes, that means the introduction of an “Ultra96” HDMI cable that “enables all the HDMI 2.2 specification features.”

“Higher resolutions and refresh rates will be supported and more high-quality options will be provided,” the HDMI Forum said in its release. An example of an HDMI 2.2 cable (below) calls out some of those, including 4K at up to 480Hz, 8K at up to 240Hz, and 10K at 120Hz. Current HDMI cables can already pass 4K at 120Hz, so I doubt most people will feel any temptation to upgrade for years to come. And you’ll need content for any of these higher resolutions to be worthwhile, and there’s still a dearth of native 8K entertainment out there. 

But with many TVs now offering 4K at up to 144Hz, and as consumers gravitate towards larger screens, the HDMI Forum sees ample reason to keep pushing forward. 

There is at least a more helpful aspect of this spec for everyone: HDMI 2.2 includes a “Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) for improving audio and video synchronization, especially for multiple-hop system configurations such as those with an audio video receiver or soundbar.” In my experience, HDMI 2.1 and eARC have mostly resolved frustrating audio / video sync issues, but they can still pop up as a frustration depending on your setup. Apparently HDMI 2.2 will go further in keeping everything lined up and keeping this headache in the past.

Interestingly, the HDMI Forum is already anticipating tariff issues and has implemented an extensive certification program that includes anti-counterfeit labeling on packaging. You certainly can’t miss the Ultra96 badging.

HDMI 2.2 will be released in the first half of this year and be widely available “to all HDMI 2.x adopters.” Your TV and external devices will need to support the specification in order to unlock that new level of bandwidth, so we’re just starting down what’s inevitably going to be a long road.

Buying a smart home product today means checking which ecosystems it works with by looking for the little “Works with Apple Home” or “Works with Google” badge on the package. Matter was supposed to get rid of those because if a product works with Matter, it should work with all the big smart home platforms. That hasn’t happened yet, and now we have one more badge to look for: the Matter badge.

Getting all those badges is about to get simpler for manufacturers, though. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which runs Matter, announced today that Apple, Google, and Samsung will all accept its certification for their “Works With” programs:

The Alliance is excited to share that Apple has begun accepting Alliance Interop Lab test results for Matter devices for Works With Apple Home, and that Google and Samsung will be doing the same for their respective Works With Google Home, and Works With SmartThings certifications later this year, underscoring the credibility and reliability of the Alliance’s testing programs.

This means device makers won’t have to put their gadgets through a separate testing program for each platform to wear its “Works With” badge. If they get certified as a Matter Device by the CSA, they can show their results to the other ecosystems and get those badges, too, without doing any more testing. This makes it much easier for device makers and gets us one step closer to just one badge to rule them all. (Notably, Amazon has not announced participation for Works with Alexa.)

The CSA also announced a new FastTrack Recertification Program and a Portfolio Certification Program that lets companies certify multiple products more efficiently. A complaint I’ve heard frequently from smart home companies is that getting devices certified and recertified by Matter when they make a change or an update is a laborious and expensive process that slows down their development work. The CSA says these two new programs simplify both processes and make them less costly and complicated.

LG and Samsung have both announced their 2025 smart TVs at CES this weekend, and some of them will include access to Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant. Both TV manufacturers are chasing the artificial intelligence hype train with dedicated AI sections on their smart TVs that include a shortcut to a Copilot web app.

LG is adding an entire AI section to its TVs and rebranding its remote to “AI Remote,” in an effort to sell consumers on the promise of large language models. While it’s not clear exactly how Copilot works on LG’s latest TVs, the company describes access to Copilot as a way to allow users to “efficiently find and organize complex information using contextual cues.”

LG hasn’t demonstrated its Copilot integration just yet, but it has shown off its own AI Chatbot that’s part of its TVs. It appears Copilot will be surfaced when LG TV users want to search for more information on a particular subject.

Samsung also has its own Vision AI brand for its AI-powered TV features this year, which include AI upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering, and Adaptive Sound Pro. There’s also a new AI button on the remote to access AI features like recognizing food on a screen or AI home security features that analyze video feeds from smart cameras. 

Microsoft’s Copilot will be part of this Vision AI section. “In collaboration with Microsoft, Samsung announced the new Smart TVs and Smart Monitors featuring Microsoft Copilot,” says Samsung in a press release. “This partnership will enable users to explore a wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations.”

I asked Samsung for more information or images of Copilot in action, but the company doesn’t have anything more to share right now. I’ve also asked LG and Microsoft for more information about Copilot on TVs and neither company has responded in time for publication. Without any indication of exactly how Copilot works on these TVs, I’m going to chalk this one up as a gimmicky feature that LG, Samsung, and Microsoft clearly aren’t ready to demo yet.

via https://www.osnews.com/story/141482/the-mac-os-x-dock-turns-25/