HDMI gets a new Chinese competitor – and it could be 8K's saviour (2025)

HDMI has been the universal standard for connecting TV, AV and home cinema equipment for quite some time, after it made its debut in 2002. Now, 23 years later, there is a rival on the scene – better late than never, we suppose.

General Purpose Media Interface – GPMI – is a sternly titled new standard that comes in two flavours, Type-C and Type-B, both of which are set to surpass the current HDMI 2.1 standard in terms of claimed bandwidth.

It has been developed in China, with 50 companies reportedly backing the new interface, including the Shenzhen International 8K Ultra HD Video Industry Collaboration Alliance, which is leading the project.

Type-C is set to support up to 96Gbps (the same figure as the recently announced HDMI 2.2 standard), while Type-B will reportedly feature a mind-boggling 192Gbps.

News shared by HiSilicon, which appears to be backing GPMI, highlights the technology's capability of "supporting 8K ultra-high-definition video transmission". This is probably an attribute of the more advanced bandwidth capabilities of the new interface, which will supposedly be able to handle the higher resolution video format.

However, there is a twist: GPMI is set to exceed HDMI in terms of capabilities. While HDMI is limited to transporting picture and sound, GPMI will also deliver power and data, much like the Thunderbolt 5 connection found on Apple Macs and high-powered computers. Furthermore, it features the capability to control equipment in a similar way to HDMI CEC, meaning powering on a GPMI-enabled source will also power on your connected and supported TV.

GPMI Type-C will use a USB-C connection (the same found on Thunderbolt 5) and will feature up to 240W of power delivery, while the Type-B variant will use a proprietary connection and feature up to 480W of power delivery.

This means that, hypothetically, devices connected to a supported TV with a GPMI connection, such as a laptop or tablet, will be able to transfer picture and sound to the TV while receiving power from it.

On the subject of supported TVs, it has been confirmed that Hisense and TCL will back this new media interface, which should come as no surprise, as they are two of the most prominent Chinese consumer electronics brands.

We're not sure if Hisense or TCL will include the new connection in their respective 2025 TV lineups, or if the port will even be included in the western versions of the sets.

We are also unsure of the implications this new interface could have on the future of HDMI. At the time of writing, none of the Korean or Japanese TV brands has signalled support for the new connection, but considering it is touted to support 8K video transmission, we could well see Samsung showing interest as it's a major proprietor of 8K screens.

We also have to consider HDMI 2.2, which was revealed at CES 2025. That hasn't made an appearance yet, but there could well be a two-horse race in the mission to succeed HDMI 2.1.

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