The next DisplayPort standard will bring support for uncompressed 8K video

The Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) has announced that it will soon commence work on the next generation of the DisplayPort standard to accommodate higher display bandwidth requirements in the coming years. The Association hopes to finalize the standard within the next 18 months. If all goes according to plan, uncompressed 8K video will soon be a reality.

The industry is just warming up to DisplayPort 1.4 that implements the High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3) signalling standard. HBR3 offers up to 32.4 Gbps raw bandwidth in a 4-lane configuration that can drive a 5120 x 2880 display at 60 Hz with full RGB color. It can also drive 8K displays but requires the input video to undergo Display Stream Compression (DSC) or lesser chroma subsampling. Eventually, the requirement of uncompressed 8K+ video will be inevitable, therefore, VESA aims to double the bandwidth of HBR3 to 64.8 Gbps+. This could result in the HBR4 signalling standard or whatever VESA plans to name it. This will also bring benefits to device vendors to improve bandwidth available via USB-C ports that offer DisplayPort Alt Mode. 

8K is not a one-horse race as VESA faces competition from the HDMI consortium, which has already released the HDMI 2.1 specification that offers 48 Gbps bandwidth. The HDMI 2.1 standard will support 8K@120 Hz and 10K@120 Hz with DSC active. While HDMI 2.1 does require new cabling, VESA has not yet specified whether it will retain its existing cabling for the upcoming standard or go by the DisplayPort Alt Mode, now that most vendors are looking to reuse USB-C ports for all data.

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