GPMI – Just When HDMI Was Finally Playing Nice

Last week, China introduced a brand-new video cable standard called the General Purpose Multimedia Interface (GPMI) — and it’s looking to take on HDMI, the cable many of us have been using (and sometimes cursing at) for the past 20 years.

You might remember HDMI showed up in the early 2000s, pushed by big Hollywood studios like Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. It came at a time when we were shifting from VHS tapes to DVDs and Blu-rays. Their concern? That digital copies of HD movies would be too good and too easy to pirate. HDMI brought in copy protection to stop that — along with some actual improvements — but it also became notorious for connection issues and compatibility headaches. Many in the industry jokingly called it the “Highly Defective Multimedia Interface.”

In recent years, though, HDMI has calmed down a bit — we’ve learned to live with it. But now, GPMI is stepping in to stir things up again, and we might be heading into another VHS vs. Betamax-style format war.

So far, GPMI is being supported mainly by Chinese tech brands — not exactly household names here in New Zealand (yet). But that could change fast if consumers like it, or the Chinese government pushes it into the mainstream.

Some are even calling it the Geo-Political Multimedia Interface because of the timing and who’s behind it.

Why might you care? GPMI is ready for 8K resolution, and it can carry video, audio, and power all in one cable — kind of like USB-C. That alone could make it a serious alternative to HDMI.

What we don’t know yet:
– Will it replace HDMI or live alongside it?
– Will Hollywood play nice if GPMI doesn’t give them the same level of copy protection (and profits)?

Stay tuned — this could get interesting.