The Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) Consortium is announcing a new SuperMHL standard today that will make it easier for people to transfer and view video on 8K displays. Akin to its rivals HDMI or DisplayPort, SuperMHL can transfer data at high speeds and power a mobile device connected to it at the same time.
You can plug a normal MHL cable into a smartphone, laptop, set-top box, streaming-media stick, or Blu-ray player at one end. And then you can plug the other end into a television or display with a resolution of 8K, which is the favored technology for the next generation of displays. the new SuperMHL standard and cable can handle a maximum resolution of 8K (somewhere between 7680 × 4320 and 10080 × 4320, depending on your screen) at 120 frames per second in its 6-lane cable configuration.
For now, SuperMHL will be the only option for 8K TV, and in fact Samsung already has an 8K TV with superMHL up and running for CES. But how long it superMHL remains the only option for 8K is another matter entirely. Even outside of its higher bandwidth support, superMHL has some other technological advantages such as the reversible connector and the ability to carry power which give it an advantage over HDMI for 4K video, but for most cases this is not going to be a massive advantage.
