In today, quickly evolving digital world, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) has already had a remarkably long run. This has been possible because the creators and keepers of the HDMI specifications have repeatedly updated the system in order to enable more features and higher-resolution video. Almost all this evolution has been in the hardware, though there have also been meaningful upgrades to the cable specifications.
All HDMI generations of HDMI cables are backward compatible — all will work, though at lower resolution because older cables were not designed to carry as much data as current-specification cables. 4K TVs are now the norm, and 8K displays are available, so it's important that new TVs be supported with HDMI cables that have the 18Gbps bandwidth necessary to transmit video up to 8K/30.