The SN65DSI86 supports two 4-lane MIPI DSI inputs called DSIA and DSIB. Each lane supports a data rate up to 1.5 Gbps and can accept 18 bpp or 24 bpp RGB data. When only using the DSIA channel, the SN65DSI86 can support an maximum video stream rate of 6 Gbps that easily supports HD resolutions. If larger resolutions like 4K2K are required, the maximum stream rate can be increased to 12 Gbps by using both DSIA and DSIB channels. When using both DSIA and DSIB channels, the SN65DSI86 requires the pixels on each active line to be broken up into either odd pixels on DSIA and even pixels on DSIB, or left half of line on DSIA and right half of line on DSIB.

The SN65DSI86 also supports DSI generic read and write operation. Using DSI generic reads and writes, the external GPU can configure the SN65DSI86 internal registers and communicate with eDP panels. The DSI generic read and writes is also used for panel self refresh (PSR). In order to use the PSR feature, the eDP panel must support PSR and the GPU must support generating generic reads and writes without stopping the video stream. Generic reads and writes must be performed during video blanking time in order for PSR to work properly.