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Displays for Gaming What to Know When Purchasing a TV or Monitor for Video Game Play By Michael Heiss Along with toilet paper, laptops, webcams, and all sorts of other things that one might never have thought would have shortages at the start of the pandemic, add video game consoles to the list. In hindsight, it makes sense. People stuck inside and unable to congregate found video games to be a great way to release the tension and boredom, as well as use the “chat” features to converse with others. At this point, anyone who is interested in console or PC gaming will likely know more about the comparisons between Xbox Series X and PS5, as well as the benefits of the latest PC graphics cards such as the highly sought after Nvidia RTX series. However, at the end of the day, the source has to be connected to a sink. Once the only option for that was an RF connection to a TV, later surpassed by baseband video. On the console side, however, it used to be “VGA or nothing.” Now, with the exception of specialized applications where you might see DisplayPort or Thunderbolt on a source device, everything is HDMI. Great, that matches up to both consumer displays, be they direct view or projection or monitors. Where that leaves us is that games are just another input source, which means that to some viewers everything is easy and great. However, for the growing number of game aficionados, it’s more than that. As you look at the new TVs being introduced now and going through the “holiday selling season,” you’ll see a “game mode” featured in one form or another. The fact that manufacturers are pushing this means that there is interest, so what is it all about and what do you need to know when purchasing a TV for yourself or specifying one for a client installation? Let’s Start with HDMI HDMI is the “pipe” that makes it possible to deliver high frame rate, high resolution, and better color. All of those things, as they are added together, require more bits that
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Residential Tech Today | Summer 2021
Most contemporary sets, such as the TCL 85R745 have the ability to label an input for video games. TCL’s new 85-inch set will combine virtually everything one needs for gaming and entertainment.
accumulate into a data package that HDMI 2.0 just can’t handle. At the top level, the easiest way to understand this is to remember that the upper limit for HDMI 2.0 is 18 Gbps, or a bit less when you take into consideration some headroom. That is acceptable for most of the current 4K frame rate, bit depth, color sampling combinations that you will encounter today. At least for now, almost every movie or entertainment content combination won’t go over that speed limit. Gaming, however, is a different story. As time moves forward, you will see more games with 10- or perhaps even 12-bit color. Frame rates will climb from the everyday 60fps to 120fps and, for PC gaming, even higher. Add in dynamic HDR systems such as Dolby Vision at high frame rates and the coming 8K native games, or existing games upconverted to 8K, and you’ll quickly find that you are well over the speed limit. No, you won’t get a ticket for that type of speeding, but things will slow down or just not look as good.
HDMI 2.1 provides up to 48Gbps, but as is the case with most of the other parts of today’s puzzle, the end result speed is not specified or mandated. As always, it is a good idea to futureproof. Maybe not today, but within the set’s life cycle it may be presented with format combinations such as 4K/120fps/12 bit/4:4:4 color or 8K/60p/12-bit color. To have a chance to move that through the HDMI pipe, you will definitely need to look for not only a display, but an AVR with full 48Gbps and cables that can handle the load. There are many data rate charts available online and it is worth taking a look at one to see what will be needed and use that as a guideline for display selection. HDMI 2.1 is Almost a Must Although a display with HDMI 2.1 is almost a must for gaming, it isn’t as simple as that because “2.1” isn’t a single thing. Instead, HDMI 2.1 is a collection of features from which the manufacturer may choose. They can have some or all, but if they have only one it is still kosher to use the HDMI 2.1 designation.
