THE TROUBLE WITH HDMI

The PS5 and Xbox Series X have exposed serious complications with the humble HDMI port. For while on the one hand we have the next-gen consoles promising such goodies as 4K/120Hz graphics, variable refresh rates and automatic low latency mode switching, the HDMIs sported by many of today’s TVs – even many 2020 models, including the majority of Sony sets – don’t have enough bandwidth to support all of these features. Or, in some cases, they only support these new features via one of their HDMIs – despite there being two next-gen consoles. The same issues apply to the latest AV receivers, too.

The only ranges of TVs in the UK that support pretty much all the big new next-gen gaming features across all their HDMI inputs are LG’s 2019 and 2020 OLEDs. Let’s hope the other brands sort themselves out for 2021, at least.