Hi everyone,

I’m a new poster and was looking for input regarding set-up. With the next gen of consoles around the corner I want to tick off this current cycle’s best games in good style (and hopefully leave me in good shape for 2020 onwards).

1) Is there a specific thing I should be worried about when considering a 4K HDR TV? (I’m thinking about getting a LG C9 OLED as recommended by Digital Foundry)

2) Is there a better class of HDMI cable I should be looking at to support the TV?

Note: I’m only using PlayStation at the moment but looking to get Xbox One and Nintendo Switch so I guess I’m coming from an all-round perspective.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I struggle with tech and its jargon.

1. If DF recommends it and you can afford it it’s probably a good buy. I went for a Sony Bravia 49” 4K HDR set about a year ago and I love it. A bargain at under £600. But I’m no AV guru.

2. Do not waste money on snake oil HDMI cables: https://www.cnet.com/news/4k-hdmi-cables-are-nonsense/

ratsoalbion wrote: ↑June 11th, 2019, 11:36 pm 1. If DF recommends it and you can afford it it’s probably a good buy. I went for a Sony Bravia 49” 4K HDR set about a year ago and I love it. A bargain at under £600. But I’m no AV guru.

Would you suggest the same thing for someone only using it for blu-ray movies?

The two current big boy consoles use a specific type of HDR, called HDR10.

So just make sure the panel you are buying supports that - most do.

Generally buying any sort of panel now, in 2019 will garnish good results.

Most input lag has been reduced to a un-noticeable level when put into game mode and viewing angles are wide enough on these LED screens - although there are variables.

Any OLED panel will be stunning.

Digital cables are pretty much lossless, so don’t bother consider getting anything special regards those - it’s nothing like as important as with analogue cables.


Finally, if you’re sensitive to visuals, consider setting up your non-4K consoles, on a different input setting. As the Switch can look a bit blown out and overly sharp on an input configured for 4K.

Also find a good calibration setting for your TV and spend some time setting it up, the difference can be quite pleasing once you find an optimum setting for your room and inputs.

This has really helped me out everyone, thanks for chipping in

Yeah as Leon said you can buy HDMI cables for upwards of £50 but It's not worth it. As long as the cable supports HDMI 2.0 you'll be fine. Mine was less than a fiver. Same rule used to apply for speaker cable when I was in to home stereo stuff. You'd see gold plated stuff for like £14 a metre or whatever, when the 50p a metre stuff did the exact same job.

One thing to check once you have the TV, many need you to 'turn on' 4K/HDR on the HDMI connections on the TV itself before the consoles will recognise your TV as 4K/HDR compatible, so be sure to look into that.