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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tomatek Jap and this completely over-the-top TV is the 77-inch LG G1, perfect
00:08for your PS5, your Series X or even your gaming PC.
00:12So we'll dive into the G1 specifically in just a second, but what actually makes a great
00:16gaming TV?
00:17What should you be looking for?
00:18Well, there's five things really.
00:20You want 4K at 120Hz, HDMI 2.1, support for variable refresh rates, whether it's through
00:26the HDMI, G-Sync or FreeSync, Auto Low Latency Modes or ALLM, and finally, low response times
00:33and low input lag.
00:36I'll explain what all that means, but really most mid to high-end 2021 TVs should have
00:41most of those now, and of course also last year's flagships will have those features,
00:45but obviously because they're a year old they'll be a little bit discounted, so that's worth
00:49looking at.
00:50But I'd say a good rule of thumb is if the TV has at least one HDMI 2.1 port, then it's
00:55probably got all the other features as well, and you're all set.
00:59But what about 8K?
01:00I hear about two or three of you murmuring in the back.
01:03Well, yes, I mean that technically will be more future-proof and these next-gen consoles
01:08do support it, but there's nothing to play, right now at least.
01:11I think unless you have money to burn, 8K is still a bit of a waste of time, for gaming
01:16at least, because you will see some upscaling in picture quality for TV and movies, but
01:21not with games.
01:22So really, unless you're hooking up your gaming PC with a 3080 Ti or a 3090, and then playing
01:28games on medium or low with DLSS if it supports it, it's just a bit of a waste of time.
01:33I would put your money into either getting a bigger TV or one with a fancier OLED or
01:38QLED panel.
01:39That will make a much bigger difference, and conveniently I actually have an 8K LG NanoCell
01:43TV and also a 4K OLED, and 99% of the time I would take the 4K OLED.
01:50You just don't really need 8K right now, maybe in 3 or 4 years.
01:54But let's get back to the G1, and I've had this for a little over a month now and I love
01:59this thing.
02:00I've been playing a whole bunch of Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, Resident Evil, Mass Effect.
02:04There's quite a lot to play now, especially with all the next-gen updates for games like
02:08the brand new FF7 remake, which just looks so good on this.
02:13Now the benefit of this G series, the G1, over the more popular C series like the C1
02:19is two-fold actually.
02:20Firstly, we have this zero gap wall mount.
02:23It's part of their gallery design and means you can wall mount the TV and it's flush against
02:27the wall, which looks great, although as you can see here I've got my Philips Hue light
02:31strip so it does sit proud a couple of centimetres.
02:34More importantly though, exclusive to this and their super crazy expensive Z series,
02:39is this OLED Evo panel, which in my tests is between 10 and 20% brighter across the
02:45whole screen versus the C1 or last year's TVs.
02:49As you guys know, the biggest limiting factor to OLED TVs still is the brightness, at least
02:54compared to the QLED competition, so I'll take all the extra nits I possibly can.
02:58However, with a peak of a little under 700 nits, as I say, this still doesn't come close
03:04to the 2, 3, even 4,000 nits you can get on some of the super high-end QLED competition.
03:10I've been talking about this whole OLED versus QLED thing for years now.
03:14I was even at the launch of the original QLED in Paris back in, what was it, 2017 now,
03:19and since then there's been this ongoing debate of which is better.
03:21Well, this isn't that video, but in my experience it comes down to how bright is your room.
03:27If you have a really bright room, you can't control the lighting, then I would go with
03:31a QLED, which is brighter and in the case of Samsung TVs you get a much better anti-reflective
03:35coating so that gives you a better experience, but if you can have a proper movie or game
03:40night in darker settings, then personally I would always take an OLED over anything
03:45else because you just can't compete with that near-infinite contrast, those deep inky
03:49colours and of course that lack of blooming compared to traditional LED or even mini-LED
03:54TVs.
03:55And having just played through Resident Evil Village with all the tunnels and dark areas,
03:59that game was made for OLED.
04:01It just looks incredible.
04:02But let's talk about money, and for this 77-inch G1, you're looking at paying about
04:07£800 more over the C1 with a £500 difference at 65 inches.
04:13But crucially, in terms of gaming, besides the slight improvement to brightness, which
04:17is occasionally noticeable but sometimes I think I'm just convincing myself and it's
04:21a placebo effect, they are virtually identical and to be honest, I would probably just save
04:25the cash and go with the C1.
04:28Because both have pretty much instant 2.3ms response times, even beating Samsung's latest
04:33mini-LED Neo QLEDs by a few milliseconds.
04:37So we get minimal motion blur and inputs feel instantaneous.
04:41However, whichever TV you're using, whichever brand, if you have a game mode, make sure
04:46you're using it.
04:47Because this turns off a lot of the background TV processing and gives you the fastest response
04:52times.
04:53But then we have VRR, or Variable Refresh Rates, and this is where things get a little
04:58bit more complicated, but again, you don't really need to worry about it, it all happens
05:02behind the scenes.
05:04It'll automatically be turned on, although some TVs do have these game optimizer menus
05:08where you can check.
05:09VRR essentially allows the TV to adjust its refresh rate in real time to the frame rate
05:15that's being output by your console.
05:17PC gamers are pretty familiar with this and it helps to reduce screen tearing and smooth
05:20out your frame rate.
05:22Unfortunately right now, the PS5 doesn't support any kind of variable refresh, but
05:26it is expected to in the future.
05:28The Xbox works with FreeSync and if you're PC gaming on this, then you can take advantage
05:32of either FreeSync or G-Sync.
05:35Lots of fancy tech working mostly behind the scenes just to give you a smoother and better
05:40gaming experience.
05:41But when it comes to thinking about what the best gaming TV is, we actually have to go
05:46beyond the TV itself because just as important, or at least almost as important as a great
05:51picture is great sound.
05:53So I would highly suggest you pair your new gaming TV with a proper speaker system or
05:58a soundbar.
05:59As I can tell you from personal experience, going from the built-in speakers of the G1
06:04to a Sonos ARC and then adding a couple of SL1 surrounds and eventually a sub because
06:09I've moved house and it's now detached so I'm not pissing off my neighbours and
06:13it just gives you that extra oomph to firing a gun or blowing something up in games that
06:17even the best TVs just can't match internally.
06:29So with all that said, I know exactly what you're thinking.
06:45You are thinking, Tom, that sounds great but not everyone has a spare four and a half grand
06:50or so to drop in an LG G1 77-inch and you are absolutely right.
06:55This is completely excessive and well beyond the budgets of 99.9% of us.
07:01So everyone's budget and setup is different but my top buy right now for a properly future
07:06proof, all singing, all dancing gaming TV would be the 48-inch LG C1 which costs about
07:13£1300 or so right now.
07:16Still not exactly cheap but this video is all about the best gaming TVs.
07:20Although I would also highly recommend looking at last year's models or even waiting until
07:24November and Black Friday because new TVs come down in price an awful lot.
07:29But it's all relative and a basic 4K HDR TV is more than good enough for most of us.
07:35But if you are a keen gamer and have some pretty deep pockets then something like LG's
07:39C1, G1, Sony's A90J, Samsung's QN94A or similar are all incredible gaming TVs.
07:48If you do fancy checking out this stuff and my setup for yourself, I'll leave links
07:51to everything I've talked about in the description below and I'd also love to hear what TV you're
07:55using right now and also if you're thinking about upgrading this year, what models are
07:59you considering?
08:00Let me know in the comments.
08:02Thank you so much for watching guys.
08:03Hit that subscribe button if you want to see more from me and I'll catch you next time
08:06right here on The Tech Chat.