Most of the best TVs nowadays come with three or four HDMI ports and what these are capable of varies from model to model, and brand to brand.
If you’ve got a gaming console or one of the best soundbars, you sometimes need to make sure you’re connecting to the right HDMI port, otherwise your console could be underperforming, and in the case of your soundbar, it won’t work if it’s not connected to the correct HDMI port.
Below, I’ll first take you through the different types of HDMI ports, what they can support – and then I’ll explain how you can tell which one is which.
HDMI ports explained
There are currently three types of HDMI ports that you’ll come across depending on the age of your TV: 1.4, 2.0 and 2.1.
HDMI 1.4 is one of the older generations of HDMI. It supports 4K (also known as Ultra HD) pictures at 24Hz (meaning 24 frames per second) and 1080p HD at up to 120Hz (although the latter is debated). You’re likely to come across HDMI 1.4 on cheaper or smaller TVs such as the best 32-inch TVs, which are primarily only rated at 1080p anyway.
Next, is HDMI 2.0. This supports 4K at 60Hz (ie, up to 60 frames per second) and 1080p at 120Hz, and is rated for 18Gbps of data bandwidth (meaning the maximum amount of data that it can handle). This is still one of the more common HDMI port types you’ll find on a lot of TVs, especially budget ones. It also supports HDR, important for both gaming and the best 4K Blu-ray players.
Finally, there’s HDMI 2.1. This supports 4K at 120Hz, as well as higher refresh rates at lower resolutions. It’s also rated for 8K 60Hz, but there isn’t a great deal of 8K content readily available right now. It has 48Gbps of total bandwidth – so you can see it’s a lot more capable than the 18Gbps of HDMI 1.4.
At CES 2025, the HDMI Forum Inc, the company behind designing the HDMI spec, revealed HDMI 2.2, which is said to hit 16K resolution, 96Gbps bandwidth and even 4K at a 480Hz refresh rate for gaming. Since its announcement, no TVs have come with HDMI 2.2, and it could be a few years before we see it incorporated into TVs and other displays.
So we’ve explored what different types of HDMI ports there are, but what about your devices? What do you need in order to hook up your soundbar, gaming console, 4K Blu-ray player or even your PC?
For soundbars, you must connect to your TV’s HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) or HDMI eARC port. These HDMI ports are specifically used for sending audio signals from the TV to the soundbar. ARC and eARC work in similar ways, but eARC has higher audio bandwidth that allows for more uncompressed audio support, including Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Audio.
This port will be specifically labelled on your TV as either HDMI ARC or maybe just ARC. It’s likely that there will only be one.
For gaming devices, it depends what gaming console you have. If you have a PS5, Xbox Series X or PC, you’ll want to connect to an HDMI 2.1 port. That’s because these three gaming devices all support 4K at 120Hz and HDMI 2.1 is the only one that supports 120Hz at 4K. This will mean faster response times and smoother motion during gaming.
While you absolutely can connect these consoles to an HDMI 2.0 port, you’ll be limited to 4K 60Hz at best. Casual players won’t mind this, but the limitation will irk more committed gamers who buy high-end consoles for higher-end performance.
If you have an older gaming device, such as a PS4 or Nintendo Switch, then HDMI 2.0 is all you need.
One quick note when connecting current-gen gaming consoles: you’ll want to head to the HDMI settings of your TV (usually found under General Settings or Connections) and make sure it’s set to Enhanced (this may have a different name depending on what brand you have). This will unlock 4K 120Hz, if the port supports it.
Finally, for 4K Blu-ray players and streaming devices such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, you’ll want to connect to an HDMI 2.0 port. This is because it supports 4K HDR, which most 4K Blu-rays and 4K streaming content is available in.
How to find these ports
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What HDMI ports your TV supports and which HDMI port is which varies from brand to brand and what type of TV you have.
For a lot of our testing at TechRadar, we use the LG G5, one of 2025’s best OLED TVs. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports, all fully rated for 4K 144Hz and other gaming features. This means that nearly all ports are identical, and you can plug anything into any of them.
The only port that matters is the eARC port, and this is clearly labelled physically on the TV (HDMI 2 in this case).
While some brands have more HDMI 2.1 ports than others (LG and Samsung nearly always have four), brands such as TCL, Hisense and Sony will support at least two HDMI 2.1 ports, with one or two more HDMI 2.0 ports as well.
Usually one of these will be the eARC port, leaving one free for games consoles. It doesn’t just have to be high-end TVs for gaming – in fact, the TCL QM6K and TCL C6K and the Hisense U8QG are featured in our best gaming TV list.
For these TVs, again the HDMI ports will most likely be labelled. TCL often labels its ports as ‘4K/144Hz’ for HDMI 2.1, and ‘4K/60Hz’ for HDMI 2.0, for example.
If you’re looking to buy a new TV, it’s a good idea to check what devices you have and what HDMI ports you’ll need and check that against what HDMI ports your new prospective TV has.
The best TVs for all budgets
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james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
