playstation lcd screen free sample

Get your hands on this perfect starter kit for your Classic Playstation 1 gaming! This is an Slim PsOne console with LCD screen Combo! It includes a 1st party wired controller, power cord, AV cables. Everything you need to plug in and play!

The LCD Screen is 5″ diagonally and delivers incredibly crisp resolution and stereo sound. Plug in your own headset and enjoy games without disturbing anyone else. The AV “in” jack allows owners to plug in their Sony camcorders and enjoy video of the family vacation anytime, anywhere.

The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run, each accompanied by a change in the part number. From an external viewpoint, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors from the back of the unit. This started very early on with the original Japanese launch units; the SCPH-1000, released on 3 December 1994, was the only model that had an S-Video port, which was removed on the next release.printf function and developers had to use another function instead.

The PAL region consoles from SCPH-1002 up to SCPH-5552 were different from the systems released in other regions in that they had a different menu design; a grey blocked background with square icons for the Memory Card (an icon showing a PlayStation with 2 memory cards inserted) and CD player (an icon with musical keyboards) menus. The CD player also included reverberation effects unique to those systems until the release of the PS one in 2000, which featured a slightly modified version of the BIOS.

With the release of the SCPH-5000 series being produced only in Japan, it followed the same exterior design as the Japanese SCPH-3xxx series, its only differences being that it was switched to Rev. C hardware (same as late 1001/1002 units) with some upgrades to flawed components from previous models and a reduced retail price. This was followed by the first major consolidation, SCPH-550x/5001 and PAL-exclusive SCPH-5552 units, released in April 1997. This model further addressed the reliability issues with the disc drive assembly by placing the drive further away from the power supply in order to reduce heat; the chipset was also redesigned to use digital servo for focus/tracking and also to auto-calibrate the drive, as opposed to manual gain/bias calibration on earlier models. Also, shielding and PSU wiring were simplified, and from the SCPH-5001 on the RCA jacks and RFU power connectors were removed from the rear panel and the printed text on the back was changed to reliefs of the same. Starting with the SCPH-550x series, PAL variants had the "power" and "open" buttons changed from text to symbols, something that would later appear on the redesigned PS one. Originally, the PlayStation was supposed to have provision on Video CD support, but this feature was only included on the Asian exclusive SCPH-5903 model.

These were followed by the SCPH-700x and SCPH-750x series, released in April 1998—they are externally identical to the SCPH-500x machines, but have internal changes made to reduce manufacturing costs (for example, the system RAM went from 4 chips to 1, and the CD controller went from 3 chips to 1) and these were the last models to support parallel port for Gameshark devices and Xploder Pro. In addition, a slight change of the start-up screen was made; the diamond remains unchanged but the font used for Sony Computer and Entertainment is now consistent, making the words appear smaller than the diamond overall, and the trademark symbol (™) is now placed after "Computer Entertainment" instead of after the diamond, as it was on the earlier models. New to the SCPH-700x series was the introduction of the "Sound Scope" – light show music visualizations. These were accessible by pressing the Select button while playing any normal audio CD in the system"s CD player. While watching these visualizations, players could also add various effects like color cycling or motion blur and can save/load their memory card. These were seen on the SCPH-700x, 750x, 900x, and PS one models.

The final revision to the original PlayStation was the SCPH-900x series, released in May 1999. These had the same hardware as the SCPH-750x models, except the parallel port was removed and the size of the PCB is further reduced. The removal of the parallel port is partially due to the fact that Sony did not release an official add-on for it; it was used for cheat cartridges, and for the parallel port to defeat the regional lockouts and copy protection. The PlayStation Link Cable connection was supported by only a handful of games. The SCPH-900x was the last model to support it, as the Serial I/O port was removed on all PS one models.

There were also debugging consoles - these were generally in either blue or green cases, although there were some special production units (mostly intended for use as show demo units) that were grey, the same as the retail consoles. The debug units were designed to be as close as possible to retail consoles, so they only had 2MB of ram (the developer boards had 8MB) and had standard retail boot ROMs. The only real difference is that the CD controller was reprogrammed so that it would identify any disc that had a data track as being "licensed", rather than requiring the region code in the lead-in that was present on pressed PlayStation CDs. This was done to allow developers to burn games to CD-R for testing. A side-effect of this was that most debug consoles would also boot discs from other regions (one notable exception being the later NTSC:J debugs, which only boot Japanese titles), although this was not officially supported. Sony made specific debug consoles for each region, and the TRC (technical requirement checklist) provided by Sony for each region required testing the title on the correct debug stations.

The reason for the two different case colors was a hardware change that Sony had made fairly early in the PlayStation production cycle - the original machines were built using Rev. A (early Japan market units) or Rev. B (later Japan units, US and Europe) hardware, both using the same GPU with VRAM to store the video data. Later models used Rev. C silicon and SGRAM - although the two chipsets had very similar performance, and Rev. C was explicitly designed with compatibility in mind, they were not identical - the Rev. C version was significantly faster at doing alpha blending, and hence the PS "semitransparent" writing mode - it was also rather slow at certain screen memory block moves (basically, ones involving narrow vertical strips of the display) on top of this there were some minor hardware bugs in the older silicon that had been addressed by including workarounds for them in the libraries - the later library versions checked the GPU type at startup time and disabled the patches if they were not needed. Because this made the two machine types quite significantly different from each other, the developer had to test the title on both machines before submitting. The blue debugs (DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x) had the old silicon and the green ones (DTL-H120x) had the new silicon.

In 1997, Sony released a version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze. It only came via mail order and was more expensive than the regular PlayStation ($750 instead of $299 for the original PlayStation). It had a matte black finish instead of the usual gray, and most importantly, came with tools and instructions that allowed a user to be able to program PlayStation games and applications without the need for a full development unit, which was more expensive than a normal PlayStation (official development kits cost around $50,000.00 at the time). It was only available to approved video game developers, who needed to sign an agreement that they wouldn"t distribute their games to anyone else or try to reverse-engineer the hardware. The Net Yaroze lacked many of the features the full developer suite provided, lacking the on-demand support and code libraries that licensed developers had.Ridge Racer ran entirely from the system RAM (except for the streamed music tracks).regional lockout; it would play games from any territory. It would not however play CD-R discs, so it was not possible to create self-booting Yaroze games without a modified PlayStation.

The PS One (officially stylized as PS one and alternatively spelled PSOne and PSone) is a smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation platform.PlayStation 2.

Sony also released a version with a 5-inch LCD screen and an adaptor (though it did not have a battery: it is powered by plugging the adaptor in a main socket, or in a car). It was called the Combo pack. However, it includes a headphone jack (for headphones or other audio connection) and an AV mini jack for connecting camcorders or other devices.

Available in Midnight Blue as a promotional item to commemorate the 10 millionth PlayStation sold, this is a Japanese-region console that has a unique BIOS based on the USA NTSC-U/C version that allowed imported games from any region to be played.

The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run, each accompanied by a change in the part number. From an external viewpoint, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors from the back of the unit. This started very early on with the original Japanese launch units; the SCPH-1000, released on 3 December 1994, was the only model that had an S-Video port, which was removed on the next release.printf function and developers had to use another function instead.

The PAL region consoles from SCPH-1002 up to SCPH-5552 were different from the systems released in other regions in that they had a different menu design; a grey blocked background with square icons for the Memory Card (an icon showing a PlayStation with 2 memory cards inserted) and CD player (an icon with musical keyboards) menus. The CD player also included reverberation effects unique to those systems until the release of the PS one in 2000, which featured a slightly modified version of the BIOS.

With the release of the SCPH-5000 series being produced only in Japan, it followed the same exterior design as the Japanese SCPH-3xxx series, its only differences being that it was switched to Rev. C hardware (same as late 1001/1002 units) with some upgrades to flawed components from previous models and a reduced retail price. This was followed by the first major consolidation, SCPH-550x/5001 and PAL-exclusive SCPH-5552 units, released in April 1997. This model further addressed the reliability issues with the disc drive assembly by placing the drive further away from the power supply in order to reduce heat; the chipset was also redesigned to use digital servo for focus/tracking and also to auto-calibrate the drive, as opposed to manual gain/bias calibration on earlier models. Also, shielding and PSU wiring were simplified, and from the SCPH-5001 on the RCA jacks and RFU power connectors were removed from the rear panel and the printed text on the back was changed to reliefs of the same. Starting with the SCPH-550x series, PAL variants had the "power" and "open" buttons changed from text to symbols, something that would later appear on the redesigned PS one. Originally, the PlayStation was supposed to have provision on Video CD support, but this feature was only included on the Asian exclusive SCPH-5903 model.

These were followed by the SCPH-700x and SCPH-750x series, released in April 1998. They are externally identical to the SCPH-500x machines, but have internal changes made to reduce manufacturing costs (for example, the system RAM went from 4 chips to 1, and the CD controller went from 3 chips to 1). In addition, a slight change of the start-up screen was made; the diamond remains unchanged but the font used for Sony Computer and Entertainment is now consistent, making the words appear smaller than the diamond overall, and the trademark symbol (™) is now placed after "Computer Entertainment" instead of after the diamond, as it was on the earlier models. New to the SCPH-700x series was the introduction of the "Sound Scope" – light show music visualizations. These were accessible by pressing the Select button while playing any normal audio CD in the system"s CD player. While watching these visualizations, players could also add various effects like color cycling or motion blur and can save/load their memory card. These were seen on the SCPH-700x, 750x, 900x, and PS one models.

The final revision to the original PlayStation was the SCPH-900x series, released in May 1999. These had the same hardware as the SCPH-750x models, except the parallel port was removed and the size of the PCB is further reduced. The removal of the parallel port is partially due to the fact that Sony did not release an official add-on for it; it was used for cheat cartridges, and for the parallel port to defeat the regional lockouts and copy protection. The PlayStation Link Cable connection was supported by only a handful of games. The SCPH-900x was the last model to support it, as the Serial I/O port was removed on all PS one models.

There were also debugging consoles - these were generally in either blue or green cases, although there were some special production units (mostly intended for use as show demo units) that were grey, the same as the retail consoles. The debug units were designed to be as close as possible to retail consoles, so they only had 2MB of ram (the developer boards had 8MB) and had standard retail boot ROMs. The only real difference is that the CD controller was reprogrammed so that it would identify any disc that had a data track as being "licensed", rather than requiring the region code in the lead-in that was present on pressed PlayStation CDs. This was done to allow developers to burn games to CD-R for testing. A side-effect of this was that most debug consoles would also boot discs from other regions (one notable exception being the later NTSC:J debugs, which only boot Japanese titles), although this was not officially supported. Sony made specific debug consoles for each region, and the TRC (technical requirement checklist) provided by Sony for each region required testing the title on the correct debug stations.

The reason for the two different case colors was a hardware change that Sony had made fairly early in the PlayStation production cycle - the original machines were built using Rev. A (early Japan market units) or Rev. B (later Japan units, US and Europe) hardware, both using the same GPU with VRAM to store the video data. Later models used Rev. C silicon and SGRAM - although the two chipsets had very similar performance, and Rev. C was explicitly designed with compatibility in mind, they were not identical - the Rev. C version was significantly faster at doing alpha blending, and hence the PS "semitransparent" writing mode - it was also rather slow at certain screen memory block moves (basically, ones involving narrow vertical strips of the display) on top of this there were some minor hardware bugs in the older silicon that had been addressed by including workarounds for them in the libraries - the later library versions checked the GPU type at startup time and disabled the patches if they were not needed. Because this made the two machine types quite significantly different from each other, the developer had to test the title on both machines before submitting. The blue debugs (DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x) had the old silicon and the green ones (DTL-H120x) had the new silicon.

In 1997, Sony released a version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze. It only came via mail order and was more expensive than the regular PlayStation ($750 instead of $299 for the original PlayStation). It had a matte black finish instead of the usual gray, and most importantly, came with tools and instructions that allowed a user to be able to program PlayStation games and applications without the need for a full development unit, which was more expensive than a normal PlayStation (official development kits cost around $50,000.00 at the time). It was only available to approved video game developers, who needed to sign an agreement that they wouldn"t distribute their games to anyone else or try to reverse-engineer the hardware. The Net Yaroze lacked many of the features the full developer suite provided, lacking the on-demand support and code libraries that licensed developers had.Ridge Racer ran entirely from the system RAM (except for the streamed music tracks).regional lockout; it would play games from any territory. It would not however play CD-R discs, so it was not possible to create self-booting Yaroze games without a modified PlayStation.

The PS One (officially stylized as PS one and alternatively spelled PSOne and PSone) is a smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation platform.PlayStation 2.

Sony also released a version with a 5-inch LCD screen and an adaptor (though it did not have a battery: it is powered by plugging the adaptor in a main socket, or in a car). It was called the Combo pack. However, it includes a headphone jack (for headphones or other audio connection) and an AV mini jack for connecting camcorders or other devices.

Available in Midnight Blue as a promotional item to commemorate the 10 millionth PlayStation sold, this is a Japanese-region console that has a unique BIOS based on the USA NTSC-U/C version that allowed imported games from any region to be played.

The first batch of PlayStations used a KSM-440AAM laser unit whose case and all movable parts were completely made out of plastic. Over time, friction caused the plastic tray to wear out—usually unevenly. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerated wear because of the additional heat, which made the plastic even more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, the tray would become so worn that the laser no longer pointed directly at the CD and games would no longer load. Sony first addressed the problem by making the tray out of die-cast metal, and additionally also placed the laser unit farther away from the power supply on later models of the PlayStation.

Some units, particularly the early 100x models, would be unable to play FMV or music correctly, resulting in skipping or freezing. In more extreme cases the PlayStation would only work correctly when turned onto its side or upside down.

"PlayStation Cumulative Production Shipments of Hardware". Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2012-01-27.

Though this is a highly complex question to answer, the shortest and simplest way to understand it is that pixels on an OLED screen emit their own light, while pixels on an LCD display (which include LED displays) are either backlit, or lit from the edge and not emissive in their own right.

The difference from a user perspective is that OLEDs tend to enjoy better contrast and improved viewing angles, whilst LCD displays are brighter overall, meaning they"re easier to read in brightly lit rooms and display color better at higher brightness levels.

While 3D gaming might be Sony"s key focus with the PlayStation 3D Display, the other key selling point comes in the form of the company"s SimulView technology, and it has the very real potential to be a viable alternative to split-screen gaming if handled well. SimulView works on the same principles for delivering a stereoscopic image on-screen, but with one minor alteration: separate views are rendered for each eye, but they are duplicated before being sent to each player. Player one sees the "left" eye image in both eyes and player two the "right", the result being that each person has their own full-screen image in 2D.

Supported titles currently include Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3, Super Stardust HD and MotorStorm: Apocalypse via automatic online updates from PSN. The list is very impressive considering that the technology is in the early stages of adoption. Sony"s PlayStation 3D Display is the only one which supports SimulView, but integration into the company"s range of 3D HDTVs is strongly being considered.

The most significant gain when using SimulView is that compared to split-screen play the field of view is opened back up for each player, matching that of a single-screen solo experience. While various titles generally implement split-screen modes in a variety of ways - dividing the screen either horizontally or vertically, and even cropping the image in an attempt to maintain aspect ratio - they all share one thing in common: both players" field of view is massively reduced, thus impacting on the experience. The set of shots below show just how much real estate you are getting back when adopting SimulView. The difference is quite remarkable.

The benefits of using SimulView are obvious when looking at the above screenshots: both players" field of view is opened up, with the results matching that of a single-screen solo experience.

So, having your own screen in two-player games with just the one monitor is definitely something of a revolution. In the past, achieving something similar involved linking up two consoles on two different TVs - a cumbersome and time-consuming method of setting up multiplayer games, which often meant moving around the furniture to accommodate, or linking up both consoles in separate rooms. Hardly the most social experience for those in the same house.

However, the technology isn"t perfect, and there are a few caveats which stop the experience from being the truly definitive alternative to traditional split-screen play. The first is with regards to spectating on the action. While it is possible for over two people to watch what is happening on screen, they are only presented with one person"s view of the action. In order to see how well the other player is doing you have to switch viewpoints by pressing the power button on the glasses, which makes this feature far less attractive for use when a group of friends are round. We"d also love to see the technology working on much larger monitors or big-screen HDTVs. It works well on the small screen, but having two people huddled around a small area isn"t always ideal.

Games running in native 720p can look rather good when using SimulView, despite some additional artifacts being generated by how the PlayStation 3D Display processes the signal (top, single player left, two-player right). In comparison heavily upscaled titles such as Killzone 3 appear even softer and more low res than when running in 3D (bottom).

We also noticed highly visible banding artifacts at the top of the screen whenever bright scenes are being displayed. As this area of the display is usually filled with high-contrast, uniform images (the daytime sky, for example), this is easily spotted during regular play, and we wouldn"t be surprised if many people think that this is a "fault" with their unit. At present we"re not exactly sure that it isn"t.

Outside of compromises being made to the graphical quality of the games when using SimulView, the PlayStation 3D Display adds more unwanted artifacts on images before they shown. Scanlines give the appearance of a lower resolution presentation in native 720p titles (left), while the banding present at the top of the screen can be rather distracting (right).

Quite why Sony insists on applying this extra layer of processing isn"t clear. At first, we thought that it might be to reduce the effects of crosstalk, thus stopping one player from cheating via looking at the other player"s ghost image on their screen. But a close look at the screen reveals that the level of double-image artifacts present is on a par with what we saw when viewing 3D content on the display. Maybe the problem lies with having to create duplicate images of both the left and right eyes before sending them to each player - effectively halving the resolution available for each eye as a result.

Either way, this certainly intrudes on the experience of having your own screen all to yourself. It isn"t, however, a complete deal-breaker when you consider the limited use local multiplayer gaming sees these days. On balance we prefer to have our own view of the action in a compromised state rather than sharing half the screen with a reduced field of view. Despite the compromises with regards to image quality we still get the feeling of being more immersed with the action on screen.

Discs aren"t always cheaper than digital downloads, but they often are—especially once a game has been out for a while. At the time of this writing, The Last of Us Remastered is $5 cheaper on disc than it is to download. NieR: Automata is $10 cheaper on disc than on the PlayStation Store. And for some ungodly reason, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition is $50 cheaper on disc than it is to buy digitally. If you"re willing to buy discs used, you can save even more—and easily make up that $100 over the life of the console (and then some).

If you have any PS4 games on disc, the more expensive PS5 allows you to replay those titles whenever you want—if you buy the digital edition, you"ll have to re-buy any old games you want to keep around, or stash your old PS4 in the closet to play them later. (By the way, selling your old PS4 will easily make up that $100 extra cost on the disc-enabled PS5.) And if for some reason a game ever gets pulled from the PlayStation Store, it"ll be nice to have the ability to fall back on a disc—even if you have to buy it used—to see what the fuss is about.

The latest generation of games consoles finally arrived in November 2020, with the launch of the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X and S consoles. With the new consoles comes a range of new features, specs and benefits, and to really make the most of them you are going to need your display to be up to scratch. We wanted to focus primarily on the things you would need from a desktop monitor in order to use the new games consoles and try and provide a buyers guide on what to look out for if you are going to purchase a new monitor and plan to use it for your console.

Let’s cover 8K first. This is very niche right now and only really used in some professional grade monitors such as the Dell UP3218K. This is a 31.5″ sized screen with a 7680 x 4320 resolution, but it only has DisplayPort connections and so is not even a viable option for console gaming anyway (which need HDMI – see below). Even if there were more choices, the value of 8K for console gaming on a desktop sized monitor is very questionable. You will likely be sat a little further way away from the screen for console gaming than you would for general PC use, and even some of the larger monitor sizes like this 31.5″ model aren’t really large enough then to make 8K worthwhile for that kind of viewing distance and usage. You aren’t likely to see any resolution benefits of 8K on a screen this size, it’s really only useful for TV’s, and likely then only really on the very large sets like 60″ and above. Anyway, we would forget about 8K support for a desktop monitor for console gaming right now, there’s not much point.

4K resolution is far more viable though for a desktop monitor, and can offer some sensible benefits even in desktop monitor size in terms of image sharpness and picture quality. 27″ models with 4K are very common nowadays, and there are also other models which are 28 – 32″ in size that might provide a better option for console gaming for a bit of a size boost. If you want to take advantage of the next gen console resolution support, look for a screen ideally with 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 which is officially “Ultra HD” but commonly referred to as “4K”). The other good thing about a screen with 4K compared to worrying about one with 8K is that it opens the door to what is probably the most exciting feature of the new consoles, the high refresh rates up to 120Hz. We will discuss refresh rate in a moment.

Do you really need 4K though on these sized screens? This is debatable, and many people don’t really see the value in 4K on something like a 27″ screen. Our advice here is similar to what we would say for PC monitor usage. We feel that you’re unlikely to notice a massive benefit of 4K on a 27″ model relative to something like 1440p, but it starts to become a bit more interesting and useful as you go up to say a 32″ sized display or above. For PC usage up close also remember that 4K resolutions will need you to use Operating System scaling to make fonts and text a sensible size, but that doesn’t always play nicely and can add complications in some software and applications. You probably also need to keep in mind what your viewing position and distance might be as well for when you’re playing your console, as you are probably going to be sat a bit further away, and may therefore not really see the benefit of the higher resolution on a smaller screen like this. 4K would obviously be beneficial on a large TV like 50 – 60″ for these consoles, but on desktop-sized monitors it becomes less important, and potentially creates complications for PC usage away from your console gaming. It might also be better to settle for a lower resolution if you’re looking for a smaller monitor, and instead focus on driving refresh rate on the console over the resolution.

If you want to broaden your options and potentially offer you lower budget display choices you could also consider those with 1440p (2560 x 1440) or 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolutions. These are available in smaller sizes as well like in the 21.5″ – 27″ range so if space is tight of you just prefer a smaller monitor, these are still viable. You don’t haveto have 4K resolution support to use the next generation consoles and on a smaller sized screen 1080p or 1440p might be perfectly fine. In fact this might make it easier to drive the higher refresh rates too up to 120Hz, sacrificing resolution (which you might not even need) for speed. If you’re after a smaller sized screen then 1080p or 1440p will be preferable anyway as 4K is unnecessary, and likely not even available on the smaller sized models anyway.

The PlayStation 5 on the other hand rather oddly since launch has only supported 1080p or 4K output, and has not supported 1440p. Right now if you’re only buying a 1080p monitor that’s fine of course and you can just select that as the output resolution from the PS5. If your monitor of choice is natively 1440p you are left with a bit of a dilemma for now. On 28 July 2022 Sony announced they will soon be adding 1440p support which is great news for any monitor users. This is available via a beta firmware at the moment but should be rolled out in the near future fully.

If you’re interested in the PS5 as your console and would rather buy a 1440p monitor instead of 4K, you might want to try and find one that features “Virtual 4K” support. You can check this by seeing if you can set your PC to 3840 x 2160 resolution without any custom resolutions being needed. Sometimes manufacturers will specifically list this feature in their product pages and specs too. The screen will still have a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, but will importantly accept a 4K input source. This can be handy for now on the PS5 until they formally roll out 1440p resolution support in the firmware.

Screens with Virtual 4K support will downscale a 4K input to the native resolution of the 1440p panel still, but that is better than inputting the alternative, which on the PS5 is 1080p (that’s already been downscaled by the console), and then letting the screen try and upscale that back to 1440p. Virtual 4K support on a 1440p resolution monitor can be useful for consoles. As we said, the Xbox Series X can support 1440p resolution output anyway so it’s easier there and you don’t need to worry about Virtual 4K support unless you have a monitor with decent HDR capabilities, and want to use HDR from the console. HDR is only supported at 4K outputs on the Xbox. Generally though it is likely to be better to just input 1440p from the Xbox Series X in those instances to match the resolution of the screen, and focus on pushing the refresh rate up instead of inputting 4K that only has to be scaled back down by the monitor.

To take advantage of this you will want a monitor with a high refresh rate. It doesn’t matter if the monitor can do higher than the console 120Hz (144Hz for instance is far more common than a screen that is “only” 120Hz). As long as it can support 120Hz refresh rate or above, it should be fine for connecting the consoles and using them at 120Hz. There’s plenty of 144Hz, 240Hz and even 360Hz desktop monitors available nowadays so you can enjoy any extra refresh rate from the monitor then for PC gaming! You won’t be able to make use of those higher refresh rates for your console though, they are 120Hz maximum. Manufacturers will normally confirm in their product specs support for console resolution/refresh rate.

You might need to ensure that the screen can accept a 120Hz via a native timing over its HDMI connection but that should be pretty standard on many high refresh rate screens. You’d need to check the specs or try the screen from a PC over HDMI to see if 120Hz is listed as a native option from the graphics card and in the section for ‘Ultra HD, HD, SD’ resolutions which are automatic timings reported from the screen in the “TV” usage section as opposed to the “PC” section lower down. It seems the new consoles need to see the resolution and refresh rate in this TV space to detect it properly.

There are some monitors where it is not supported such as the LG 27GL850 for instance which will only accept maximum of 100Hz over HDMI even though the panel can support 144Hz over DisplayPort fine. On this screen you won’t be able to use high refresh rate from the console. There are others such as the Dell S2719DGF which can support 144Hz over HDMI but do not have a native 120Hz timing, so cannot be used at 120Hz! Be careful of monitors that are advertised with a high refresh rate as that might just be over DisplayPort. Check the specs and user guides online to confirm if it can do 120Hz over its HDMI connection too. This mainly applies to older screens produced before the new consoles were available. Most newer monitors should be fine, and it’s generally something listed in the manufacturer specs too.

High refresh rate is far more common on lower resolution monitors with 1080p or 1440p, with a much smaller number of screens offering this in the 4K space at the moment. Achieving high settings and performance from your console games will be easier anyway at a 1440p/1080p resolution at 120Hz so those are still very viable options, you just won’t be able to support the console’s native maximum 4K. Whether or not you really need to use 4K anyway on a desktop monitor sized screen which are commonly 24 – 32″ in size is questionable as we discussed above. You can take advantage of these 1080p/1440p displays now for 120Hz gaming, without needing to wait for HDMI 2.1 as well which is useful (discussed more in a moment). This gives you a lot more choice, you don’t need to necessarily wait for an HDMI 2.1 screen if you’re not going for 4K.

Choosing a monitor for use with a PC is simple, as DisplayPort is widely used on graphics cards as the output, and it is the connection of choice for the monitors they will connect to. Like the older consoles, the next generation games models like the PS5 and Xbox Series X do not have a DisplayPort output so you will need to find a monitor that can handle the connection coming from the console. They have been built around HDMI and also include some of the new features associated with the new HDMI 2.1 standard. Note however that just because a screen is labelled as HDMI 2.1, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will support the features you associate with HDMI 2.1, or even the features these consoles support because they use HDMI 2.1. Confusing, we know.

You may see the manufacturers list the bandwidth of the port in some cases like Eve did for their Spectrum 4K screen, or you may just see some notes about colour sacrifices if the bandwidth of the port is lower. For instance the Gigabyte Aorus FI32U mentioned above with 24Gbps specifically lists “4K 120Hz at 4:2:0 chroma” in its spec because it isn’t a full bandwidth port. This leads to some potential colour sacrifice in theory, depending on the content and game as the Xbox can support 4K 120Hz 4:4:4 chroma (which is within its 40Gbps bandwidth), and the PS5 can support 4K 120Hz 4:2:2 chroma (within its 32Gbps bandwidth limit). So when the display HDMI bandwidth is restricted like it is on the FI32U to something lower, you may have to give up more colour levels still which is a shame. Colour levels and chroma sub-sampling is discussed a bit more later in this article.

You can thankfully still use the new consoles on an HDMI 2.0 screen as well, just not at the full capabilities of the consoles as the connections are backwards compatible and of the same physical type. More on this in a moment. Make sure it is at least 2.0 though, older HDMI 1.4 are going to leave you too limited in many cases and some HDMI 1.4 monitors won’t work at high refresh rates above 60Hz, even though the connection has the bandwidth to support it. Most modern monitors will feature (and list in their specs) HDMI 2.0 anyway so it should give you plenty of choice.

HDMI 2.0 doesn’t have the sufficient bandwidth to support the fullcapabilities of these consoles like 4K @ 120Hz for instance. You might notice that the majority of released and planned HDMI 2.1-enabled screens all offer a 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution. We expect the 4K models to be the priority for monitor manufacturers to provide HDMI 2.1 connectivity and capabilities, where it is needed to offer this support. Note also that all of the released and announced models feature high refresh rates as well.

So high refresh rates are fine over HDMI 2.0 as long as you have a lower resolution screen. There are a couple of other things to consider though if you’re thinking about a lower resolution display with HDMI 2.0, variable refresh rates (VRR) being probably the main one.

HDMI 2.0 can support FreeSync over HDMI and this is available on many FreeSync monitors already. FreeSync is available from the Xbox Series X like it was on the One X and One S. That means if you are buying an Xbox Series X and have a monitor with HDMI 2.0 that is capable of supporting FreeSync over HDMI, you can use VRR fine and don’t need to even have a screen branded with HDMI 2.1. If you have an HDMI 2.1 screen to connect to that will work fine as well from the Xbox Series X if FreeSync over HDMI is supported, or also the HDMI-VRR that is a possible feature of HDMI 2.1, again if included. For FreeSync over HDMI (either version), you would need to enable FreeSync / Adaptive-sync from the monitor OSD, if you disable it there, this won’t work.

For an Xbox Series X if you connect that to a screen over HDMI 2.1 and the screen supports HDMI-VRR then you shouldn’t need to use the FreeSync option as this VRR is baked in to the HDMI 2.1 connection and standard. If you disable FreeSync on the monitor, VRR should still be available on the Xbox because it switches over to using this underlying HDMI-VRR technology from HDMI 2.1. We’ve seen this behaviour on several HDMI 2.1 displays like the LG CX OLED TV, and the AOC AGON Pro AG324UX for instance. It doesn’t really matter which VRR technology you use to be honest, although if you’re also using your PC for gaming you probably want to leave FreeSync enabled in the OSD menu for that, which will cause the Xbox to use FreeSync as opposed to the underlying HDMI-VRR.

The first wave of HDMI 2.1-ready monitors talked about in this article all feature traditional scalers and adaptive-sync support for VRR, as opposed to any with a Native hardware G-sync module. It remains to be seen what will be supported for future Native G-sync screens, as at the moment the latest G-sync hardware module only has DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 connections. An updated module from NVIDIA would be needed if they plan to offer HDMI 2.1 from Native G-sync screens, which you would expect they’d want to. NVIDIA didn’t have any official information they could share with us on this at the moment but it would seem logical to expect an update at some point given their ongoing investment in G-sync and the benefits it brings to gamers.

So right now with the lack of HDMI 2.1 that means (with rare exceptions) you could not buy a Native G-sync screen which has 4K resolution and 120Hz and be able to use that from your new console fully. You could of course use the HDMI 2.0 connection and send 1440p/1080p at 120Hz from the console, but you are not going to be able to take proper advantage of the 4K resolution support you have on both the console and the monitor normally. You could however buy a Native G-sync screen with a lower native 1080p or 1440p resolution and use that at 120Hz over HDMI 2.0, so there are some options if you are looking for one of these displays.

One other consideration for a Native G-sync module screen is that you will be lacking VRR support from the console in all likelihood. HDMI 2.0 doesn’t support HDMI-VRR which leaves you only with FreeSync. We have seen FreeSync supported over the DisplayPort of modern G-sync module screens for PC gaming, but it’s very rare to find a screen where FreeSync is also supported over the HDMI connection. Only the LG 38GL950G springs to mind as one where this is supported. This means that even the Xbox can’t fall back to using FreeSync over HDMI 2.0. Even if NVIDIA added that support for FreeSync over HDMI 2.0, while it might help Xbox owners it probably wouldn’t be of any value to PS5 owners. PS5 looks like it won’t support VRR until Sony add HDMI-VRR which means you’d need an HDMI 2.1 port featured on the monitor/G-sync module.

ALLM is another optional feature of the HDMI 2.1 standard and allows in theory the console to send a signal to the display which can allow it to automatically enter a lower lag ‘game’ mode for the optimal gaming experience. This can save you the need to manually switch between different preset modes and settings for all your different uses. This feature appears on quite a few TV’s nowadays including the LG CX OLED we reviewedfor instance. If a gaming signal is detected from an ALLM compatible console, the screen will switch to the relevant preset mode which normally has a much lower input lag than the normal viewing modes for movies and TVs.

Because ALLM is a feature of HDMI 2.1 it is not available on HDMI 2.0 displays, and so it cannot be used anyway if you were using a desktop monitor with HDMI 2.0 input only. Even if you waited for a monitor with HDMI 2.1 this feature is unlikely to be of any major benefit for a monitor, and may not even be used by the screen as most of the time a desktop monitor has the same lag in all the preset modes anyway. Maybe it would be useful if the screen detected the ALLM input and could switch to a certain game preset mode which you had set up perhaps slightly differently for gaming. Something maybe brighter or more vivid than your normal day to day usage perhaps.

Apart from that one option currently available we are left with traditional LCD desktop monitors with various local dimming options. If you want to be able to take advantage of HDR gaming from the new consoles and create at least some kind of improvements to the dynamic range (contrast) of the image, look for a monitor with at least HDR600 certification or above. Forget about all the many HDR400 monitors out there, they nearly always don’t feature any local dimming and so offer no improved dynamic range. These HDR400 certified screens also won’t even guarantee that the screen has a wide colour gamut (DCI-P3) or 10-bit colour depth support that go in to creating a decent HDR image from a colour point of view.

HDR600 and above on the other hand require some form of local dimming which might only be edge lit and may have limited numbers of zones, but is still better than HDR 400 which has 99% of the time none. Look for details of how many dimming zones the screen has if you can. The HDR600 standard and above also required wide colour gamut and 10-bit colour depth support which are needed for HDR content too. As a side note, if you aren’t bothered about HDR so much we would still recommend finding a screen with a wide colour gamut at least to give you the colour boost and to handle new console games fully. Look for specs listing a high % DCI-P3 colour space as opposed to standard gamut screens which list sRGB coverage.

There’s a lot to take in here so we will try and summarise the key points as best we can here. It’s important to note also that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have been around for about 18 months so far and stock can still be very hard to come by. While there are a few things that might not be supported now or are proving problematic, these may well change over the coming months as Sony/Microsoft roll out new updates and firmware revisions. We are in no way trying to promote one console over the other, that’s your choice and we would recommend reading reviews from reputable sites that deal in console gaming if you want help trying to decide which console is right for you. We are just trying to lay out the facts about what is and isn’t supported, and provide a guide on how to buy a PC monitor for your console if you need one. Again it’s tricky to get in to actual monitor recommendations here as there’s so many possible options out there, this is more intended to guide you on what to look out for and what to consider.

Resolution – If you’re wanting to game at 4K from your new console on your monitor then our view is that you will probably want to get a larger screen in the 32″+ size range to make that 4K resolution worthwhile and see some practical benefit on it given the comparatively smaller screen size (relative to a TV). If you are going for a smaller screen than this, 4K feels a bit unnecessary and so you can just as easily get a lower cost, more readily available 1440p or 1080p model, depending on your size preference. If you are going for a smaller 21.5 – 24″ sized screen, 1080p will be perfectly fine. If it’s more in the 27 – 30″ range then 1440p would be better. 4K support is less important if you’re buying a desktop monitor for the console than it might be if you were buying a much larger TV. Be careful about the PS5’s lack of 1440p resolution support as discussed in this article.

Refresh Rates – you definitely want a screen with at least 120Hz refresh rate, which should be easy enough to find in the desktop monitor market and available in a range of sizes and budgets. Be careful to check that it will support 120Hz natively over its HDMI connection though, don’t assume as this can sometimes be different to what it will accept over its DisplayPort input.

Connections – If you’ve decided that you want a 4K screen and consider it worthwhile for the size of display you are after (probably the larger models only), you want one of the modern screens that has a HDMI 2.1 connection if you want to also have 120Hz support (which you do!). If you decide you don’t really need 4K and it’s unnecessary on the size of monitor you want, you have far more options available with 1080p (21.5 – 24″ sized screens) and 1440p (25 – 30″ sized). This will give you a wider range of high refresh rate options at more affordable prices. You won’t need HDMI 2.1 to take advantage of the high refresh rate either, HDMI 2.0 will suffice there. Although it may be lacking some other functionality in some case unfortunately (discussed below).

Variable Refresh Rate – this is currently supported well from the Xbox Series X including for old HDMI 2.0 screens which can support FreeSync over HDMI. It also works fine for HDMI 2.1 displays where HDMI-VRR is included. At the moment VRR isn’t support on the PS5 at all but it is coming soon according to Sony, but it’s very likely to only work over HDMI 2.1 via HDMI-VRR support.

HDR –HDR works fine on the PS5 at 1080p and 4K resolutions, but on the Xbox Series X it’s only available at 4K currently. HDR is less mature in the desktop monitor space, but if you want your screen to offer some benefits we would recommend ignoring HDR400 certified screens, and instead look for HDR600 or above to at least give you some local dimming capability, wide colour gamut and 10-bit colour depth.

Connection notesHDMI 2.0 will be sufficient for 120Hz, make sure the screen can support it over its HDMI connection. No HDMI 2.1 on these smaller screens yetHDMI 2.0 will be sufficient for 120Hz, make sure the screen can support it at 1440p (or at least at 1080p) over its HDMI connection. Unlikely to find HDMI 2.1 on these 1440p resolution screensYou will ideally need HDMI 2.1 for 120Hz at 4K. If selecting 1440p, HDMI 2.0 will be sufficient

PlayStation 5 resolution notesSupports 1080p natively1440p output available in beta firmware as of end of July 2022, coming soon fully.Supports 4K natively, and soon will support 1440p

PlayStation 5 refresh rate notesWhile HDMI-VRR is supported from the console, this is only for HDMI 2.1 displays. PS5 will not support FreeSync VRR over HDMI 2.0 so you will not be able to use VRR.While HDMI-VRR is supported from the console, this is only for HDMI 2.1 displays. PS5 will not support FreeSync VRR over HDMI 2.0 so you will not be able to use VRR.You need HDMI 2.1 for 4K at 120Hz anyway, and this should support HDMI-VRR. Now supported from the console

PlayStation 5 HDR notesSupports HDR content at 1080p1440p output available in beta firmware as of end of July 2022, coming soon fully. Expected to support HDR at 1440pSupports HDR at 4K. 1440p output available in beta firmware as of end of July 2022, coming soon fully. Expected to support HDR at 1440p

If your screen is missing its screws, you can get M2x6mm screws from Amazon. Then, print the one with the screw holes since those screw heads are a bit taller and sticks out a bit.

It’s a separate app, not a separate paid app. They didn’t do this for money or any conspirical reason. They most likely did this to streamline the second screen feature into its own thing instead of having to open the “3 in 1” app. I, for one, would rather have this separate so I don’t have to wait for the main app to load. This goes for the Messages app as well: I hated having to wait to navigate the menu just to get to messages, messages should be its own thing. The bottom line is that this does what the main app used to, but without the menu navigation. If you don’t like it don’t download it, it’s not a big enough feature to care about this much.

• If you have both PlayStation Messages and PlayStation App installed, change the settings on your device so that PlayStation App does not automatically close in the

• If you have both PlayStation Communities and PlayStation App installed, change the settings on your device so that PlayStation App does not automatically close in the background.

• If you have both PS4 Second Screen and PlayStation App installed, change the settings on your device so that PlayStation App does not automatically close in the background.