Audio & Video Essentials for Video Games
At Audio Advice, many of us are musicians, vinyl enthusiasts, home theater experts, and of course music and video lovers — but one thing a lot of people don’t realize is we are a team of serious gamers too. Now that cinematic theater standards are becoming available for video games like never before, it’s increasingly more common to see video games offering the same immersive audio & video experiences as professional high-performance movie theaters. With upgrades in your audio & video setups, you can take advantage of these recent innovations and experience the immersive 3D audio capabilities hiding in your games — we’re here to help you do just that.
We’ve rounded up our most passionate video game and home theater enthusiasts to bring you a comprehensive list of high-performance audio & video essentials to level-up your gaming experience. First, let’s quickly cover some of the new and exciting technologies that will make audio more immersive with the next-gen consoles. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get started.
Features & Technology
At Audio Advice, one of the coolest revelations for 3D audio is the PlayStation 5’s dedicated 3D audio capabilities — called Tempest engine. Sony didn’t add Atmos to the PS5 — instead, Sony developed its own 3D audio engine — a powerful chipset that alleviates one of the biggest challenges sound designers face when designing and implementing audio for games. The dedicated chip-set removes all constraints for precious computing resources and will be a powerful game-changer for immersive 3D audio. Luckily, Tempest 3D will still work with receivers and other gear with height capabilities. Your AVR just might not show the indicator light for Atmos, but it will still work with your Dolby Atmos equipment. Xbox Series X, on the other hand, has Atmos, so everything will work exactly as expected.
Dolby Atmos 3D Surround Sound
Built-in Dolby Atmos is the first major technology next-gen gaming consoles will offer, including the XBox Series X. For those who may not know, Dolby Atmos adds elevation to your soundstage. Rather than sound simply going from left to right and front to back, Atmos lets you experience sounds from top to bottom too. This immerses you in a world of sounds as if they were occurring in three-dimensional space.
In Dolby Atmos soundbars, speaker drivers direct the sound upwards towards the ceiling where the sound then bounces back down. This allows you to experience the sound of a helicopter flying above you with true 3D sound. If a helicopter is hovering above the screen, you will hear the sound of the helicopter’s rotor blades right above you. When the helicopter lands, you’ll hear and feel the sound travel down to your level just like in real life. There’s also 3D audio for headsets too, which is basically a comparable tech for gaming headphones.
HDMI 2.1
HDMI 2.1 is a big deal in a lot of ways, but it’s especially important for gamers — and particularly for the PS5 and Xbox Series X gamers. HDMI 2.1’s higher bandwidth opens the door for high frame rates (HFR) variable refresh rates (VRR), and many more possibilities specific to high-performance gaming.
TVs that feature this newer connection will immediately see game-changing advantages 4K at 120fps or even higher resolutions — like 8K at 60fps! You’ll need a PS5 Ready TV to take full advantage of this, but don’t worry — our list covers the best TVs to game with.
While not a console feature, eARC is a next-gen TV feature to keep in mind when shopping for a high-performance soundbar or a TV to game on. It's the evolution of ARC (or Audio Return Channel), and it transmits full Dolby Atmos (and other object-based surround formats like DTS:X and tempest 3D) from the TV back down the HDMI cable without compression. It’s important to note you will not get true 3D Dolby Atmos surround sound without a TV that features the newer eARC connection (unless you use an AVR with video passthrough). If your TV supports HDMI eARC, all you’ll have to do is connect an HDMI cable from your TV to the soundbar, and you’re done.
Performance
The Best Audio & Video Gear For Gaming
In the articles linked below, we’ll cover the best TVs to game on including the latest PS5 Ready TVs. We’ll also give you our recommendations for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars for gaming, and the best gaming headsets for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Then, we’ll give you three of our top recommendations for each of these categories based on price and features you get for everyone’s budget — including options for the best bang-for-your-buck, the best value overall, and our high-end recommendation for gamers who simply want to squeeze every last drop of performance from the gaming console and future-proof your setup.
