Utnayan
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After experiencing some input lag over the course of a couple years now, and also fixing it, I have realized a few things that might really help out some people beyond the "Hey, turn your settings to game mode on your TV and it should be fine". In reality, while that helps, there are many other factors that are going into this and it can effect game play - it is also sporadic on who can notice it, and who can't, which game has it, which doesn't, etc. So I thought I would share my experiences in how I fixed a lot of it. It can also effect different consoles and how you may have them set up.
1) The obvious. Yes, make sure that your TV is set to Game Mode and Game Mode HDR if you have a set that supports that when you play your games. This eliminates post processing done which has a direct correlation on input lag. However, a lot of folks do this and still experience input lag. So, if you are like me, and still experienced it after doing this - move to step 2 if you are running all your devices through the receiver's HDMI inputs.
2) Your receiver. If you are running everything through various HDMI ports on your receiver which acts as your switch, a lot of people forget that receivers today come standard with up-scaling and post processing of it's own. (This will add input lag of around 30-50ms based on all tests I have seen) There are reasons at times to have the Receiver do this before it sends the signal out to your set for a better picture overall, but today, most TV sets made after 2015 do this better than the receiver can. So, make sure to go into your receiver settings and make sure HDMI is set to "Direct". This tells the receiver to send the naked signal as a straight pass through. Think of this as a game mode for receivers. Note that a lot of receivers today come standard with post processing enabled. For ex: I have a Yamaha RX-A770 Aventage which I recently upgraded too. In my settings under video in set up, I noticed processing was on. I then turned this to "Direct" via HDMI, eliminating Post processing and upscaling done by the receiver itself, and I noticed an improvement immediately.
3) Xbox One. If you are playing games on your Xbox One and have noticed input lag, there are issues with post processing/lag if you are connecting TV through your Xbox One to use it's media features. The XBox One utilizes it's own post processing feature set automatically when running TV through your Xbox One. Here is the shitty part. You cannot turn this off. There is no menu option. The only way to bypass is to not connect your cable box through the console and into the TV. Somehow, this still effects games and has been a bug/feature ever since the console was launched. I am not sure if this effects the XBox One X.
4) HDMI-CEC. On your TV, on your consoles, on your receiver - not only can you experience input lag with this enabled (Why I will never know) but you can also experience audio drop outs. Disable CEC on all your devices including TV, Console, and Receiver. And with that, power management features as well.
5) PS4 / PS Pro. The bluetooth signal on the Dual Shock 4 can degrade in quality as the Dual Shock 4 loses it's charge. I noticed when playing Rocket League my response times and game play was always better with a fully charged controller, and as soon as it would hit 2 of 3 bars, I could notice the decline in responsiveness. This one sucks because it doesn't take that long to get down to 2/3rd or 1/3rd of your battery life. One way to get around it is to keep your controller plugged in and hence, always at full charge. Otherwise, have a charged DS4 secondary to flip with when it comes drained enough at it starts the bluetooth signal degradation.
6) All consoles - Wireless internet. When your router is set to auto for channel selection, force this channel to 11. Nighthawk Routers seem to be effected by this the most but it has helped others quite a bit with other routers.
7) Bluetooth interference. We all have tons of bluetooth devices. Bluetooth interference can happen. So make sure to turn off bluetooth activity on your phone, laptop, portable speaker, tablet, etc if it's in the range of your gaming area. This can help clear up the signal pathing. Also, make sure you have a clear line of sight to your console with the controller.
8) Directly connect into the TV's inputs with your devices, and send audio back to the receiver using ARC. I personally do not like this option because I use my Xbox One S as the 4k player and if I do this, I will lose lossless audio and ARC is inherently picky anyway at this point. With that said, if your TV supports ARC, and your receiver supports ARC, this will automatically send audio only to the receiver and you would do your switching at the TV level. For OLED owners, Doby Vision with LG is fantastic. So I do use ARC to use the Netflix app on the TV, because that particular app supports Dolby Vision (Stranger things Season 2 - Wow did it look good) programmed to hit audio1 on my receiver.
1) The obvious. Yes, make sure that your TV is set to Game Mode and Game Mode HDR if you have a set that supports that when you play your games. This eliminates post processing done which has a direct correlation on input lag. However, a lot of folks do this and still experience input lag. So, if you are like me, and still experienced it after doing this - move to step 2 if you are running all your devices through the receiver's HDMI inputs.
2) Your receiver. If you are running everything through various HDMI ports on your receiver which acts as your switch, a lot of people forget that receivers today come standard with up-scaling and post processing of it's own. (This will add input lag of around 30-50ms based on all tests I have seen) There are reasons at times to have the Receiver do this before it sends the signal out to your set for a better picture overall, but today, most TV sets made after 2015 do this better than the receiver can. So, make sure to go into your receiver settings and make sure HDMI is set to "Direct". This tells the receiver to send the naked signal as a straight pass through. Think of this as a game mode for receivers. Note that a lot of receivers today come standard with post processing enabled. For ex: I have a Yamaha RX-A770 Aventage which I recently upgraded too. In my settings under video in set up, I noticed processing was on. I then turned this to "Direct" via HDMI, eliminating Post processing and upscaling done by the receiver itself, and I noticed an improvement immediately.
3) Xbox One. If you are playing games on your Xbox One and have noticed input lag, there are issues with post processing/lag if you are connecting TV through your Xbox One to use it's media features. The XBox One utilizes it's own post processing feature set automatically when running TV through your Xbox One. Here is the shitty part. You cannot turn this off. There is no menu option. The only way to bypass is to not connect your cable box through the console and into the TV. Somehow, this still effects games and has been a bug/feature ever since the console was launched. I am not sure if this effects the XBox One X.
4) HDMI-CEC. On your TV, on your consoles, on your receiver - not only can you experience input lag with this enabled (Why I will never know) but you can also experience audio drop outs. Disable CEC on all your devices including TV, Console, and Receiver. And with that, power management features as well.
5) PS4 / PS Pro. The bluetooth signal on the Dual Shock 4 can degrade in quality as the Dual Shock 4 loses it's charge. I noticed when playing Rocket League my response times and game play was always better with a fully charged controller, and as soon as it would hit 2 of 3 bars, I could notice the decline in responsiveness. This one sucks because it doesn't take that long to get down to 2/3rd or 1/3rd of your battery life. One way to get around it is to keep your controller plugged in and hence, always at full charge. Otherwise, have a charged DS4 secondary to flip with when it comes drained enough at it starts the bluetooth signal degradation.
6) All consoles - Wireless internet. When your router is set to auto for channel selection, force this channel to 11. Nighthawk Routers seem to be effected by this the most but it has helped others quite a bit with other routers.
7) Bluetooth interference. We all have tons of bluetooth devices. Bluetooth interference can happen. So make sure to turn off bluetooth activity on your phone, laptop, portable speaker, tablet, etc if it's in the range of your gaming area. This can help clear up the signal pathing. Also, make sure you have a clear line of sight to your console with the controller.
8) Directly connect into the TV's inputs with your devices, and send audio back to the receiver using ARC. I personally do not like this option because I use my Xbox One S as the 4k player and if I do this, I will lose lossless audio and ARC is inherently picky anyway at this point. With that said, if your TV supports ARC, and your receiver supports ARC, this will automatically send audio only to the receiver and you would do your switching at the TV level. For OLED owners, Doby Vision with LG is fantastic. So I do use ARC to use the Netflix app on the TV, because that particular app supports Dolby Vision (Stranger things Season 2 - Wow did it look good) programmed to hit audio1 on my receiver.
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