Samsung TVs are well-rated for their crisp display picture quality and unbeatably flawless audio output. With a wide variety of Smart TV models from QLED to OLED screen arrays in 4K, 8K, and even 16K HDR resolutions, you’ll hardly find a better picture and sound quality in other brands.
Your typical Samsung TV comes with about two to four HDMI ports, which leaves one wondering which one is ideal for certain electronic gadgets. This may seem like a trivial matter to most people who are simply okay with getting their gadgets connected and working; but for some of us who want to maximize the potential of our devices and also prolong their years of effective use, it’s important to know the capacities of each HDMI port.
Quick Fact: Did you know that there are about five different types of HDMI connection ports available in different electronic gadgets today, you may only come across one or two of these in your Samsung Smart TVs.
Deciding what HDMI ports to use for specific home gadgets should be easy once you understand the functions and properties of each HDMI port. So, let’s discuss their various designs and functionalities quickly.
What Kind of HDMI Ports are on a Samsung TV?
The most probable kinds of HDMI ports you’re likely to come across in modern Samsung TVs will be the Type A or Type B HDMI connection ports, with the Type A being more prevalent and widely used. Other HDMI connection types are available in more modern digital devices.
What is HDMI Type A Connector?
This is the most generally accepted HDMI model today and also has the widest usage among modern conventional and Smart TVs. The port itself measures 13.9mm by 4.45mm while the cables that plug into it measure 14.0mm by 4.55mm.
It has a high data transfer bandwidth that accommodates the transfer of graphic and audio data in EDTV, SDTV, HDTV, UHDTV, and also the most recent ultra 4K picture quality, most ideal for home theater systems, projectors, Gaming consoles, video recorders, single link DVI-D, DVD players, Satellite and TV boxes, and other home entertainment gadgets.
What is HDMI Type B Connector?
The Type B HDMI connector port was launched in 2002 along with the type A. The intention was to carry dual-link DVD-I video formats, but this was later to be abandoned when the single-link HDMI 1.3 was launched with a data transfer rate greater than the Type B Connector. The Type B HDMI Connector measures 21.2mm by 4.45mm and carries 29 pins with six separating pairs instead of the normal three found in Type A.
Recognizing the Different Transfer Speeds of the HDMI Ports on a Samsung TV
A recently purchased Samsung TV will likely have HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 Type-A ports on it. Although they’re of the same type, they don’t move data at the same rate. While they can both deliver high-quality 4K picture quality, your HDMI 1.4 port can move data at maximum speeds up to 10.2Gbps, whereas the HDMI 2.0 goes faster at rates up to 18Gbps.
If you’re using a more recent Samsung Smart TV with HDMI 2.1 ports (the most recent available), then expect to seamlessly stream data at 8K picture quality of up to 120 fps refresh rate with automatic mode switching, and speeds clocking 48Gbps.
More often than not, your Samsung TV may have a combination of HDMI ports with different data transfer speeds to meet your various needs. You’ll likely need to connect your gaming consoles to an HDMI 2.1 port if you want to have the best gaming performance for your Samsung TV.
HDMI 2.1 ports are designed to offer the best gaming experience with compatible Smart TVs, with such properties as Virtual Refresh Rates (VRR) that allow gaming consoles to switch effortlessly between several frame rates during gameplay, AMD and Nvidia G-Sync, as well as Automatic Low-Latency Mode (great for minimizing virtual memory resources usage during gameplay).
eARC HDMI Ports
Apart from selecting which HDMI port is best for gaming, you’ll also notice, if you’re lucky, one of the HDMI ports on your Samsung TV is labeled as eARC HDMI (meaning Enhanced Audio Return Channel). This is an important sound output channel for your Samsung TV; it allows you to set up an external sound system such as a Sound Bar or Home Theater system for your TV without the need for a Bluetooth connection.
A typical Type A HDMI cable comes carrying up to 19 different wires in it, giving it the capability to transmit data of higher bandwidths and greater quality at unprecedented speeds greater than most Composite AV cables. We don’t see a lot of upgrades to the initial design of HDMI cables and that’s a great thing, it allows for efficient backward compatibility.
With an eARC HDMI cable, you can send your TV audio output to a Sound Bar or Home Theater system; this function isn’t possible with an HDMI 1.4 or 2.0 port. Switching from a 2.1 HDMI port to a 2.0 quickly drops your gaming picture quality from 4K to 2K at 1440p; the refresh rate drops from 120 fps to a mere 30 fps, and this automatically turns off VRR and ALLM which makes virtual gaming highly enjoyable with HDMI 2.1 ports.