So, the PS3 made its long overdue appearance and despite purported strong initial sales, the company is allegedly announcing redundancies…but that’s another story. We’re here because console gaming is going hand-in-hand with the HD revolution. With Microsoft confirming rumours of a next-gen Xbox 360, the battle for gaming on your living room HDTV is as fierce as ever. Buying a TV can be complicated to the uninitiated, especially when you have to mix console gaming in the equation, but I hope the following points will make your life a little easier…
If you are choosing between a plasma and a LCD, these are some of the things I would think about.
Plasma
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There is very little or no motion smearing with plasma, so games are crisp and detailed.
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Gamers may be put off by image retention in the early days after plasma installation. You always have to check that your health bar is not only full, but also not `burning’ into your TV.
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If you sit closer to a plasma TV, you may notice the annoying PWM `shimmering’ pixels and grid structure. (because plasma tend to have a lower resolution for the same size)
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Plasmas flicker at bright intensities, so games with a lot of bright scenes may be migraine-inducing.
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You can’t get 1:1 pixel mapping on current plasmas, so edges will look a little soft.
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If you are a Gears of War fan, you have another reason to hate plasmas…green trail from phosphor lag, shown below. (credit to choddo)
LCD
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LCDs exhibit motion smearing, so fast movements and panning shots look a little blurry.
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Input lag…This means you press a button (`pull your trigger’) but the action doesn’t seem to catch up on screen. This can mean life-or-death on deathmatches!
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1:1 mapping is easily implemented on most recent LCD, ensuring the sharpest pictures.
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LCD’s don’t flicker so you can go on playing without fatigue, skipping breakfast, lunch and toilet…
I was down at Arndale Centre in Manchester the other day and tried out the PS3 on a Sony LCD. Although I was a little rusty on the racing game, much to the amusement of a couple of schoolboys (?truant), I enjoyed myself so much that all the flaws vanished in the excitement. I suppose the last hurdle of motion smearing may be overcomed with the 100 Hz panels this year.
Personally I’d go with an LCD for gaming, but I have heard plasma fans gaming intensively on their latest panel with few complaints. Well….to each his own, I guess.
for what it’s worth a lot of gamers worry about screen burn with plazmas, not noticed any lag on my LCS…
oops – LCDS…
Hi here, anyone figured out (i.e. proved) if the Samsung LE40M86BD can do 1080p via its vga connection. Want to use it for an xbox 360. Cheers!
well IIRC the LE40N73 did but some games (Burnout Revenge for example) gave you black boarders (I assume that’s because it’s 1:1 and those games are at a lower res – but I’m no expert) – certainly 1080p is listed as supported in the manual.
To KC above ^^^^^^
There is a known problem with XBOX not working @ 1080p over VGA.
This does not only apply to the Samsung but according to the latest What HiFi to other major makes as well including Sony and Sharp.
See this post for more info:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4672622&postcount=1871
Hope that helps.
OK – Xbox 360 through VGA:
1280×1024 was the max I could get – the TV switched off even tho I forced the 1080p resolution.
Burnout Revenge still had borders.
Picture looked quite soft and colours not as vivid as component. However the DVD playback (which ‘info’ reported as still 1280×1024) did look very ‘clean’ even if blacks/colours weren’t as good…however it could be tweeked to be nearly as good but overall very impressive DVD playback (IMHO) from close up (if a little soft).
After more testing – the DVD playback is excellent through VGA (having swicthed back and forth a few times and looked up close in detail), but to me @ 13ft viewing I hardly notice the difference and borders in games is a no-no. When 1080p and no borders happens I’ll change, but for now it’s component for me.
Thanks all…
Well, I got a Samsung LCD, the 40 inch of the F71 series reviewed here. I can highly recommend it as a gaming monitor/TV.
I play CS:Source and fps shooted mainly, so input lag was a killer for me. I tried a few really high LCD monitors, including the Dell 2407WFP and some of the viewsonics, but had no luck, I could notice the input lag and that fraction of second was getting me killed all the time. I went from been a fairly good player to useless in the space of a few months.
So I gave up looking for an LCD monitor for my PC and was going to buy a 21 inch LCD and a good 40 inch TV to watch HD stuff on. I’m glad I bought the Samsung LE40F71B first, because I saved myself a few 100 euro :-) There is no ghosting, smearing or motion blurring (in games) of any kind and most important, no input lag. It feels just like playing on a CRT.
I know you guys here didn’t rate the F71 very highly, but for me it’s been the best purchase ever. It’s picture is fantastic and for PC/xbox360/PS3 use it’s amazing.
WOuld I pick an LCD or Plasma, well, my brother bought a high end plasma before christmas, I don’t know the model, it was a 42 inch Philips, cost about 3000 euro, he works in the store, that was the price with his staff discount. Games look and play much better on my LCD.
yup F71 was a great set (IMO) however I had clouding and the chance to upgrade to the M86 for free (or pay to change to a W2000), so it was a no-brainer.
which 1080p tv do you think is best to use a ps3 on?
I am using my PS3 with a Sony KDL40W2000 and it’s a brilliant combination – Resistance & Motorstorm are stunning, as is Blu-Ray playback. Sky (SD) and DVDs look pretty good too. The only thing which isn’t great is a slight mura problem but it’s not really bad enough for me to want to do anything about it. Overall, a great combination.
has anyone tried the ps3 on the samsung m86?
no, but it looked stunning on the F71 – so should look even nicer on the M86! :oP
Well I’m still doubting on which lcd model to choose for gaming with my wii/ps3/xbox360… Please can somebody answer this simple question. What are the bests lcd tv if I want to play with this 3 consoles? It’s such a pain to figure it out by myself, I don’t have any friend that can answer me. There are so many models, I can’t go to a shop with my 3 consoles and test 10 differents lcd screens, Can you, please, tell me the best I have to test there?
i have a 360, HD drive and a 40″ samsung M86.
via VGA max res you can get is 1280×1040.
via component max is 1080i
so in theory this makes component the best option….
However! via component the xbox delivers the following:
Games – 1080p (however the samsung only accepts 1080i)
HD DVD – 1080i
DVD – 480p
So really it depends what you’re viewing as to what connection is best.
Another post of mine:
i bought the M86 last week – gorgeous TV.
However you can’t get 1080p over VGA as yet. Its there in the dashboard, but the samsung does not like somehting about the refresh rate.
The max res you can get over VGA is 1280×1040.
Via Component the 360 gives: Games – 1080p, HD DVD – 1080i, DVD – 480p.
In summary (my opinion only!):
Playing Gears of War (720p Source)
Component (1080p): vivid colours, rich blacks, lose some detail from blackness, more ‘grainy’
VGA (1280×1040): more muted colours, but less grain, sharp picture
‘Serenity’ – HD DVD (1080p Source)
Component (1080i): Awesome
VGA (1280×1040): nearly aweseome
Star Wars III – DVD (480i Source)
Component: (480p): Average
VGA (1280×1040): Amazing for a SD DVD
So for Games, really is a close call as most games are 720p anyway, personal preference on which looks better.
HD DVD, i prefer the Component as you get the benefit of the 1080i (the VGA looks softer, less detail)
SD DVD, VGA by a mile! I was amazed how good episode 3 looked for a standard DVD. This down to the 360 doing an upscaling job on the source, which it doesnt do via component.
Really hope MS / Samsung resolve the incompatibility because 1080p over VGA would be awesome for all. Other than that its wait for the 360 Elite.
Hi
I have a ps3 and stuck between 2 sets the sony 32v2500 and toshiba 32wlt68. the sony apparently has great colours and the tosh has great motion handling, but there is no real definitive answer as to what would work best with a ps3 and SD content. and with toshiba opting for hd-dvd, could there be a possibilty that the ps3 blu-ray format might not be represented best in the tosh. ofcourse there are harder questions out there like for e.g world hunger, but at least with a great set we can realy see pixel by pixel how hungry those people realy are.
thank you
I went a bit green myself when I saw the video on this page, but after playing Gears of war on my PDP 428XD, it does not suffer at all from the green trail phosphor lag. In fact when you use the game mode and calibrate the display somewhat decently, it is my humble opinion that you’ll be hard pressed to find a much better display for gaming. I had a Samsung LCD HDTV before the pioneer and you might miss the sharpness of an LCD for a bit, but once you got used to the colors, contrast and immense sense of depth in the plasma’s picture you’ll never want to go back.
well personally i think the fight between xbox and ps3 is retarded why do it what are thay at the end of the day god damn gaming consoles! who gives a blinding shit. if you do then you have no life. why fight they where built for entertainment and nothing else. and they both deliver this. so whats with the fighting.