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HDTV and Gaming: Building a FAQ, need your help
Frugus
PhotographerMontrealRegistered User regular
PhotographerMontrealRegistered User regular
Hello all,
Recently I encountered a problem with gaming on my plasma TV. Don't feel like retelling the story here because it will probably derail the discussion. What is important is that when I talked about it to a couple of Arcadians we ended up with some interesting inputs, debunkings, solutions and most of all, even more questions on the subject of HD gaming and HD displays. For all the goodness that the AVS forums can provide, there is no denying that the pure amount of information on HD displays is vast and not too specific when it comes to gaming. With the market's explosion of HD consoles and displays more info will eventually pop up but for now, some of us are thinking about making things right and wish to build an illustrious FAQ on the subject of HD gaming and HD display care.
What I would love to get here is some of your personal experiences, inputs or stories on the subject. If you had problems or surprises, or anything interesting to tell, please post it here. We are reading up on many different subjects but hearing about experiences can serve as a counter point. If you post something here then we might use it in the FAQ should it be relevant.
I (we?) hope to make this FAQ Penny-Arcade centric in the sense that people would mostly come here to get it. After all, the PA forums are the hub of the known gaming universe. Maybe I should ask somebody about that
Discuss pink robots!
Frugus Eggbeater
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If you own an Xbox 360, the cheapest way to get HD is to pick up a VGA cable online (I've seen them for around $13 shipped) a CRT monitor from a thrift store (they cost about $5) and a female to female VGA gender changer.
Not really related to HD but the Pal Wii is completely incapable of outputting to s-video, the cables obviously aren't available from Nintendo but 3rd party ones are, so steer clear.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
The nice thing about this is that there are no dead pixels at all, while most of my LCDs of the past have had one or two that I had to work out using the good old fashioned 'pencil trick'. I guess they hold TVs to higher standards than computer monitors? One thing worth noting is that you want to make sure your TV has enough inputs. At least one DVI, one HDMI, one VGA (if you can find it) to ensure that you'll be able to hook everything up to your TV. I had a lot of trouble trying to get 1080p at first, as I was running a VGA cable on my computer monitor. Basically, my graphics card was being fussy and refused to display more than 1080i to my monitor, which ended up looking shaky and unusable on all things save for movies. I ended up buying DVI cables, which immediately fixed the problem.
I don't have much else to say, other than unless you have the cash, avoid Sharp, Toshiba, and Sony TVs. They're all fantastic image qualities-- some of the best for the money, however, they cost an arm and a leg. I recommend researching the model number of the TV via google, a quick check on CNET, and a wikipedia of the company. I chose Westinghouse for my TV because it wasn't very expensive for what I got, had tons of inputs, and it was basically designed to be a computer monitor. Hopefully this helps someone.
The TV's great for anime and movies fed in from my PC. Again, most of these tend to be SD, but generally they look pretty good. The screen is so bright and glare-free that I can watch just about anything in direct sunlight. On occasion I'll watch local HDTV over the air, though I think I need a better antenna. PBS comes in pretty well, though, and it's consistently stunning. I find myself watching programs I would normally pass over simply because they're so pretty.
I will soon be buying a 360 elite, and will update info as to the 1080p on HDMI, and the SD DVD upscaling on HDMI.
^ Not a pic of mine but its the same TV. I have a 32" Samsung LE32R88BD (Cost £480 from Dixons UK), my first HDTV and I absolutely love it. Currently have my Xbox 360 connected up via VGA and it is stunning, I also get 1:1 pixel mapping as the set's resolution is 1366x768. I sold my Dell 2007wfp monitor in order to help fund this purchase, so I use it as my main PC monitor aswell and its great, connected via an HDMI to DVI cable, and again, 1:1 pixel mapping. I also now have a PS3 connected via HDMI (the set has 3 HDMI ports) and that also looks amazing.
I borrowed my girlfriend's Wii and hooked that up via component and that is also fantastic, I haven't had any problems with any of the connections, all in all, I can't reccomend this TV enough! I haven't had any problems with ghosting etc as I use Samsung's Game Mode, which gives a faster response time. Input wise, this TV features 3 HDMI, 1 Component, 2 SCART, 1 VGA 1 S-Video and 1 Composite, so more than enough really.
Also, being the bit of a perfectionist I am, I decided to give the whole front of the TV a polish with DISPLEX, and now its about 5 times shinier and it took a few minor scratches completely away. For cleaning, I use Pledge fluffy dusters, these trap dust via the fibres rather than through anti-static (I would NEVER use an anti static duster on my TV). Currently I have to dust it about once a day, but im planning on getting an Air Purifier for the room soon which will hopefully lower the dust levels. If you can't find dusters like these, microfibre cloths also work a charm, but be sure to wash these fairly regularly, as if the dust builds up too much on the cloth it can leave "streaks" of dust on the TV.