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[TELEVISION] Purchasing a Gaming Television?
KimFidler
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I decided over the Christmas break that I was going to enter the new year in style. I wanted a brand new fancy television to play games on, and I was bound and determined to get my hands on something by the new year. Well, it's January 2, and I'm still a little confused.
Yesterday my girlfriend and I took a trip to Best Buy to check out what we could get. We were looking at spending about $1200 - $1900, and weren't set on a brand or type. I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to home theatres, so I thought I would start by making a choice as to what looked the best.
After about an hour at Best Buy and chatting with the rather helpful fellow there, I had more information but was still a little confused about it all. I mostly use the television for gaming (Xbox 360), and broadcast television. We watch DVDs on it, but haven't really been too excited about making the jump to Blu-ray or an HD box yet. Been thinking about getting a Playstation 3, but that's about it.
Anyways, here is what I got from the Best Buy kid, some of it may be accurate, some of it may not be. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. From what he told me, I would be better off getting a television with 1080p, and something with a refresh rate of 120 Hz as opposed to 60 Hz, and something with 8ms refresh. I'm not too sure about the terms but I guess I have it figured up to that point. Now here's the main questions I have.
Obviously 1080p is better than 720p, but is it going to make a huge difference for gaming? Is a 60 Hz refresh rate decent enough to game on or should I get the 120 Hz? What is the failure rate on most plasma sets? The guy told me they were about 30%, which seemed rather high to me (RRODlol). Also, is there a brand I should lean towards, or a brand I should stay away from?
Thank you Internet!
Yesterday my girlfriend and I took a trip to Best Buy to check out what we could get. We were looking at spending about $1200 - $1900, and weren't set on a brand or type. I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to home theatres, so I thought I would start by making a choice as to what looked the best.
After about an hour at Best Buy and chatting with the rather helpful fellow there, I had more information but was still a little confused about it all. I mostly use the television for gaming (Xbox 360), and broadcast television. We watch DVDs on it, but haven't really been too excited about making the jump to Blu-ray or an HD box yet. Been thinking about getting a Playstation 3, but that's about it.
Anyways, here is what I got from the Best Buy kid, some of it may be accurate, some of it may not be. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. From what he told me, I would be better off getting a television with 1080p, and something with a refresh rate of 120 Hz as opposed to 60 Hz, and something with 8ms refresh. I'm not too sure about the terms but I guess I have it figured up to that point. Now here's the main questions I have.
Obviously 1080p is better than 720p, but is it going to make a huge difference for gaming? Is a 60 Hz refresh rate decent enough to game on or should I get the 120 Hz? What is the failure rate on most plasma sets? The guy told me they were about 30%, which seemed rather high to me (RRODlol). Also, is there a brand I should lean towards, or a brand I should stay away from?
Thank you Internet!
KimFidler on
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How far away will you be sitting from the TV, how big of a screen are you considering, do you want a wall hanging TV (if not consider a DLP), do you want surround sound (in which case reconsider your budget), and are you willing to buy online, how much ambient light is in the room?
Well in most cases we would generally be between 6' and 10' away from the TV. We're not that interested in wall hanging, but we might want something like it in the future. Surround Sound is going to be a must, but we're going to wait a couple of months for it. Ambient light is really adjustable in the room. I like having it darker in most cases, the girlfriend likes to have more lights on. Generally it's more of a softer lighting, nothing too bright.
If surround sound is coming later, then I imagine you'll fine a new budget for that. Excellent, we're still in your original price range.
Do you know how big of a TV you are looking for? 37 inches? 55? More? Less? Anything?
The higher the contrast ratio, the better the blacks, and the better everything will look. I would check out some of the thin DLPs and see if you like how they look. They produce a damned good picture for a cheaper than lcd/plasma price, which means... hey! better stuff!
Buy your cables at www.monoprice.com
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=62547 That will explain your refresh rate question, which is something I wasn't too familiar with.
My general advice for looking to buy a TV is go to Amazon, read the reviews, compare some sets, maybe even see what Cnet has to say. Then, when you find some that you like, check them out in stores, or ask for more detailed help.
Something else you want to be aware of is if the TV has a good built in scaler, in order to help SD content look good.
For sports and games though, I can't imagine the whole 120hz thing anything but a good thing.
But to my knowledge it's not too widespread yet so it's not something to worry about.
As far as the whole 720p vs 1080p thing goes, I honestly can't tell the difference most of the time. However, 1080p sets are getting cheaper and cheaper as the months go on, you have the budget for one, and you're getting a PS3 which is all about the 1080p-ness, so you may as well pick up one of the appropriate sets.
Also, don't forget about sound. Most if not all TV speakers are just absolute garbage. Even an inexpensive Home Theatre is better than what's in your TV. Don't spend over $500 though unless you're a real audiophile.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
You will get either the same TV for less money, or a better model with more features for the same money. Plus if there is any problems you can return it for up to 90 days, no questions asked, and the company extends the manufacturer's warranty an additional year no extra cost.
Plus, if you're an executive member you get 2% back on your purchase, which adds up to a nice bonus check you get every year.
Taking your price range into account with the other things you've listed, try looking at some Samsung DLP TVs. They are High-Def, have a wonderful picture, and cost less than comparable Plasma or LCD TVs. However, keep in mind that they aren't flat-panel, as they are a kind of projection TV. You can probably pick up a 42" for $1000, or less, which leaves room for a decent home theatre setup.
I'd check Newegg.com. It is an excellent website for consumer electronics, and I've never had a problem with them.
Goes to show the rate these things can drop in price.
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0770HDS0010079999&catid=
Price is a sale in Canadian$
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0770HDS0010094803&catid=
It looked like a pretty amazing deal, but again, it's a 720p set and if spending a couple hundred more dollars would mean a better experience all around, it might be worth it.
That they are. I got a HTIB system from Onkyo for a ridiculous price on their site two years ago and I'm still in love with it. My single complaint is that it doesn't handle HD video (since at the time I didn't have an HDTV) but luckily I use my new TV to pick the video and sound source, so it works out great. If I were to buy another one right now, I'd go back to Onkyo first.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
If the best buy wont let you hook your console up to a TV you're about to spend nearly $2k on, walk out and go to another store as they obviously don't want your business.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=167 (Plasma)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=166 (LCD)
Here is the 42 inch set I ended up buying on Boxing Day (December 26th) based on the research time I put in to understanding what exactly I'd be buying:
Plasma TV's are great but there is always the (low) risk of burn in/image retention. The difference though is that plasma's usually have better refresh rates and they don't have the same "blur" you'll get on LCD's when there is fast movement on the screen.
Plasma's are better for movies (in my opinion), and give more "pop" (through the looking glass) than LCD's.
LCD's on the other hand have almost 0 risk of burn in/image retention which is something to consider when you are going to be gaming with static images like HUD's in FPS for instance. LCD's are far lighter than plasma TV's as well.
Regarding the 720p versus 1080p issue, most people say that if you are going to be more than about 8ft away from a 50 inch set you won't see a difference. Personally I spent the extra couple hundred for 1080p because I'll be watching lots of blu-ray's ... and even if my eye's don't perceive a difference I'll know there is a difference in my headwhich would annoy me.
Personally I love my plasma and based on my research it seems that the latest generation of Panasonic's have very little risk of burn in or image retention. YMMV.
Do all the research you can. Often set's in the stores are set up really crappily (using component instead of HDMI for example), and are not reflective of how the set will look at home when optimized. Also store set's are set to "Torch mode" which is definately not how you will have your set optimized once you get into the menu's to change the settings.
There is only 1 issue I've had with it, which actually caused me to exhange one set out already. I wasn't really aware of a break-in period, so the day I got it, I also got Rock Band. I also didn't know that the factory settings for video are horrible for a TV in its first 200 hours. So basically after playing Rock Band for who knows how many hours, I actually had a ghosting image of the notes, score, and overdrive bar burnt into the TV.
It was totally my fault, and thankfully I learned my lesson before the 30 day exchange period was over. So I swapped it out and now I'm in the middle of breaking it in correctly. I love this TV and if it means that I can't game for hours on end for 200 hours of TV break-in, then it's worth it.
Does anyone else game on a Plasma, if so, how do you extend the life of your set?
I have a Toshiba 42" and love it to death.
The AVS forums posted by Bamelin have a break in DVD floating around, I'd download it. You don't have to actually use it for break in but it'll speed the process up if you just leave it in over night.
Just to clarify something: plasmas have image retention and burn-in. Retention is temporary. After the break in you'll still likely have images left after displaying for any significant period of time but 1. they won't shown during watching so they won't interfere and 2. if you stick in the break in DVD or something similar that covers the whole screen it'll disappear in 10 minutes or so. In the end, don't worry about it unless you're playing for 24 hours straight- as said IR disappears pretty quickly and is normal.
What the guy said is important - image retention is common and you might be afraid and think it's burn in. It's not, though, and it just goes away.
Rock Band is also amazing.
Onkyo HTIB sets are definitely the best HTIB you can buy though still significantly less quality than a HT that you build yourself for the same price. Basically meaning buy an Onkyo receiver and some Athena or Polk RTi's or something of the sort.
Enjoy the TV!