TV's

[hoosierbengal]

I just wanted to get some feedback in regards to choosing a TV for gaming. Seems like there are a lot of options. Whats the best type or brand of TV for gaming? Thanks

[chippered]

Re: TV's

I like my Vizio, but i'm sure you'll get a lot of different responses.

Go to a best buy/circiut city/wal-mart and check out the displays they have set up and make a choice based on whats most important to you, such as price.

Also, try to go HD, if you can. Nothing like it.

[hoosierbengal]

Re: TV's

Does it make a difference if I go LCD,DLP or Plazma as far as gaming goes? Is playing games hard on any of these TV's. I was looking at TV's and I asked the salesman if playing games on the TV's would cause damage. He said he wouldn't play games on any of these TV's. He was a older gentleman and I was thinking he may not be that well informed when it comes to gaming.



Also any feedback on Vizios?

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: TV's

Does it make a difference if I go LCD,DLP or Plazma as far as gaming goes? Is playing games hard on any of these TV's. I was looking at TV's and I asked the salesman if playing games on the TV's would cause damage. He said he wouldn't play games on any of these TV's. He was a older gentleman and I was thinking he may not be that well informed when it comes to gaming.



Also any feedback on Vizios?

Have the 32inch Vizio. Love it. I currently have the 360 and HD A2 hooked up to it. Both look amazing. Granted, not the same PQ you'd get with Sony or a Samsung, but you get comparable PQ and almost the same features for several hundred dollars less.
I'd give the Vizio a serious look.

[fishepa]

Re: TV's

Vizio's are excellent for the price.

[NoleFan]

Re: TV's

I've been gaming on a 26" Vizio for the past 2 months and while it is HD it seems a bit dark to me. Like has been said though, it's a good tv for the price. When it's time for me to buy my own HDTV though, I'm leaning toward Samsung.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: TV's

I say if you are gonna spend the money on an HDTV, don't be cheap and get a low end brand. What is your price range?

[NoleFan]

Re: TV's

I say if you are gonna spend the money on an HDTV, don't be cheap and get a low end brand. What is your price range?

Now that I agree with.

[drlw322]

Re: TV's

Does it make a difference if I go LCD,DLP or Plazma as far as gaming goes? Is playing games hard on any of these TV's. I was looking at TV's and I asked the salesman if playing games on the TV's would cause damage. He said he wouldn't play games on any of these TV's. He was a older gentleman and I was thinking he may not be that well informed when it comes to gaming.



Also any feedback on Vizios?

plasma is real bad for gaming because it leaves an imprint everytime you pause or turn off the game. it will usually last 3 yrs than it goes out. also you can't really fix plasma tv. and if you do it cause like 1000 dollars.

rear projections are good pictures for cheap price, but like runs on a light bulb inside so it can burn out anytime it cause 200 or 300 dollars to fix. ive heard of people have a 3 month old rear projections TV burning out.

LCD is the best choice, it doesn't cause damage to the TV when you play video game. although the picture compare to a plasma is not as good but it will last at least 5 years. LCD also is the most expensive.

the thing to look for is the resolution contrast. most TV are 1080 resolution, but they all have different contrast. the more color contrast the better the picture. it say something like 1500:1 contrast. it could go anywhere from 1500:1 to 20,000:1 on the higher end.

[drlw322]

Re: TV's

I've been gaming on a 26" Vizio for the past 2 months and while it is HD it seems a bit dark to me. Like has been said though, it's a good tv for the price. When it's time for me to buy my own HDTV though, I'm leaning toward Samsung.

check what your color resolution contrast is. that's probably why is dark. most vizio has a lower color resolution contrast.

[NoleFan]

Re: TV's

check what your color resolution contrast is. that's probably why is dark. most vizio has a lower color resolution contrast.

Never checked. I was just using the standard "Game" mode.

[rsnomar05]

Re: TV's

Go to a best buy/circiut city/wal-mart and check out the displays they have set up and make a choice based on whats most important to you, such as price.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT do this. They have one feed split amongst all the the TV's. Some sets will look like crap because the signal heading into their set is the weakest. Places like Best Buy also have been known to make sure the PQ on sets they are trying to push looks better than the other.

Also, the true test of an HDTV, among many other things, is often black reproduction. In other words, are the blacks deep and dark, or they washed out and grayish? You can't tell in-store because the rooms are so bright and the contrast is jacked up. You can fiddle with picture settings in-store, but you can't ask the employees to dim the lights.

Your best option is to look at www.avsforum.com as that is what I used to help choose between sets. The forums are filled with A/V Techies who tell you the problems each set has (and each set does have a problem, there are no perfect sets as of yet) and whether or not the problems can be fixed.

Brands/Models to avoid

Sharp- All of their new TV's have banding, or streaky bands across the screen, especially during solid gray and black sequences of video. Once you notice them on your set, you'll never enjoy watching the TV again.

Samsung and Sony series TV's with a 120hz refresh rate- Sure, the high refresh rate sounds great, and these manufacturers claim these sets will provide the smoothest possible image. However, the 120hz processing creates "TBE," or "Triple Ball Effect." It is called this because during fast motion, such as during a sports game where a ball is thrown, there will be trail following the fast moving images. So behind a thrown football you would see two or three static images of that football trailing the one that is moving. In other words, it's like seeing double or triple vision.

Magnavox/Phillips- Both are made by the Phillips brand and offer poor picture quality (low black levels, inaccurate shadow detail, etc.) Not only that, but they all have a habit of breaking the moment the warranty expires. For example, on the newest Magnavox 1080p sets, the TV's get "mode not supported" errors that usually surface one moth into ownership. Phillips does not know how to fix this problem, so your set becomes a lemon.

Westinghouse- These budget sets are consistently rated by critics to have the worst picture quality among hi-def sets. In this case, you get what you pay for.

Akai- These televisions are made from cheap materials attached to LG screens. Terrible critical reviews coupled with sets constantly breaking make these sets a definite "do not buy." Not to mention, many also have banding like the Sharps.


BEST TELEVISIONS:

Sharp lnt-61 and lnt-65 series- Up there with the Olevia 474i, Sony XBR and Pioneer Kuros for best LCD set out there. The picture quality on the two is virtually identical. The features are identical. The only difference is that the 65 has a glossy screen that, unfortunately, attracts a lot of glare. I bought the lnt-4661 (46-inch LCD) from Amazon, and it has been perfect so far. Deep black levels, excellent scaling, lots of inputs (three HDMI ports), but mediocre standard-def reception. These sets used to have issues with clouding (faint circles of white light on dark images) and defective HDMI ports, but Samsung has fixed this issue.

Olevia 474i- One of the best LCD's out there. Olevia is, for the most part, a budget brand with mediocre picture quality. The 474i is Olevia's first high-end set, and it delivers stunning picture quality, stunning standard-def reception, stunning everything except the black levels, which look extremely gray. If you can get bast that sole issue, this series is great.

Pioneer Kuros- Phenomenal picture quality, but the most expensive sets out there. They do suffer from occasional lip sync issues with the audio from the speakers (a problem some have reported with the Olevia) but using a surround sound receiver will eliminate this issue. If you get one of these LCD or Plasma sets, be prepared to pay out the nose.

Sony XBR- As long as you avoid the 120hz models, the XBR series is fantastic. They suffer from clouding issues (which were resolved in the Samsungs), but other than that the picture quality is on par. Except for the VGA out (for use as a PC monitor). For some reason these sets won't allow the PC image to fit the screen, so no true 1080p resolution from PC monitors.

Here is the set that I bought: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LNT466...8930765&sr=8-1

It is on sale for $1449.99 with free shipping (make sure you choose to buy from Amazon, not JR Music, and it comes with a free Logitech Harmony remote and $100 NFL Shop gift card.

[capa]

Re: TV's

Thanks for the rundown. I don't agree with all your opinions on each set, but you did a nice job detailing the shortcomings of all the sets. It is odd that the best sets at the high end of the scale (Samsung 4671, 4669 and Sony XBR4) have some of the worst issues with TBE, clouding, and stutter in fast otion. Turning AMP off helps resolve the issues for most cases, but it is crazy to pay for this feature if you can never use it. It's new technology (120hz) that they need a bit more time smoothing out.

And yes...avsforum is THE place to get info on stuff like this. But be prepared to read through 400 page threads!

C

[rsnomar05]

Re: TV's

Thanks for the rundown. I don't agree with all your opinions on each set, but you did a nice job detailing the shortcomings of all the sets. It is odd that the best sets at the high end of the scale (Samsung 4671, 4669 and Sony XBR4) have some of the worst issues with TBE, clouding, and stutter in fast otion. Turning AMP off helps resolve the issues for most cases, but it is crazy to pay for this feature if you can never use it. It's new technology (120hz) that they need a bit more time smoothing out.

And yes...avsforum is THE place to get info on stuff like this. But be prepared to read through 400 page threads!

C

Yeah, the 120hz sets aren't worth it. Especially since there's no guarantee a firmware update will fix the issues. That's why I went with the Samsung 4661f. Virtually issue free (now that the HDMI issues have been resolved). I almost went with the 4665f, but the glare would have been a problem for my living room.

[capa]

Re: TV's

Yeah, the 120hz sets aren't worth it. Especially since there's no guarantee a firmware update will fix the issues. That's why I went with the Samsung 4661f. Virtually issue free (now that the HDMI issues have been resolved). I almost went with the 4665f, but the glare would have been a problem for my living room.

I was looking at the 61 and 65 but am being seduced by the higher contrast ratios in the 69 and 71. My set will mostly be used for gaming (360 and PS3) and tv viewing (hd channels as well as standard def). I g back and forth...can't pull the trigger on anything...frustrating...

C