hdtvs and gaming

[wiggyx]

I started this project to demonstrate my earlier statement, but the results surprised me. I might need to adjust the way I game nowadays, at least on the classic consoles.

It's pretty difficult to see any significant difference between the two, most likely because of how you filmed them. The picture is almost completely washed out

If the room were completely dark save for the screen and the camera's settings were properly adjusted, then we might get a better idea of what you're seeing (although most of us probably know exactly what you're seeing).

[sheath]

It's pretty difficult to see any significant difference between the two, most likely because of how you filmed them. The picture is almost completely washed out

If the room were completely dark save for the screen and the camera's settings were properly adjusted, then we might get a better idea of what you're seeing (although most of us probably know exactly what you're seeing).

With this camera I have to set it so it only sees the screen and then it will adjust to the screen brightness. I do apologize for the washed out image quality, but the point was to watch how close they were. I had to frame advance the video to see that the LCD was 3-4 frames behind, which explains why I have been playing games from every generation on it for years now without thinking the screen was causing any problems. I did feel like I had to work more at some games than I used to, but when it had been five years since the last time I played the game I just figured I had gotten rusty.

Watching the video a few more times, I also think that the LCD might be catching up during the action at various points. I'll have to frame advance in more areas to see if that is the case.

[theclaw]

Yeah LCD technology has progressed to where it today isn't itself the main problem when people complain about how old games look. Not necessarily even one's own TV screen panel. Otherwise retro games in good emulators would look worse than they do.

Things like setup, original console's hardware design, and bad upscaler inside the TV, are factors as well.

Some games look hideous to begin with. CRT, LCD, or otherwise, no longer matters then. TVs don't fix a game's underlying creative direction.

[Leo_A]

"Otherwise retro games in good emulators would look worse than they do."

I think you'll find that those good emulators aren't putting out the games at their original resolutions. Things like Contra on XBLA look as nice as they do since the emulator itself is handling the upscaling chores. The same with PC emulators where upscaling, deinterlacing where appropriate, and a wide range of things like various filtering options go a long ways towards making something like a NES game look nice on a monitor that would perform awful if it were to recieve the image unaltered (And quite possibly not even display it at all).

If you compare something like Super Mario Brothers running on the NES via composite and the Wii via component (And set to 480i which makes all the emulators put out their original resolutions beyond the N64 emulator that will output 480i), you're going to see some improvement thanks to component.

But if the scaling chip sucks with the NES original, it's also going to suck with the same resolution with the Wii emulator.

[Parodius Duh!]

The Golden rule:

If it was made during the generation of CRT TVs only, then thats what the system will look best on. Only Ps2-onward will look good on hdtv's

People in charge of producing all these new hdtv's dont even consider the fact that people are not playing the most current console.

[Leo_A]

There are so many 480i PS2 releases that I disagree with that. A Playstation 2 is best enjoyed on a nice CRT.

With the GameCube and Xbox, 480p was common enough that hooking one up to a HDTV isn't a bad idea if it has a halfway decent scaling chip. But making the scaling chip both deinterlace and upscale like it commonly would have to on the PS2 is a recipe for a poor picture and often noticeable input lag with the average HDTV.

[theclaw]

I suppose it varies. PS2 is when console games started to look more like PC games. IIRC PC games at 480i is a bigger travesty than anything this topic could possibly mention.

[BlastProcessing402]

For Dreamcast, get a VGA box and hook it up that way, if your TV has a VGA port.

[kainemaxwell]

Ok update time. Got my new hdtv on layaway at my store and got the rest of the cables, etc needed. Picked up the phillips 4X1 HD Component Av Selector at work today ($10 on sale at my store!). So I'm gonna run a standard component for the output. The other stuff I'm gonna stick through will likely be my dvd player, ps2 and whatever my 2nd game system is at the time (n64 right now). Gonna do component for the ps2 and dvd player again, highest I can do I know is s-video with the n64, what am I looking at possibly for any image degradation by doing this? And tv does have a vga port too. ^^