TV Recomendations!

[digitalmouse]

It's come time to upgrade my 'gaming' tv. The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about VGA, HD, 1080p, 720p, 480p,LCD, plasma, and all that other jazz. Could you the fine members of DP recomend a guy a pretty worthy television?

I know that I want a flat screen somewhere in the 17-23" range. I also know that I want to be able to plug my GC and PS2 into the tv and have it look clear, but I also want a true HD signal from the 360. As you can see, I don't really know what I am talking about here. Any suggestions or guides would be much appreciated.

[Richter Belmount]

Im not sure about but definaley get something wide screen , most games are going to come in widescreen format(most i can think is resident evil 4). Me I have windscreen by samsung 500 buck its pretty good for the price.

[digitalmouse]

Which one do you have? I saw a 23" Samsung I really liked at Best Buy. Not too sure if it was widescreen.

EDIT: here it is- http://samsung.com/Products/TV/LCDTV/LNS2351WXXAA.asp

[Richter Belmount]

that tv doesnt look like mine not at all but damn that looks good id get it

[Joker T]

1080p, 720p, 480p, etc. are High Defintion resolutions. Most HDTVs support 480p, 720p and 1080i. 1080p is usually only on more expensive sets and is going to be used with Blu Ray DVDs and PS3 but at the size your looking at I doubt they will have 1080p anyway.

LCD and Plasma are 2 different types of technology used in flat panel TVs. LCDs only go up to about 40 inches, while Plasmas can reach 60 inches, Panasonic is releasing a 100 inch plasma later this year actually. Plasmas have a tendency to burn in much more than most sets however.

The TV from your link should offer very good quality but keep in mind that to get the most out of it your going to need componet cables for your PS2 and Gamecube which can be a bit of a pain to find.

[Mayhem]

LCD or plasma, if you are using it mainly with analogue signals, they are not going to look so hot. These new TVs are more designed for the upcoming digital signals.

If you want to connect PS2 and Cube to them, best get the component cables for both NOW. Especially Cube, really the only place still doing a regular stock of them is PlayAsia and they currently ask $60 for it. Unless you get lucky on eBay.

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.

You'll want a display that has very low latency (under 13ms, try for 8ms) which may mean scouting tech docs to see which panels have this. Remember latency is the delay between pressing the button and seeing something happen ;)

Most LCDs and plasmas over 30" will offer one HDMI port, perhaps two, which is what you'll also need for the upcoming HD-DVD/Blu-Ray wars if you go that way.

[Ed Oscuro]

i = interlaced, only half the "fields" are updated every scan
p = progressive, EVERY field (line) on the television is updated each scan (i.e. "frame")

That's something else to think about. Interlaced annoys the living bejeezus outta some people. Me, I haven't used anything better than S-video so I can't comment.

[Joker T]

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.


Really? I've heard good things about them. Same with their Plasmas, CRTs, DLPs, etc.

[Anthony1]

It's come time to upgrade my 'gaming' tv. The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about VGA, HD, 1080p, 720p, 480p,LCD, plasma, and all that other jazz. Could you the fine members of DP recomend a guy a pretty worthy television?

I know that I want a flat screen somewhere in the 17-23" range. I also know that I want to be able to plug my GC and PS2 into the tv and have it look clear, but I also want a true HD signal from the 360. As you can see, I don't really know what I am talking about here. Any suggestions or guides would be much appreciated.


One of the biggest problems that you are going to encounter, is the whole widescreen situation. If you want your 360 to look great, and future consoles to look great, and DVD movies to look great, then a widescreen is absolutely mandatory. But for the vast majority of PS2 and GameCube releases, those games are going to be somewhat stretched and distorted when viewing them on a widescreen TV. Same thing with any of the classic consoles. Now, having said that, some people can quickly adjust to the slighty distorted screen, and others seem to really struggle with it. You can always play stuff in a 4:3 mode on a widescreen TV, but then you get either grey bars (yuck!) or black bars (bad for burn in) on the side of your little 4:3 window in the center of the screen. Also you mentioned you were looking for a TV in the 17-23 inch range, so that means when you play a game in 4:3 mode, that window is going to be very, very small, when using a widescreen TV.


Ideally, one would have two completely seperate displays for widescreen and non-widescreen material, but of course, this normally isn't very practical. If you live anywhere near a Fry's electronics, and you want to try a low cost option for your 360, I highly recommend looking at regular widescreen PC monitors, LCD ones, that have a very, very low response time. In one of the more recent Fry's advertisments that show up in my local newspaper, they had a 19" or 21" widescreen LCD, with a 4 ms response time, for like $179.99 or something like that. Now this isn't actually a TV, with TV inputs, but it can be used as such if you are clever enough. You don't want to use the speakers that come built in with a TV anyways, because they are crap. Just use some computer speakers with it, or a stereo setup. With the 360, all you need is the VGA adapter and you are in business. With the Cube and PS2, you can get a cheapo transcoder. As for TV viewing, a LCD PC monitor can normally handle HDTV resolutions just fine, so you need something like an old RCA DTC-100 HDTV receiver (just so happens to have a VGA out), and you can be watching some nice High Definition TV on it.


It's pretty amazing to me that one can get a widescreen LCD HDTV for under $200 brand new. Again, a regular PC LCD monitor isn't really a TV, but why spend 3 times that amount to get some crappy ass S-Video and composite inputs when it's going to look like shite anydamn ways. Better to just get the 360 vga adapter and a cheapo transcoder for any non-VGA compatible consoles. (By the way, the Dreamcast would look great on it via the VGA Box for Dreamcast). As for sound, you can use any cheapo computer speakers, you just need to get a little adapter from radio shack that will take the mini headphone jack and convert it to a red and white RCA audio plug and you are in business.

[THATinkjar]

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.


Really? I've heard good things about them. Same with their Plasmas, CRTs, DLPs, etc.

Me too, Joker. Samsung are excellent. I, myself, have a Samsung 940MW (DVI for PC and VGA for 360). For £300, it was quite the bargain!

[Anthony1]

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.


Really? I've heard good things about them. Same with their Plasmas, CRTs, DLPs, etc.

Me too, Joker. Samsung are excellent. I, myself, have a Samsung 940MW (DVI for PC and VGA for 360). For £300, it was quite the bargain!



A few years back, Samsung had some LCD's that were horrible when used with game systems, because of the very poor response time, and the lag when you had games with very fast moving images. They have since corrected those issues, so it's no longer a concern. Buf if you are buying a Samsung LCD from a few years back, you want to be extra carefull about it, cause some of them did have some horrible lag, when it came to gaming.

[The Manimal]

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.


Really? I've heard good things about them. Same with their Plasmas, CRTs, DLPs, etc.


Add to that, Samsung makes the flat panel LCDs for SONY.

[NEOFREAK9189]

I have Samsung LCD's look nice for the new system
for old system I have Sylvania 20" Flat-Tube Stereo TV regular tv s-video in

[Trebuken]

Why such a smal screen? Your not doing your 360 justice at that size. Get one of the LCD's they use in their store displays...someone here must know the model...

Later,
Trebuken

[digitalmouse]

Why such a smal screen? Your not doing your 360 justice at that size. Get one of the LCD's they use in their store displays...someone here must know the model...

Later,
Trebuken

Well, I am a student in a very small apartment. Space is a wee bit of an issue, bub. ;)

About the LCD wide screen monitors - what resolution do they normaly get? 1080, 720, 480?

Here is one I was looking at -> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7802577&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat81200050032&id=1142292834310[/url]

and this one-> http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Envision-19-LCD-Monitor-H191W-/sem/rpsm/oid/147648/catOid/-12965/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[Anthony1]

If I was buying a something 23 inches or less widescreen, this is what I would get:


Samsung - 19" Wide Lcd Flat Panel Monitor

- 1440 x 900 Resolution

- 500:1 Contrast Ratio

- 4ms Response Time

- DVI/VGA

In Store Price $239.99 - 60 mail in rebate = $179.99




They have that deal at Fry's, and I'm going to head out there tomorrow and see if they have any left. If they do, I'm going to snag one. I actually need one for use during NFL Sundays. In my Garage setup on Sunday, I will typically have like 4 tv's going on at the same time. I have a High Def NFL game on my 113" screen, then I have a High Def NFL game running on a 17" 4:3 lcd in widescreen mode, and on two regular style 20 inch TV's, it's NFL games running in composite video.


But with that monitor, I can just keep my 17 inch lcd in my computer room, and use this one for watching my secondary NFL game. Man, it will be sweet to have a widescreen that fully supports 720p! 19 inches is very small, but it's perfect for mounting on the wall in a small room or something like that. I'll definitely play around with it, with my 360 as well. It could actually be a traveling companion if I want to take some HDTV love on the go.

[unwinddesign]

I really don't like Samsung LCD TVs. I like their LCD monitors, but their TVs...bleh.

You could try to snag an Olevia. They're a really good brand, cheap too. Under the radar, but they've released some really good pieces of kit -- on the cheap. They look pretty slick to boot.

[Joker T]

Anyone know about Westinghouse?

I've been looking into getting one. Best Buy has a Westinghouse 42 inch 1080p LCD for $1800.

[Ikari Warrior]

Anyone know about Westinghouse?

I've been looking into getting one. Best Buy has a Westinghouse 42 inch 1080p LCD for $1800.

My friend got the Westy when it was $2500 a while back. It gives a nice colorful picture, but it doesn't do blacks very well. that could be an issue for you, you should check it out in person.
It's a monitor too, so no tuner or ususal TV features like PIP or anything. There were also some issues with lockups on the earlier firware versions.
The avsforums have a huge 2 part post on the 42" Westinghouse
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997

[gepeto]

Last week I went out to purchase a monitor and I seen staples samsung 19 inch it had video \svideo dvi \vga inputs. for 299 after rebate.

I personally went with the veiwsonic 19 widescreen for 200 after rebate. from office depot. From the research I have done any lcd below 400.00 are considered budget models. I like the viewsonic alot. I am glad I got it.

I went with veiwsonic for there 3 year warranty. My computers on 10 hours a day. The real question is whether you can live with an off brand limited warranty model.

The day after thanksgiving Value city had a 32 in hdtv with hdmi from sanyo for 299.00. I dropped my quality stance because the deal was too good to pass up. warranty was only 90 or 1 year don't remember it was limited though.

I am always hoping nothing goes wrong but it was worth it. It is what it is.

electronics are hit and miss some will last 10 yrs some 3 months. Do your research listen to what people write about the model your thinking of buying.

My personal veiw on Samsung is I don't know about now but I remember I bought a vcr from the and that thing broke quick too quick. I then bought a cd-rw for my daughter that was a samsung. Total garbage I swear I couldn't burn 10 disk with that thing. I swore them off. Never again. Yet there cd roms are supposed to be the best in the xboxs. With me you burn me twice forget it you lost a customer for life.

There image was taking a hit because of the complaints so they started putting out products under akai. I found that out doing a research on a product I was thinking of buying.

[Joker T]

Anyone know about Westinghouse?

I've been looking into getting one. Best Buy has a Westinghouse 42 inch 1080p LCD for $1800.

My friend got the Westy when it was $2500 a while back. It gives a nice colorful picture, but it doesn't do blacks very well. that could be an issue for you, you should check it out in person.
It's a monitor too, so not tuner of ususal TV features like PIP or anything. There were also some issues with lockups on the earlier firware versions.
The avsforums have a huge 2 part post on the 42" Westinghouse
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997

Thanks :D

[poloplayr]

Avoid Samsung LCDs btw, heard and seen bad things about them. Plasmas from them are a lot better.


Really? I've heard good things about them. Same with their Plasmas, CRTs, DLPs, etc.

My parents bought a Samsung LCD. I found the picture quality absolutely horrible.

[THATinkjar]

digitalmouse: I mentioned earlier in this thread that I have a Samsung 940MW. Well, I bought this a few months back... and I swear by it! For what you get, I really don't think you can beat both the brand and price. The reviews on Amazon all recommend it, as indeed do many reviews across the web.

Just an absolute bargain!


19.0 inch wide screen
1440 x 900 (WXGA+) resolution
700:1 contrast ratio
160 degree /160 degrees horizontal/vertical viewing angles
8 ms response time
Virtual Dolby and BBE sound
Inputs include TV (antenna/cable), S-Video, Composite, Component, DVI Digital Link, analog RGB and more
Picture-in-Picture (PC mode)

[poloplayr]

THATinkjar, and where did you buy it in the UK? Amazon.co.uk?

[THATinkjar]

THATinkjar, and where did you buy it in the UK? Amazon.co.uk?

I bought mine from Micro Direct. They're still showing stock. It is still a good price. And they're a good place to buy from.

Thinking of buying one, polo?

Samsung 940 MW on Micro Direct (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=12379&GroupID=0).

[poloplayr]

Yeah, waiting for my bonus from work in a couple of weeks and been thinking of buying a new smaller tv for my bedroom for gaming/late night tv.

Will check out MicroDirect.

[Blanka789]

I'm looking into gettin a new TV, and I want one with RGB/HDMI(preferably dual)/Component/VGA/S-Video/Composite/Normal TV Coaxial In for video; and would also want something that can support 6.1 Surround Sound.

Any reccomendations? (Please no Samsung, too many bad experiences)