Suggestions on a HDTV for gaming

[careerbellman]

Hello, I will do reserch on this, but Im looking for suggestions first. Im going to buy a widescreen HDTV. Im looking for what would be best for playing my XBOX, PS2, Gamecube, 2600, Colecovision etc... And of course my older Horror DVDs.
I can only spent about $1700, Im only looking to buy a 27 inch or so. Should I go with LCD, or Tube. What are good name brands, Sony, Samsung, Dell? Im not a tech guy at all, so any suggestions on what I should be looking for are MUCH appreciated.
THANKS so much!
Jim

[Sylentwulf]

Ahhhhh!!!! I hate these posts!

heheh. Seriously, don't ask this on a videogames forum - go here and make this same post there:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

If you're gonna spend $10K on a car, you don't ask your local pool table forums on what to buy, go to the right place :P

[shvnsth]

a 37in panasonic plasma is $1600 http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...=0&dcaid=15889

but i would not get a plasma for gaming at all. get a lcd, you could def get a nice lcd for around $1700, heres a great sony 30in for $800, but its not a lcd http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=new

and in for lcd's, i would get this http://www.secondact.biz/product.aspx?productID=50V500. its a 50in hitachi lcd tv (great reviews, , for $1500 ( http://reviews.cnet.com/Hitachi_50V5...?tag=pdtl-list )its refurbished, but i usually buy refurb tvs, and they are always perfect), if you want it new, its about $3000, so you save a shitton too.

[NEOFREAK9189]

get High-Definition tube HDTV

[SkiDragon]

I have discovered through experience that when "upgrading" to an HDTV, you will always suffer some downgrades in how your older games look. I tend to notice it when playing Ninja Gaiden. I even took an original nintendo with this game and some RCA cables to Best Buy and tried it on many HDTVs and they all looked worse than on a good normal TV.

[dsullo]

Skidragon is right. My GC on S Video looks great on my HDTV. My XBOX and PS@ look great through Component. My N64 through S Video looks horrible on my 50 inch TV/. I moved it back downstairs to the 27 inch.

[WanganRunner]

If you only want 27 inches, get a tube TV, unless space is a huge concern.

A really, really good tube TV is still going to outperform everything else, including LCDs. The Sony WEGA 16:9 HDTV Tube sets are fantastic.

Honestly, I wouldn't personally buy an HDTV until I can get one that supports 1080p for a decent price, as the PS3 will output everything in 1080p.

[doubledownon11]

Tube, tube, tube.

[googlefest1]

so HD tvs will display old systems like 2600?

[WanganRunner]

Yes, an HDTV will display any standard definition signal.

Not all HDTV's make them look particularly good though.

If given my choice between an HDTV and an SDTV (Standard Definition) for a lower-res signal, I'll take the SDTV. But a biiiiiiiiiig one.

[SkiDragon]

A had a 2600 hooked to an HDTV once. When playing breakout, the ball had a "ghost" that followed its movements, but was a moment behind.

[Mangar]

Seriously - Listen to the guy who posted the link to www.avsforum.com - I purchased an HDTV over a year ago, and spent about 4-5 months researching everything i could possibly find on the subject. That source was invaluable. (I ended up with a 61' Samsung DLP set)

I have had my Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, NES and everything from the 16-bit era up to the X-Box hooked up to it with varying results. They all hook up fine, and while i've noticed no ghosting or problems - The thing to keep in mind about a HDTV, especially a large one - Is that they highlight imperfections. To me personally it wasn't really bad on say an Atari 2600. But on a game like Pirates Gold for my Sega Genesis which i played recently on it, i remember people commenting on how some of the drawn pictures of the governors daughters looked "Terrible." from a resolution standpoint. Genesis games in general look fine however. (I probably play Genesis the most out my classic systems, at least recently anyway)

I will say that buying a HDTV strictly for games is silly at this point, especially older games. I bought mine mainly for sports, movies, and TV shows. X-Box having HDTV support was just an added bonus really. I have all my older systems hooked up to it mainly for conveniance purposes, as opposed to any advantage gained from the set. (Although 61' Warlords on the Atari with 4 people is a kind of a blast ) The surround sound system don't hurt either.

I will say off hand - That if you are looking for a HDTV for videogames, you need to rule out Projection and Plasma sets right off the bat. The potential burn-in problems suffered on both of those, make videogames that have static images a potential death sentence to your TV. For the big widescreen ones, you only have two real options in LCD or DLP. I chose DLP because i simply felt that the picture tended to be crisper, they displayed blacks better then the LCD, and also DLP's are hardier and last much much longer. With an LCD set, dead pixels are an eventual reality. It's just a matter of when, and how many. Not something i'm willing to deal with on any purchase of 2k+.

[googlefest1]

so when the time comes when only hdtv will be available - ill have to buy up a few of the standards

[Trebuken]

If this HDTV is primarily for old games you should look for a HDTV that upconverts all incoming signals. This ussually erases many of the peculiarities in the image an old system would display on a neweer set. Though the picture is often very clear, the lower resolutions of non-HDTV's ususally give a more natural feel to older systems, but I got used to the sharper images and colors on my HDTV. Picture tube HDTV is the way to go, but if you plan on watching alot of TV/DVD's I would take the DLP route myself if you can find one in the $1700 range (open box bargains are usually steals). I have a SANYO VizOn 30"Wide Screen 16:9 HD (1080i) Digital TV -- WalMart only -- which works great for old games (attached my astrocade to test just for this post). Also Have a JVC I'Art 36" widescreen which upconverts all signals to (they claim) 1500 i resolution. This is an awesome TV for any kind of gaming. Personally dislike LCD. Can always see the pixels when you sit to close (distracting to me), they also usually have lower resolution (not that you currently need any more unless you use and upconverter or HTPC).

Final thought...PS3 and possibly Xbox have announced 1080P (and at least 720P support) for all games. You may want to weight until the fall when, I've heard, we'll start seeing next generation HDTV's supporting 1080P.

Trebuken

[spider-man]

I also want a hdtv for the current gen and next gen games, but want to know if there will be a big difference between 1080i and 1080p. For example, how is the difference between 720i (is there even one?) to 720p.

[GaijinPunch]

If you are a serious about playing old school games, you really need to have a tube TV capable of receiving a 15Khz signal that doesn't do line-doubling. It's a very hard time to be someone that plays old and new games. I've got an old 25" RGB monitor for my old stuff, and Aquos LD for the new stuff (wall-mounted)

[dluohs]

My Samsung 32" 1080p Series 4 has 3 hdmi inputs and one slot for pc connection with 30,000:1 contrast ratio. It's just perfect for my needs especially tv viewing in which my cable provider only broadcasts sd channels. Even then the picture quality is still great which is very much better than the one on my old CRT unit. I think Samsung tv's are one of the best LCD TV as far as picture quality and budget are concerned.

[Hanzaki]

Buy a LCD hdtv (720p or 1080p) AND a videoscaler (like a Gefen Hometheatre Scaler).
You can use your tv for HD programs, blu-ray, modern (PS3/X360) games and the old games will look a little bit better on the tv. Some old games looks really good with a scaler.

Yes it won't be crt quality of course, but it's still the best (and practical) solution. IMO

[Hanzaki]

...as the PS3 will output everything in 1080p.

Except the games
Unfortunately almost all the games on PS3 are 720p and there isn't any hardware 1080p scaler in the PS3.
Of course all the Xbox 360 games are 720p too but the X360 can scale up them to 1080p.

[shopkins]

I was seriously considering the advice being given here until I looked at the dates and saw someone had bumped a four-year-old thread. My first clue should have been all the speculation about what the 360 was going to be like. Anyway, I have a Samsung Series 4 (mine is 720p, I thought you had to go to Series 5 to get 1080p) and I don't think old games look that great on it. I mean, maybe I'm just picky, but I couldn't even stand to play my PS2 through component on it, I took it off and put it back on my SDTV.