Best TV for gaming?

T

Tudz

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 15, 2008
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G'day all,

Now, I've heard of people using plasmas for PC use and being very happy with them, and also some Panasonics which have IPS screens. But I was in an electronics store today trying to decide what I'd like to get and noticed that the 6 series Samsungs and higher end Sonys looked a LOT smoother than the Plasmas or Panasonics on panning shots (though it wasn't a game, it was a bluray). I was surprised that even the plasmas looked jittery by comparison, maybe the store had them hooked up incorrectly? After looking at them for a bit even in non-panning shots I started noticing they were a lot smoother, as people moved around and in action scenes everything just looked a lot more fluid.

What do people these days recommend for a TV that is good for gaming and movies? It seemed those 6 series Samsungs LCDs had by far the smoothest motion. What features give it this smoothness? As there were other 100Hz screens that didn't look nearly as smooth.
 
It is interpolated frame generation, basically generating fake frames to up the effective framerate of the content. Fine for movies, a disaster for gaming. You'll get lag in the hundreds of milliseconds with it enabled.
 
it's typically called truemotion. as described above it adds an artificial smoothness to the video. great for watching sports like hockey, but for me it even ruins movies as well.

it can make a 24fps epic movie look like it was filmed like a soap opera..
 
Agreed, truemotion is the work of the devil. The engineer that thought it was a good idea to add that as a user option should be shot. It can make The Godfather look like a frigging soap opera, horrible.

Aside from making everything look terrible, it adds tons of input lag. Plasma is your best bet for low input lag and superior image quality in every respect (black reproduction, color accuracy, movement, viewing angles)
 
The best??

I don't know about the best, but the latest pioneer kuro's are amazing tv's... If you can get your hands on one at a good price, I say go for it.. Since pioneer got out of the plasma business acquiring one can be difficult and pricey..

I personally own a Pioneer Kuro PRO-151FD... When I hooked my PC up to it I was blown away..
 
Ive been gaming on a Pioneer Kuro 5080HD for over 2 years and never had any issues with it. Amazing TV.

Kuro's have there own version of motion smoothing called "PureCinema", We recently watched Avatar bluray with it enabled and it did a great job of smoothing out camera pans without being over the top like Ive seen on 120hz / 240hz LCDs.

I was just at best buy a few days ago and they had a Kuro 5020 for $1199 (open box).
 
I actually like the fluidity of interpolated frames. I really can't stand the jerkiness of "cinema" framerates. Were we not technologically limited back in the day I'd imagine there would be a higher standard framerate. Give me smooth as butter 60FPS video any day.

Higher (actual) framerates are just higher temporal resolution. Just like 1080p is higher video resolution that 480p. You could actually just DROP or BLEND frames from a higher FPS source if you want the "cinema" feel. That would actually be the better way to do it!
 
Ryom said:
I actually like the fluidity of interpolated frames. I really can't stand the jerkiness of "cinema" framerates. Were we not technologically limited back in the day I'd imagine there would be a higher standard framerate. Give me smooth as butter 60FPS video any day.
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Yeah, well that's what I thought watching the screens in the shop. Panning shots were just so much nicer, I hate the way panning shots look on most TVs, never understand why directors put them in to movies they just make my head spin because of the jittering. Also in scenes where a lot was happening at once it was far easier on the eyes to have the fluidity (like fight scenes these days where they have the camera up close and moving around like crazy). It also seemed like the 6 series had less artifacting which seems to often occur on LCDs and plasmas when things are moving slowly. Or it was just less noticable perhaps.

Decisions, decisions.
 
Tudz said:
What do people these days recommend for a TV that is good for gaming and movies? It seemed those 6 series Samsungs LCDs had by far the smoothest motion. What features give it this smoothness? As there were other 100Hz screens that didn't look nearly as smooth.
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The same mechanism that gives Samsung lcd's that smoothness adds a ton of input lag for gaming and computer use. 98% of the TV's on the market have high input lag, you have very few to pick from, and that's almost not an exaggeration.

Quick easy answers? Panasonic L32S1 or L37S1 or the Sharp E77U or 700UN series, they are 2009 models but some places still have them in stock (check google shopping + Bing shopping)

Otherwise if you want a complete list of TV's with less input lag, here's your one-stop shop for info, comparisons and tests: Input lag Wars at the AVS forums.

And here's a thread where they test and post Plasma input lag results: The Official Plasma Input Lag Thread

The problem is that the features that produce good looking movies is almost mutually exclusive of the features needed for great multiplayer gaming, so pick yer poison accordingly ;)
 
The ALT-TEXT on todays XKCD is eerily relevant: http://xkcd.com/732/

We're also stuck with blurry, juddery, slow-panning 24fps movies forever because (thanks to 60fps home video) people associate high framerates with camcorders and cheap sitcoms, and thus think good framerates look 'fake'.
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