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Plasma for PC

icor1031

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
1,295
How prone are plasmas these days, to burn-in - in these two Different scenarios:

1. General use, start button never moves, etc.

2. Only for games.
 
Personally I would NOT use a plasma for a computer monitor. You will have burn in. Maybe others can chime in.
 
In both cases - even only for games? ( I suppose the HUD will burn in? )
 
Gonna depend on how much time is spent in a game I'd guess. It's gonna need days/weeks of the same image without a lot of differing images between to get burn in, but it definitely can happen.
 
Whenever im not using the plasma to game on PC, or watch downloaded content on PC i just have to hit the channel up button on the remote and it switches to a TV channel. Then i can hit GAME button to switch back to PC signal
Helps clear up any retention i've gained.

My start menu is also on a different monitor, along with any other web browsing. If possible in games like WoW make sure your UI elements are transparent somewhat. Avoids image retention.

I don't know what burn in looks like, but image retention looks like a very light, and very transparent shadow, thats incredibly hard to see, on any content. I can only see it on a very bright plain white screen.

I was irresponsible at first and let some develop quite a bit from WoW. However now with regular use i can hardly see it on a plain white screen, and i never noticed it in regular TV / game content anyways. However it has taken several months of regular use to get it to wear down.
 
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Burn in is some pixels aging faster than the others. They age much faster in the first few hundred hours of use. They age pretty slowly after that. Especially if you have the "brightness" at the level you "should" have it at. If you have the plasma on vivid and use it straight away for gaming with non-transparent HUDs than you can create burn-in. If you baby it for the first few hundred hours than have the "brightness" at a standard level it will be hard to get burn in from a HUD. You should not need sunglasses to watch a tv, if you want to do that you are better off with a LCD anyways. Just like staring at the sun.

For gaming it would be fine unless you play the same game over and over again. Most huds are transparent.

I wouldn't use it for a desktop unless its very limited.

Either way a lot of plasmas still have image retention which can be a little annoying. More of an annoyance than a problem.

Some games are just amazing on a plasma and LCDs arent even close. LCDs still need 'work-arounds' to display dark colors and prevent blurr and the drawbacks of those gimmicks show up in games more than movies.
 
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Sounds like I'd be OK to use it for games.

How is Input Delay of Samsung Plasma TVs compared to the average TN monitor?
 
Sounds like I'd be OK to use it for games.

How is Input Delay of Samsung Plasma TVs compared to the average TN monitor?
Samsung Plasmas tend to have a frame or two more delay than Panasonic plasmas. Which means there's no comparison to your typical TN monitor.

The VGA input may be a frame faster than the HDMI input, not sure if VGA will accept the native resolution though.

Samsung makes great plasmas but Panasonic is a safer bet for gaming overall.
 
Don't forget phosphor trails. They are caused by the long decay for green phosphors, which I imagine will present itself more when using a mouse (less smooth and faster turning than a controller).
 
So there is no good consumer level plasma for gaming?? If the samsung is two frames behind and the panasonic:

Panasonic consumer plasmas do not support 4:4:4 input, thus will blur PC text a bit.
Samsung consumer models accept 4:4:4 but are more prone to IB.
 
So there is no good consumer level plasma for gaming?? If the samsung is two frames behind and the panasonic:
Pick your poison, you'll have similar tough choices to make with an LCD TV as well. The lack of 4:4:4 on the Pansonic means certain colored text will be smudged but will likely still be legible within a 3D game.

The good thing about LCD TV's is that there are tons of models to choose from .... so there's always one that'll work well for your personal preferences, never perfect though.
 
SJet,

But that can't be Just for text - it has to be for every thing.. right? All colored things will be smudged.
 
SJet,

But that can't be Just for text - it has to be for every thing.. right? All colored things will be smudged.
Maybe so, but it's only really visible on the finer stuff like text, or colored lines that are a couple of pixels wide. Even then it's usually only certain colors like certain reds, certain blues, and sometimes certain greens.

The "distance" of the smudge is only into the next pixel row.
 
I've never noticed text being smudged or blury looking.
 
My friend been using a Panasonic for 18 months now as his main monitor... OS GUI and everything, no burn in.
 
I'm a stickler for image sharpness.

I had a DLP and "hated." it. It had an extremely dull/blurred image.
The 40" Samsung *VA I have looks good for games - except for the massive blur and moderate input delay.
My U2311H has moderate blur and irritating anti glare coating - every thing looks dirty. The black levels are OK, but not great.

I'm so attracted to Plasma because it doesn't blur(?), but I need a good image too.
 
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I'm a stickler for image sharpness.

I had a DLP and "hated." it. It had an extremely dull/blurred image.
The 40" Samsung *VA I have looks good for games - except for the massive blur and moderate input delay.
My U2311H has moderate blur and irritating anti glare coating - every thing looks dirty. The black levels are OK, but not great.

I'm so attracted to Plasma because it doesn't blur(?), but I need a good image too.

Plasma blurs too, it just blurs less and the "threshold" of blur is higher in the sense that motion speed must be higher to induce blur than that of LCD.
 
IMO Plasma motion blur is significantly less intrusive than LCD blur especially when you compare 60fps games on both displays (I have 2 LCDs next to my Plasma, a TN & CPVA) It's a lot more CRT like on a Plasma.
 
Does this look accurate?

And does samsung have an advantage here just with PC input, or with xbox too?


Colorcomp.jpg
 
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If i can remember to i'll take some pictures of BF3 tonight.
 
Does this look accurate?

And does samsung have an advantage here just with PC input, or with xbox too?

Colorcomp.jpg
Seriously? You're using a JPG-format image to compare colours? Why not PNG or something lossless.

I don't know much about plasmas, but a friend has a 42" Panasonic one and I've tried some typical monitor tests on it. It looks and behaves very very similar to my CRT monitors (meaning AWESOME), and is unlike any LCD. I can't comment on burn-in, but all other specs (aside input-lag, I haven't tested that one) are just godlike.
 
I have a Panasonic S1 plasma, so I'll share my experience.

Burn-in: it's temporary, but it bothers me enough that I no longer hook up my computer.
Pixel format: 4:2:2 is not supported by nVidia. You need an AMD card, period. Otherwise, text will not be sharp.
Input lag: A frame or two. This is with a receiver, which is necessary for me as I use audio through HDMI to the receiver as well.

Not recommended for use with a computer.
 
I thought modern TVs had a built in audio out, so you could connect a source directly to the TV via HDMI, and then the TV can send the audio signal to a receiver.

That way, your TV is the central hub for all attachments; it takes care of the display while forwarding the audio to a dedicated audio receiver (via an optical cable or perhaps HDMI).
 
I thought modern TVs had a built in audio out, so you could connect a source directly to the TV via HDMI, and then the TV can send the audio signal to a receiver.

That way, your TV is the central hub for all attachments; it takes care of the display while forwarding the audio to a dedicated audio receiver (via an optical cable or perhaps HDMI).

It has optical out, but optical does not support PCM 5.1 sound (needs to be encoded).
 
Even with AMD (which I have), or an xbox, doesn't it mean I lose quality compared to using 4:4:4 (samsung plasma)?
1-2 frames is acceptable. My U2311H averages 10.6? ms.

I have a Panasonic S1 plasma, so I'll share my experience.

Burn-in: it's temporary, but it bothers me enough that I no longer hook up my computer.
Pixel format: 4:2:2 is not supported by nVidia. You need an AMD card, period. Otherwise, text will not be sharp.
Input lag: A frame or two. This is with a receiver, which is necessary for me as I use audio through HDMI to the receiver as well.

Not recommended for use with a computer.
 
Well, if you can find one.. It's obviously not my photo, it's the only one I saw comparing them. It gives a 'good idea,' though not a perfect representation..

At least, in theory: I have a feeling it's photoshopped. That's why I asked you gents.

Seriously? You're using a JPG-format image to compare colours? Why not PNG or something lossless.
 
I'm a stickler for image sharpness.

I had a DLP and "hated." it. It had an extremely dull/blurred image.
The 40" Samsung *VA I have looks good for games - except for the massive blur and moderate input delay.
My U2311H has moderate blur and irritating anti glare coating - every thing looks dirty. The black levels are OK, but not great.

I'm so attracted to Plasma because it doesn't blur(?), but I need a good image too.

Have had a big Samsung DLP TV since 2007. It's been a great TV and is quite sharp actually. Still the only tech with perfect convergence. That said, not exactly practical as a computer monitor...

I assume I'd be looking at an LCD TV for that. Used a 40 inch one a while back and it was quite spectacular in its own way. Samsung had a "PC Mode" that made it just a big PC monitor. Since then there's this lack of 4:4:4 support that's come up and whatever else. Might want to check out avsforum.com. As a secondary monitor for movies and games, I think a plasma might be nice. Something like Mathesar's set up for example...
 
When I say I will use it as a PC monitor, I mean I will use it the same way I would an xbox: for games only.

I'm not getting an LCD TV for PC. Have you tried using one? I did. Major input delay and MAJOR ghosting.

That's why I'm concerned about:

Panasonic not having 4:4:4 - is this significant? How much difference does it make?
The claim that Samsung has more input delay than panasonic.
And the review on the Samsung I'm interested in, says it has some problems with motion.
 
Image quality using 4:2:2 seemed to be just fine. I could not see any drawbacks there.

That said, image retention was a real issue. Maybe plasma has been improved, but it's not good enough (my sample set of 1 anyway)
 
Well, supposedly it has improved, "and" they have a mode that moves the pixels while you're playing (unnoticably?), "and" it has a mode you run for 15 minutes to get rid of any image retention from your last session....

Haven't used it, but it should be OK.
 
Well, supposedly it has improved, "and" they have a mode that moves the pixels while you're playing (unnoticably?), "and" it has a mode you run for 15 minutes to get rid of any image retention from your last session....

Haven't used it, but it should be OK.
Yes they do have those features. Samsung has definitely improved by a large margin from the B series to the C series. My B series will get IR within minutes of displaying a static HUD or tv logo.

C series can take 2+ hours. It is very rare for me to notice even slight IR on it.

Neither tv has ever had burn in. I game exclusively on the C series now. Mainly switched to plasma cause I was tired of the crappy blacks on my 25x16 lcd. Plasma is excellent for gaming imo. For use as a monitor, I hide the start bar and run my browser in fullscreen. Reading text is definitely more difficult than an lcd would be, so I just switch over to the lcd monitor if I'll be doing something text intensive.
 
Thank you, Beaver!

I'm looking at D series, so it has to be as good or better at IR. ;)

As a man who has a Samsung plasma, would you mind telling me something..?

How many frames of input delay does it have, say if I'm using the xbox? I hear "PC" mode is 2 frames, but I want to make sure I can get that with my xbox, too.

How does it do with motion, compared to a TN monitor? The one I'm looking at didn't score too well, compared to panasonic.



Motion Performance (14.00)

Overall, the motion performance of the Samsung PN51D550 is good, but not amazing. Sure, it’s as smooth as any decent plasma TV. It doesn’t produce the same color trailing or flickering that we see in a lot LCD TVs. However, images with a lot of fine detail lose a lot of detail when they’re in motion. Faces get fuzzy. Textures become flat. If forced to choose, we’ll take that over color trailing. You probably won’t even notice if you’re sitting far enough away. More on how we test motion performance.


Compared to the panasonic,



Motion Performance (16.00)

The TC-P50S30 has about as good motion performance as anyone can ask for, scoring high marks in smoothness. In each of our test patterns, the TC-P50S30 didn’t show any major issues with artifacting or stair-stepping, and it handled the refresh in image well. Users of the TC-P50S30 should expect moving pictures to be rendered well. More on how we test motion performance.
 
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Sorry man, I have no idea how to measure that stuff properly lol. Motion performance is excellent though, at least compared to the 240hz led tv I own, and the one I owned before that. I'm a long time CRT user, bought my first lcd in 2009. Had a couple cheap TNs, now have an expensive IPS monitor and Sony Bravia led. Never been that impressed for gaming or movies on them. Plasma is the closest to CRT performance, with the benefit of a larger display area.

Input delay seems fine. I just turn on game mode and it's perfectly responsive. I only have a ps3 for console, but I've played GT5 online and did well. I do have a G27 tho :).
 
Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear game mode does well with input delay.
Since you have a bravia LED, you should know what 'bad' is. (I assume they haven't fixed it on LCD TVs yet.)

I'm not sure which you're commenting on about measuring. You measure input delay with a CRT next to your plasma and a fast shutter camera.

You measure ghosting with a fast shutter camera and a moving object.

Both of those require time and expensive equipment, though. I'm not going to ask that of you. :)


A gent on a different forum basically said that, although the samsung may not be the best plasma for motion, that's in comparison to other plasmas... If you compare it to a TN LCD, it will still be better - and that's enough for me.

Thanks again.
 
i can speak from experience (I own a Samsung PN50-B650), image quality is superb, I own two U2311H's, had a Soyo DYLM24D6 VA panel, and the plasma's picture quality is noticably better especially when it comes to just how natural all the colors look, like you're looking at a painting almost

i was watching Conan and the flesh tone was just perfect compared to my LCD's

but even using it with games, I have permanent burn-in in the upper right corner from playing FFXI on it

i don't recommend using it for a PC, unless you're gaming on an already broken in set with brightness set to a safe reasonable level, definitelty wouldn't recommend using it if you're going to have a desktop screen sitting on it for hours at a time, that's a recipe for disaster
 
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