Suggestions for an HD TV that's good for gaming and has no input lag?

Twario

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Believe it or not, I'm one of the few people that still has an SD TV in his room. It's an 'esa' brand TV from the early 2000s, it's huge and it takes up a lot of space. Even though it's been great to me through the years, I think it's time to get a replacement.

But I'm trying to be really careful this time before buying one, since I've had a bad experience with an HD TV a long ago. So basically, years ago my parents bought me an HDTV, the picture looked good but it had horrible input lag whenever I played games on it. I wasn't having this so instead of returning it they put it in the living room which replaced the 'esa' TV which is the one I have now.

So what I want is suggestions for a good flatscreen TV that is best for gaming. What attributes of the TV do I have to look at to know if it'll have input lag or not? My budget is about $300-800 but I'm willing to go a little higher. Also, I don't want it to be too big, keep in mind that this TV will be in a bedroom that's kind of small.
 
Solution
http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/#participants-list

from my experience and what's been said by others; the less features it has, the less likely it'll suffer from input lag, so while there are plenty of SMART TVs or 3D TVs with low input lag in recent years, i'd avoid them if you're more into gaming and just want simple and casual video viewing at most. options like a Game or PC Mode may or may not result in significant input lag reduction.

if this is for consoles, we can stop there. if we're talking about PC gaming, then you'd may want to check up on picture quality & 4:4:4 Chroma Subsampling support; http://www.avsforum.com/t/1381724/official-4-4-4-chroma-subsampling-thread

one other problem you may face using a TV as PC...

Hazle

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http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/#participants-list

from my experience and what's been said by others; the less features it has, the less likely it'll suffer from input lag, so while there are plenty of SMART TVs or 3D TVs with low input lag in recent years, i'd avoid them if you're more into gaming and just want simple and casual video viewing at most. options like a Game or PC Mode may or may not result in significant input lag reduction.

if this is for consoles, we can stop there. if we're talking about PC gaming, then you'd may want to check up on picture quality & 4:4:4 Chroma Subsampling support; http://www.avsforum.com/t/1381724/official-4-4-4-chroma-subsampling-thread

one other problem you may face using a TV as PC monitor are incoherent texts, usually fixed either by changing the fonts or messing with the tv's sharpness option.
 
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Twario

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While I do game on PC, this new TV will only be for consoles, including retro systems that only have A/V cables. Also, I don't care about 3D at all, I just want a regular TV with no gimmicky features.
 

Hazle

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then that's going to be much easier. though for pre-360/PS3 consoles, i recommend you to find a space for your SDTV. they're more susceptible to input lag and you may not like the image quality at all on an HDTV. i regret selling mine.
 

Twario

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Well I do plan to play the Wii on it (HD TV), hope it works ok with it....
 

Twario

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Hmm, hope it will work well with the A/V cables that came with the Wii in the box.

But I have one more question. On that page you linked to, it shows two types of screens, 'monitors' and 'HD TVs' Does it matter which type I pick? Because there is a 27" screen that really I want to get but it's called a "monitor" instead of an "HD TV": http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005419. However I want to use the screen as a TV, not a computer monitor. Does it matter what it's called?
 

Hazle

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if you got more than just one console with an HDMI connector and would like to use a wii or more older consoles on the new display, you may appreciate the extra HDMI, Component & Composite cable input on an HDTV instead. there is a way to connect your older consoles to a monitor, but it involves more hassle and may result in some input lag.

honestly, a 24-32" inch HDTV is probably more better for you here.
 

boju

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How Modern TVs Ruin Old Games:
http://kotaku.com/5220571/how-modern-tvs-ruin-old-games

PS2 and Wii, will have no problems with picture quality on modern hdtvs. Not sure about ps1 haven't tried that yet on a 50" hdtv it might look ok still.

The Nintendo64 Mario party was unplayable as the picture quality was extremely bad, could barely ready the descriptions.

I'm also sad i sold my old flat CRT screen :(

Have played wii also on a 65" hdtv using av cables it came with and managed to maintain picture quality but probably depends on the tv i guess.

All tvs mentioned were panasonic plasmas. The N64 might look better on an lcd not sure, must try that sometime.

Before buying a tv, ask if you can try a console of yours on a display model and see. Might have to change tv setting to normal, they'll most likely be on torture/store mode.
 

Twario

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Well to be honest, I don't play the N64 or SNES as much as I used to. I guess by 'retro' I meant PS2/Wii since they only have A/V cables. If I need to play old games, I'll just use the SD TV, I plan on keeping it.

Anyways, here's the TV I picked:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074FGR74/?tag=dislag-20

It's at a great price and the input lag page classes it as "great" so that's good. Wanna hear your guy's opinion on it if anybody is still here......
 

Twario

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Great, just about to order it. I hope 24ms input lag isn't too noticeable. I mean it says "great" on that site but you can't be too sure, I'm tired and I'm not too good with that kind of stuff.
 

Hazle

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as i've said, pre-wii consoles tend to suffer from input lag with HDTVs, hence not throwing away/selling your old TV. if you have to, try turning off some of the advance features (like Dejuddering) to reduce any extra processing for better results.

as a mainly PC gamer, 24ms is high. but then again, i never noticed lag on my cheap 720p TV when i'm playing my consoles & i doubt it's any lower than 24ms. it's going to take some really high perception for you to notice anything then...
 

Twario

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Hope so, because describing it as "high" worries me because I'm a PC gamer too. However, like a lot of things it's probably more noticeable on PC. Maybe it's kind of like how 30 FPS looks fine on consoles but when it's on PC it looks much worse.

 

boju

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input time isn't the same as response time. 24ms input time is quite good, it'll be the response time an LCD TV goes from black-to-white or gray-to-gray that'll put you off. Given Sumsung hasn't specified the response time on that hdtv, bet there'd be an additional 8-12ms added to the overall lag. So theres no real guarantee you'll enjoy tha tv.

Have a read of these and see if buying a plasma (42" smallest they come in i think) might be better suited for you. Panasonic and Samsung make great plasmas (dont know about LG) and their input lag is between 10-15ms depending on model and if it has game mode and response time is under 1ms.


http://www.displaylag.com/exposed-input-lag-vs-response-time/

http://www.avforums.com/threads/plasma-vs-lcd-response-time-and-input-lag.1513714/

Should mention I play fps and racing games on my computer using plasma and theres no input lag felt and thats coming from a 1ms monitor to, no difference.
 

ERIC J

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all HD tv's will have some lag but i just bought a 50" toshiba L1350U and it completely is blowing me away as a PC monitor. I am getting no tearing and
the lag is under 25ms and the colors and definition are awesome.
you can get this series in a smaller screen
 

Twario

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Yeah, surprisingly it works incredibly well. Without it on there was awful input lag. I mean sure it was less lag than that crappy HD TV years ago, but it still felt really sluggish. Playing Uncharted 2 wasn't fun, the aiming sucked and running around felt unresponsive, I kept dying. When I turned the option on I instantly noticed a huge improvement. The game I was playing when I first discovered this option was Super Mario Brothers NES from the Wii virtual console. Before it was kind of difficult to play, jumps lagged and changing directions was so sluggish. But as soon as you turn on the game mode option, it controls just like it did on the NES.

So every game controls perfectly as they should. The only tradeoff is apparently a "slight degradation in visual quality" but I haven't noticed anything yet.

Also, holy hell. Wii looks absolutely horrible stretched to 1080p (big surprise I know). I played RE4 Wii edition and it was ugly as sin. At least the pointer is responsive.
 

Hazle

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yeah. i could've sworn i wrote something about stretching a 360p/480p source to 1080p up there. well, lucky you kept your old tv. alternatively getting the wii's component cables instead of using the composite cables you're using is an improvement, though minor.