Choosing a Gaming TV: Hard to do

AveryCloseCall

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Well, I've spent about six hours trying to choose a gaming TV that'll fit in my entertainment center here in the US. Only a 46" or smaller 47" will fill the space nicely, otherwise all I'm looking for is low input lag 1080P. Good luck figuring that out!

Input lag is really important, but hard to notice unless you're playing a rhythm game like Rock Band. You see, 110MS of input lag means you are a tenth of a second slower doing EVERYTHING. Boom, headshot.

You see, I bought a gaming projector (Panasonic PT-AX 200U) years ago and it's amazing. In game mode it only has 13MS of input lag and it was super-easy to find a projector custom made for gaming at a great price. You'd think you could do the same for a TV, right? Wrong.

Sadly, I can't really help out yet. There seems to be some consensus that lower-end Panasonic Plasma TVs in the GT series are pretty quick, and that the Sharp Aquos ones are pretty fast, but it's really hard to tell. All the info out there is old, or hearsay. This forum is about the best place to find lag info, but it's pretty hard to digest all the work individuals have done to test input lag.

Here's my advice to anyone who wants to test audio or video lag: simply use a Rock Band 3 guitar controller - it has a calibration device built right in. No need for high speed photography.

In the meantime, if there is a subject matter expert out there who can simply advise me, great! I'd love for someone to say "Avery, buy the _______ TV, it's got 19MS video input lag and is otherwise a great TV!"
 
I'm looking for the same thing the only info I found was that dejutter and anti-motion blur processing can cause lag I have asked around at stores and nobody knows what I'm talking about and they tell me its my router I'm like dude thats not what I'm talking about.
 
I'm looking for the same thing the only info I found was that dejutter and anti-motion blur processing can cause lag I have asked around at stores and nobody knows what I'm talking about and they tell me its my router I'm like dude thats not what I'm talking about.

Any form ofprocessing will add to lag.
 
GT30 about 20ms lag, ST30/S30 16ms lag. I play FPS on my 46" GT and it fantastic.
Really? How do you know that? I'v been looking at the 42" ST30 lately thats maybe what il go with. Do they have a gaming mode or a no processing mode thats easy to get to??

With no conversion or processing enabled will Xbox-receiver-TV cause more lag then Xbox right to TV? I really like having surround.
 
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The AV forums & HDTV test reviews quote that figure for the 46ST30. Plasmas, afaik, don't require modes to turn off the processing, the technology means less lag (different to LCD)
 
yup but there is a game mode, which is easy to set up. I think you can set it up to automatially switch to game mode when your Xbox is in etc.
If i had the money, i would go for GT over ST. Yeah theres more lag, but the improved pic will out-weigh the couple of ms
 
In all fairness if you can spot the difference between say 30ms and 60ms when playing MW3 then there's something wrong with you!
 
MW3 isnt really a good game to test your lag out on, being that its so laggy to begin with

[in all fairness if your playing COD over BF3, theres something wrong with you ;) ]
 
Eh? MW3 is a 60fps game, it's probably the one you'd notice any external lag in... BF3 is 30fps at best and it shows.
 
i was just having a dig at a game that have been milking the public for so long and still refuses to give them dedicated servers, so it doesnt matter how good your TV is - there will be lag based on the hosts internet connection...

anyway, id rather have better res than better fps. never noticed any issues playin it at 30
 
(also - you assumed correctly, but i could have been playing BF3 on the PC where it beats CODs Res and fps...)

edit - sorry - should have tagged that onto the last message. Anyway sorry to take the subject away from the OP
 
Another note to consider when getting a gming TV would be image retention. Especially when playing games like rock band (ok - ive never played it, but assuming its very much like guitar hero - lots of static images in the centre of the screen)
IR seems to be an odd one with this years Panasonics - some people are saying they dont see any(the norm for a panasonic), and some people are saying its winding them up.
On the other hand, this years Samsungs seem to be very good for IR. worth looking at the Samsung D6900 although i think thats only in 51" and bigger so may be too big? also not sure on the lags of these sets

Also - this is more of a question to GT30 owners, but can you use the USB record function on anything? ie could you record yourself playing Xbox? or does it have to be recording aired TV?
 
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I've gone for a UE55D8000 purely as I find IR a complete pain (Prob a good 70% of my usage is gaming). I would imagine that even this years plasma's have some level of IR - it's just unavoidable with a plasma, much like on the flipside, uneven brightness is with an edge lit LED. In my mind however, the clarity and lack of IR was worth the extra.
 
I've gone for a UE55D8000 purely as I find IR a complete pain (Prob a good 70% of my usage is gaming). I would imagine that even this years plasma's have some level of IR - it's just unavoidable with a plasma, much like on the flipside, uneven brightness is with an edge lit LED. In my mind however, the clarity and lack of IR was worth the extra.

Hmm interesting... I was looking to get an TX-P42ST30 which i will be doing a lot of gaming on it. CoD / Fifa.

Got me worried now!
 
Thanks for the input guys. Here's what I'm seeing:

-Panasonics seem to have good input lag times, go with a Panasonic
-They don't seem to sell a 46 or 47" GT30
-The ST30 is a 3D version of the S30 - that's the TV to get

Sound about right?
 
There is a 46GT30 in Europe, don't know about the US
 
Cool, thanks. Searches for the 46GT come up all UK, so I just ordered an ST30. I'll let you all know what I think. Thanks for the help!
 
Bit late but I play BF3 on my GT30 and the only IR I can see is when I turn all the lights of and view a blank nlack screen, you cant see it with normal viewing. Just done a 4 hour stint, did and 8 hour stint a couple of nights ago. I have a bit of persistent IR but just oeave the scrolling bar on and go to bed, no real hassle. BF3 is nice and smooth on the PS3, MW3 isnt a constant 60fps game, no game is, your more likely to notice drops in frame rate on a 60 than on a rate of 30fps game:)
 

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