Widescreen TVs

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:10 pm

I am considering a widescreen plasma tv. Does anyone have one and can comment on its function with games?

Do newer systems like the Gamecube to the Dreamcast have widescreen modes? Do older 8 bits work ok with "black blinders" on the sides?

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:15 am

Just readed from latest 'Pelit' (games) Finnish magazine that plasma tv should not be used with games. Picture that wont move will 'burn' to screen really fast.

HD Ready TV is intresting subject too.. They sell LCD etc tvs as HD Ready even resolution is 720p..

Playstation3 and new DVD standard can use 1080p. However tvs like that are just coming to stores. (Atleast we dont have those at Finland yet).

These new TVs are HD Ready, but not so HD as new standard.

http://www.gamingillustrated.com/samsunginterview.php

Never before has new tv got old at one year or so..

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:26 am

If it burns in so quickly, I suppose old fashioned test pictures are banned from TV stations these days?

saundby · Post by **saundby** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:21 pm

The current plasma tubes don't have a real problem with burn-in, at least no more or even a bit less than CRTs. Overall, the current generation of tubes are very nice for game playing.

The main thing is not to routinely run them at full brightness. I have mine set for between 40 and 50% of full brightness for different inputs, and the image has an excellent dynamic range. This has far more of an effect on screen life than still images.

Also, at higher brightness levels there is a very high persistance of the image, especially when going between bright and dark colors. Reducing the overall brightness helps this a lot.

I have five game systems hooked up to our 50 inch (127cm) plasma TV (Playstation, Sega Genesis, Game Cube, Atari Super Pong, Gamewave) and all work well. In many games the aspect ratio doesn't matter. In others, we change to one that works. Most games where the appearance matters get played in "horizon" mode, where the aspect ratio is about the same as 4:3 at the center of the screen, and stretches out the further toward the sides you go.

On our TV (an LG) the sidebars are grey, rather than black. This is annoying unless you're watching a brightly lit image with lots of light colors. It's one of the few things I'd want to change about the TV. There are other brands that do this as well. I guess someone's got a theory, and light grey sidebars was the result.

-Mark G.

Ian Colquhoun · Post by **Ian Colquhoun** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:11 am

Hmm... that's odd about the grey sidebars. I bought a new HD LCD TV in December and it had grey sidebars by default, however, they were configurable and black ones were only a couple of menu options away.

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:21 pm

I guess that if you buy a widescreen in America then you should be able to connect your NTSC vic-20 and get something very close to the picture aspect ratio of a PAL vic-20!

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:03 pm

I'm still not completely sold on the whole wide screen aspect ratio thing. I still look at them as half a TV screen.

saundby · Post by **saundby** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:39 pm

DigitalQuirk wrote:I'm still not completely sold on the whole wide screen aspect ratio thing. I still look at them as half a TV screen.

I hear you. The diagonal measurement comparisons between 4x3 and 16x9 screens are _very_ deceptive. Basically what I tell people is that the diagonal measurement for a wide screen needs to be 1/3 larger than the measurement for a 4:3 screen for the screen to feel as large. This is because of the height of the screen, which for most things is more noticable than the width. The width is a nice extra, but for overall size of objects on screen it's the height that matters.

Since I was coming from a 36" 4:3 CRT I had to get at least a 48" widescreen to have a picture that felt as large. 42" _sounds_ larger, but when we had a 42" as a loaner while waiting on a warranty replacement for the first 50" that died, we felt like we were watching our old 25" TV. In fact, in some ways it felt even more claustrophobic and in many cases the color wasn't as good, plus there were a lot of motion artifacts (the loaner TV was a Panasonic plasma that was nowhere near as good as the plasma we bought.)

Our 50", however, feels like a big step up from our 36", and we don't feel like we've lost anything when we watch things in 4:3 mode, though we prefer watching in one of the other screen-filling modes most of the time, either the "horizon" mode or a zoom mode that gives a slight compression top to bottom and cuts off a little bit of the top and bottom of the screen. I don't miss the movie theater at all with this TV in the house (particularly not the obnoxious ads they show before the movie starts.)

I could go on, but there's plenty of info online. Consider where you're going to be watching, and check out the screen from different angles at the store. Lifetimes on current gen stuff for all the new technologies have improved dramatically, so this is not nearly the issue it was a year or two ago. Prices are dropping like rocks, and quality is improving, so even if you don't buy today there will be good deals tomorrow--there's no reason to rush out and buy, you can't get "left behind."

The most important part of the decision on a new TV now isn't the aspect ratio or the technology behind the display, it's the retailer. Go with a retailer that will provide good support, allowing you to bring the TV back for a replacement if something goes wrong. We ended up spending almost 10 weeks wringing a replacement out of the manufacturer because our retailer left us out in the cold even when the manufacturer issued a letter for a replacement. I managed to get a full refund on our warranty agreement from the retailer yesterday, BTW. But go out on the web and research. Find others who have gotten no-fuss treatment from their retailer and then check with the retailer for yourself before you buy. If I'd bought the same TV from another shop down the road, I probably would have had to pay more, but I wouldn't have gone through ten weeks wondering if I'd flushed the money down the toilet, too.

LG came through for me(eventually), CompUSA/Good Guys (which, as it happens, is now closing locally) essentially spat in my face, though the sales rep that I was working with did everything he could to treat me as well as he was allowed.

-Mark

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:18 am

In c:a 1992, the idea of a 52 inch TV was a bit of a joke, as used in the Pinball Fantasies table "Billion Dollar Gameshow". Here we are 15 years later and nobody raises an eyebrow at the talk of a such huge screen.

saundby · Post by **saundby** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:24 pm

I'm ready for my videowall. (Fahrenheit 451, wasn't it?) I would have been shocked at the idea twenty years ago. Times change. I would not have been shocked at the idea of a living room four times the size of what I had then, however, and would have been fascinated by the idea of what I am doing as I type this. I'm sitting about 14 feet from my 50" 'monitor' using a wireless mouse and keyboard to send messages to a discussion without having to watch the time to see if I'm hogging a phone line into a BBS.

So to avoid shocking that version of myself from twenty years ago I'll say I've got a 50" monitor that can be used to view TV shows at a pinch.

It sure beats the heck out of a 1701.

-Mark