hi all...

Well, I am considering buying a HD, Progressive scan, lcd-type, of television, for my console games, mostly for my Ps2 system. This is about all I use my tv for, for to play games. Time to Consider, as the smaller screen sized lcds are becoming affordable for mere mortals, namely me!

yes, I have read, on these very forums, that there are issues with "game lag", but i play mostly rpgs, I am playing final fantasy xii, now. Even at 65 years old, I play mostly games on my tv.

I have now a very good 27" Toshiba, with component hookups to my consoles, and I have a fairly good image on the tv. This tv is the probably the last generation that is not progressive scan, not HD, even though it has the s-video and the component red/blue/green hookups.

At my local best buy, there are several sets that are now down in the $700-$900
range, on sale.
-their own Insignia 32 inch NS-32lcd . a good image, but i read they have cheap
parts, ofetn do not last long.
--Samsung LNS 2641D 26"
--several Toshibas with [I read] cheap DVD players but a good image, 19" to 26".

I do not have a car, I cringe to take my ps2 on the city bus to try out their tvs, at Best Buy. maybe there is, on the internet, places where I can find images of games that are on a progressive scan, HD tv.


So my Question is.....

---Would there be an image improvement over the images from my non-progressive Toshiba, in buying a progressive scan HD tv, probably from one of the sets listed above. would there actually be an image improvement worth the cost and the effort, in having one of these sets?!
---*and*...which tv under $900 would be my best choice?!

so so many varibles, so many options...

Thank you....
freestone

You're looking to spend $900 so your $100 PS2 looks a little better? I'd say that's a bit excessive, but to each their own.

xbr970 would be perfect for HD games and SD games alike.

Personally I woulnd't, PS2 looks so much better on a SD tv then say a720p Native rez HD tv.
Your grpahics are gonna be pretty pixelated. Well a native 480p rez hd tv looks decent, but then your gonna be limited later on. I don't enjoy my ps2 games as much now since my 720p native rez tv's just makes them look rather bad.

Personally I woulnd't, PS2 looks so much better on a SD tv then say a720p Native rez HD tv.
Your grpahics are gonna be pretty pixelated. Well a native 480p rez hd tv looks decent, but then your gonna be limited later on. I don't enjoy my ps2 games as much now since my 720p native rez tv's just makes them look rather bad.

hi sonypete, hi all...

I went ahead and "did it"! I must have spent hours in best Buy, sears, and other places, plus where the most help was, in these avs forums. I found a HDTV
but not a lcd, but a crt TUBE tv!

a 34 inch sony
Kd-34xbr970
a Mammoth tv, all of 200 pounds!

lug lug...took three men just to lift it onto the Desk!
the Clincher, for me to buy this one, was seeing this tv in a store along side
of about ten SD tvs, about 30 inch to 34 inch, there was another SD sony right next to this one, the 970 had the "HDTV" feed, the awful SD feed was giving all of the other sets a terrible series of pictures.
ooops! exCUSE me! ......the 970 sony was giving me this "HDTV-Quality" image off of the same SD feed that all of the other tvs were getting!!

of course a "super-tv" needs a 'super" tech calibration and settings to be made, before the set shines forth.

Last night I played my Final fantasy xii, on my ps2, I am only about ten hours into the game and i spent time on the Giza plains.


VERDICT?
---here I am playing the game where the images look *JUST* as good as any
of the Promotion shots look, that all of the game sites have on their sites!!

no pixiliations.....not much "antialas line breaks".

the difference, people, is of night and day. no comparison, the 27 inch Toshiba that i had was only an "OK" set, *this* sony is miles and miles ahead.

I might even try to take a picture of my game onscreen, but i do not really need to, as just go look at the best IGN/gamestop images!

each tv has its own names for the settings, but in the sony series of hdtvs, I find that the real secret for games is to use the "PRO" setting, in that area of the settings menu for settings like..."movie...vivid"...etc. then to tweak the brightness and the other settings.

the Real Secret is to buy a good tv!
then to calibrate it and then use the Setting, like of the "pro", for the games.
Then to use Component cables, even though the game is not Progressive scan.
I have read here that any SD game looks terrible on a lcd hdtv, due to scaling and other issues. the lcds are TRULY made, i guess, for the next generation and i have read, here, on these forums, somewheres, that only a crt tube hdtv can ALSO play the sd games from the ps2, the ps1, and other older gaming systems, in any fair manner.

So go buy a real good tv. the tube tvs, most of them now, are just being "thrown togther" cheaply as probably some people might want one just to look at
ordinary tv from their bedroom.
In a year or two there might be NO more tube tvs!
In fact i read somewheres that this sony 970 is now discontinued, when the stocks are gone, there will be no more, maybe.

So for me who plays games it is well worth the extra cost for this.

too, [i have not tried to play my Lord of the rings, the one ring, DVD yet]
I had noted that on my toshiba the SD toshiba, the rings movie looked not so good either. I look forwards to seeing what the 970 will do.

but you have to do the homework and especially treat this tv with a "techness"
in mind, the manual is thick and there are many settings to set before this tv looks good.

but good graphics from a ps2 game ON a ps2, are Quite Possible, I know!!

happy gaming....

freestone

To be honest, I just "upgraded" from my Toshiba Cinema Series 36" CRT. It is an excellent TV with a fantastic picture. I left my video game system collection hooked to it (except for the Wii and my XBOX- 360 coming soon). The older ssytems look 100% better on CRT due to scaling. So, on that TV is:
Atari 2600/5200/7800/Jaguar
Intellivision
NES/SNES/N64
Sega Master/Genesis/32x/CD/Saturn/Dreamcast
Playstation2
Small computer running MAME and other emulators that I can't find the original games for.

Go into the menu on the PS2 and check the graphics configurations there. It has several tweaks of its own that can help graphically quite a bit in some cases.

A screenshot of the game Final Fantasy XII, played on my Ps2 and on a Sony crt hdtv
KD-34XBR970 34".

from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freestone/391121213/

well folks, this is what the game looks like, minus those wavy lines, an artifact of the photo taken with my canon a610 powershot, as I say, taking images from a live tv, is "iffy" at best.



Tis very very difficult to take a picture of a tv image, especially if the game, like is FFXII, has image processing going on, within the game, micro-second by micro-second. Those "wavy lines" are an artifact of the photo, they do not appear on my tv, this image was the best of my set, due to the difficulty of taking photos of a tv-screen.



Yes I bought a 34 HDTV just for my games. I have Learned, Learned that a non-HDTV game, or program, for that matter, does not look good on a lcd monitor! Only tube tvs can play both well.

I might be 65 years old but I play games.

freestone

quick question what is that TV capable of displaying resolution wise, since it doesn have a native rez like pc monitors? I ask casue they never list in the specs what it can display even thouight its a HDTV, there got to be a limit to what it shows correct?

Congrats, those Sony's look great, CRT is always great for gaming. When you finally upgrade to a 360 or PS3 you'll be blown away.