Big HDTV for PC games?

[Charliewards]

I'm going to buy a big screen HDTV and use it with my Media Center PC. In order of importance, I want to:

1. Play PC games
2. Watch HD TV
3. Watch movies (1080p will be nice in the future, but it's not a "must have" now)
4. Play Xbox

I've got a core2 pc with a Geforce 7600GT card. I can watch anywhere from 5 feet (gaming chair) to 10 feet (couch) from the set.

I've tried pc gaming on my old 36" XBR crt, but I can't read any text in 1080i, and it won't do 720p (and 480p won't scale). I assume a new 720p set (dlp?) will give a better image. BUT - will older PC games that aren't designed for HD still look better in 1080p than 720p? I'm into flight sims (IL-2, Combat Flight Sim 3, Flight Sim X) and racing games (GTR2, LFS2).

Advice?

[HeadRusch]

You're talking about 1080p or 720p here???

.....most modern PC games are designed for HD, and those that aren't can almost always be hacked to run in a widescreen resolution fairly easily. (No comment on the flight sims but GTR2 and I think LFS2 offers widescreen).

720p is a fairly low resolution for a PC to handle so your videocard should be up to the task.

A 1280x720 or 1366x768 desktop is sufficient for a windows desktop.......if you go 1080p your text will be smaller and your videocard will be driven significantly harder, so keep that in mind. Your 7600GT likely wont be able to drive games at 1080p with high framerates and lots of graphical punch...

Consider how far away you'll be sitting from the display if you want to use it as a windows monitor. I use a 1080p 37" set as my primary display and I sit about 3 feet away from it and the text is "perfect". But if I back up a few feet it becomes harder to read due to the resolution and font size.

Also, most important, make sure whatever display you buy accepts 720p or 1080p over its DIGITAL inputs...HDMI or DVI. Dont buy a set that only lets you connect via VGA, when it comes to a windows desktop nothing compares to apure digital connection.

I have two PC's plugged into my set..one via DVI at 1080p and another via VGA at 1080p, and the VGA connection pales in comparison to my DVI connection.

VGA looks soft and fuzzy no matter how I adjust the display or the attributes of the videocard, the DVI connection is essentially a gigantic laptop screen in terms of sharpness.

[Trebuken]

I have a Geforce 8800GTX connected to a 72" Toshiba 1080p DLP. The only issue I experience is a little overscan which I can't get rid of. I think the drivers for thee 8800 are not mature enough. I can get the overscan to a minimum at certain resolutions and am quite happy with it.

I am using DVI to HDMI.

I sometimes have issues with older games that do not support the resoultions I need, but they are all playable.

Text is very legible.

[bbfn11]

As far as what type to get and that you mention gaming first as a priority, I would recommend looking at LCD's first and then plasmas. LCD's are getting better at video rendering than they have in the past year. Black levels and motion bluring are improving and seem to be meeting or exceeding some plasma models. Sice you want 1080p, LCD's might be the way to go now pricewise. But if you are considering movies or video you will mostly enjoy the black level that a plasma can offer. I still feel that a plasma can offer a better picture quality than an LCD because of that issue alone but also consider that an LCD may not have the best viewing angles that a plasma can offer as well. So as far as my advice to you, try to compare the LCD you might want to get to the plasma you might want to get. Consider with your eyes. Picture Quality, Motion Bluring and viewing angle as well as room brightness. LCD are better for well lit rooms while Plamas are great for low level lighting like a theatre. 42" or better will work at 6.5 to 7 feet. The rule I use is One and one half the distance in inches to the size of the Monitor. IE 42" Monitor I would sit 63" away at the maximum to enjoy the High Definition video. Any further away you start to loose the resolution and detail you paid for.

[HeadRusch]

I wouldn't risk the burn-in potential on Plasmas......while most people will tell you its not "Burn in" its "Temporary image retention", to me having to see my HALO or Half Life 2 health bar or crosshair for half a day while trying to watch movies is just something I dont want to have to deal with.

At 72", I hope the 1080p text is readable :D


PS: Thats strange on the overscan......is that an 8800GTX via Vista or XP? If its XP, then I'm wondering...how can you have a 1080p pixelmap that has overscan......thats...odd.

Is your set one of the ones that is really 960 and "wobulates" to achieve 1080p? Maybe that has something to do with it (ie: its not a true 1080p panel inside)...??????

[Charliewards]

Thanks for the comments.

I've narrowed the choice to a Philips 50" Plasma (50PF9431D) and a 50" Toshiba DLP (HL-S5088W). They are about the same price, but the Toshiba does 1080p vs. 720p for the Philips. I think I'll go DLP.

[Charliewards]

I have two PC's plugged into my set..one via DVI at 1080p and another via VGA at 1080p, and the VGA connection pales in comparison to my DVI connection.

VGA looks soft and fuzzy no matter how I adjust the display or the attributes of the videocard, the DVI connection is essentially a gigantic laptop screen in terms of sharpness.

Why do you have 2 PCs connected to your set?

[HeadRusch]

Because I have two PC's.......one is for gaming, the other is for movie editing, holding the pictures from my digital cameras, etc, etc. I was just using that as an example that the DVI connection is much, much, much better than the VGA connection.

[Trebuken]

At 72", I hope the 1080p text is readable :D


PS: Thats strange on the overscan......is that an 8800GTX via Vista or XP? If its XP, then I'm wondering...how can you have a 1080p pixelmap that has overscan......thats...odd.

Is your set one of the ones that is really 960 and "wobulates" to achieve 1080p? Maybe that has something to do with it (ie: its not a true 1080p panel inside)...??????

I get overscan via XP or Vista. Exact same output. I get a perfect image, even for tiny text.

My set technically does not except 1080p, so I am actually sending it 1080i and it deinterlaces it.

The Nvidia drivers for Vista are very weak at the moment so maybe there is some hope for the future...

[guste]

Regarding the 1080p vs 720p decision, I would first ask myself what my viewing distance is going to be. As stated earlier in the thread, if you're too far back, that 1080p resolution isn't going to be noticable, vs. 1080i. If it's a matter of text size, that's a preference thing. I'd take a trip over to your nearest A/V store and see for yourself, if they have a computer attached to an HDTV.

Regarding your choice of set, I just wanted to clarify that I haven't got any problems of the burn-in or image retention variety, with my Panasonic 50" 8UK plasma. It copes with my gaming, without issue. Other than babying it for the few weeks after I bought it, I've been absolutely cruel to it ever since. Case in point, I just played 6 hours of Prey without issue and this isn't abnormal use with my set :cool:

The sooner people get past this 'issue' the better. The technology hasn't stood still over the last decade.

[HeadRusch]

For every person who says they get no burn-in or image retention, there is a person who says its happened to them with pictures to prove it.

Hence, the fact that this is still happening is reason enough for me to avoid the technology if I know I could be gaming for hours upon hours.

Of course alot of times the people posting there is no problem say stuff like this: "Yeah there is some image retention but after a couple days it goes away! NO BIG DEAL!".

Yeah, when I drop $2k+ I dont want to have to watch some DVD or HD show with a frickin Halo health bar ghosting in the background, it IS a problem :D

Anyhow, Plasma...personally I'd avoid it, but your mileage may vary.