Competitive Gamer Looking for a nice Gaming TV

Panasonic plasmas have the least input lag and the most resistance to image retention. They seem like the best choice for gamers that want a plasma. What size/price range are you looking at? I'm also a 21 year old college student who does a lot of gaming and I plan on getting the 42 inch Panasonic ST30 later this year.

Well you might want to head over to the LCD forums if 36" is your preferred size as there are no PDPs smaller than 42" and I'm not sure if the 42" ones are 1080p (I would assume in 2011 they are). I'm not even sure Panny makes 42" 1080p PDPs anymore. Not even sure if you're willing to go up to 42" either, but it would appear that's your new starting point.

They definitely have 1080p Plasmas. Panasonic TC-P42S2 or TC-P42G25 will be perfect for gaming imo. The G25 is definitely better but a little bit more money.

Yes far less input lag on the Plasmas.

I'm 25 and game a considerable amount also (2-4 hours a night, mostly Sports/FPS on Xbox 360). I did a bunch of research and was following the price trend on the S1 and G10 until the newer S/G series came out. I just bought the P42G25Plasma on Thursday and it will be here tomorrow.

I got a good deal on it at B&H photo online. From what I understand the G25 is rated highly from multiple sources including Cnet, Amazon, and Consumer Reports. As soon as the price was right, I jumped on it.

From the user reviews I've read the input lag is not a problem on this tv AT ALL. The only negatives I've come across, as a person mentioned earlier in this thread,is that there tends to be some buzzyness coming from the rear of the tv (mostly during bright scenes). The buzz volume ranges from tv to tv, some worse than others. And, last but not least, there is always the risk of image retention as well as burn in on a plasma. The only way to avoid this is to be smart (no grueling gaming marathons for the first 100 hours).

Anyways, if you got the money I would spring for a plasma and if 42" is too big, go with a smaller LED/LCD with a high refresh rate of at least 120Hz or even 240Hz if you really want to reduce input lag.

CAN'T WAIT FOR MY TV!

If 1-2 frames of lag is acceptable to you, you can't go wrong with a panny plasma for big-screen gaming, especially for more recreational games (RPGs and stuff where it's not 1ms between life and death). But obviously if you play competitively you'd want one of the TVs used by whatever competitions you participate in, and those seem to be mostly the 2X" gaming LCDs with half a frame of lag they're always talking about on shoryuken.

My VT25 has no input lag but the Samsung 7000 I had before it (an exchange) had terrible input lag unless it was in game mode, which is a pain in the ass to enable and it majorly reduced picture quality so I went with the lag. Dont assume that just because its plasma that it wont have input lag, Panasonic is a safe bet but Samsung isnt since they are so feature rich which probably slows down the image processing.

Samsung's have always been bad about input lag, no matter what type of set it is. My Samsung LCD has almost 200ms of lag and that's with all processing turned off. Game mode doesn't make much difference either. Not to mention the fact that it's dying and can no longer do red or flesh tones. Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting an ST30.

I am looking for a new 2011 TV and its for my bedroom so it can't be larger than 42''.

As far as brands go I think Panasonic is the best choice.

Now I need some advise....I've narrowed it down to a 42'' panasonic ST30 plasma OR the 37'' panasonic DT30 led tv.

Both are new for 2011 but I don't know if plasma would be the best for gaming, because I play Gran Turismo 5 / COD4 for long sessions daily and I'm worried that the hud would burn in.

I am also going to be using it for watching blurays on my PS3.

Battlefield 3 will be also greatly used on whatever TV I end up getting.

Plasma screens are nice for movies because in my dark bedroom you wouldn't even notice black bars on some films because they are as dark as the border around the TV.

I am currently playing on a sony 42'' CCFL LCD from 2008 and it has one stuck white pixel.

Do plasmas have less of a chance of having pixel issues than LCD displays?

Can someone please help me choose which one out of the two displays will be the best for me? THANKS

What model LCD is it? For me that response time would be pretty good but since you said you're a competitive gamer you may still notice it. All LCDs have quite a bit of motion blur but if it's 120 or 240Hz then it will be lessened a great deal from a 60Hz LCD.

I'm skeptical that you're a pro gamer as you claim. A pro gamer would know the answer to all your questions and probably wouldn't need to come on AVS to pick a gaming display.

The majority of pro gamers would not be satisfied with 25-30ms of lag.

Most pro gamers aren't even satisfied with anything but under a frame of lag, they usually use the ultra-fast 3D-capable 120hz PC Monitors. I would tell you to say no to your friends LCD if I actually believed you were a pro gamer, but I don't. So why not go look at it, or play some games on it and see if it will work for you.

Just so you know, there is no TV as fast as the fastest gaming PC Monitors that are used at pro gaming events and the like.

I suggest you have a look at the Asus VG236H and Acer GD245HQ as they have essentially zero input lag when running their native resolutions. Also I'll throw in the Samsung 2233RZ as it's widely considered the "king of gamer monitors".

I won 20 bucks and a case of High Life at a Goldeneye tournament once.

Does that make me a pro gamer?

They were giving out alcohol at Goldeneye tournaments? I was still under-age when it was out and I was playing it, how'd I miss that?!


No, but you sure have earned my respect.

My Panny 42-G25 came yesterday. I played Halo for about 30 minutes via HDMI. Unbelievable. Before I got this I was playing on a Dell 24 inch 1080p LCD with a 60Hz refresh rate and I thought that was good, but this is on another level.

There is absolutley no input lag and when I get into those strafing DMR gun battles (on Halo) I was winning 90% of them. I definitley feel like I was missing a few frames on the LCD, now that I've played on this plasma. Oh, and there's hardly any buzzing at all, except if I put my ear directly behind the tv less than a foot away.

I'm running break-in slides now. I can't wait to play some Assassins Creed on this thing. So far the SD picture is much better than expected even on lowered settings (for the 1st 100).

So far I love this tv and I highly recommend it especially for gaming.

if you're a hardcore gamer, get a lcd trust me. Couple hours of static image will give you an burn in. Don't risk it.

No, it won't. He will probably get image retention but it should quickly fade. If 2 hours of gaming results in burn-in, then the set is defective and needs to be exchanged.

My 3 year old plasma, which has had many "couple hour" gaming sessions, disagrees. Almost 3,600 posts and yet you could still post something so inaccurate.

Yes there are things to be aware of and even some actions to take if you're going to be doing certain things on a plasma. Dozens of threads cover that ground already. Include your willingness and ability to do them along with the other pros and cons as you make your decision and you'll be in good shape.

jeff

Burn in is a thing of the past on most plasmas, as noted above. Some temp IR will likely occur, just mix in watching movies etc.

burn in is thing of the past?? lol, check out the sticky on the top on burn in. Yeh its the thing of the past.

Read the first post in that thread (from 2007!) that mentions burn-in is almost nonexistant with proper precaution. Regardless, 2 hours of gaming will not cause burn-in.