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Want to buy an ST30 for gaming, but scared to.

post #1 of 8
4/13/12 at 12:55pm
Thread Starter 
I currently game on a 30" CRT. It's done me great for years, but with the current generation of games being HD-based, I figured it's time to move up to an HDTV. I did some research, and a TV I've found to be one of the most praised TVs for gaming is the Panasonic ST30. I've saved up my money and I have enough to buy a 46", which is just what I would want. But I'm scared to buy it. I bought an LG 50PV450 for gaming a while back, but I shortly returned it. The brightness constantly flunctuated, there was a very annoying judder, and there was a very noticable input lag. And yes, I used it in game mode. I understand that this is one of the low-grade plasmas and isn't great for gaming, but I didn't know it at the time. The thing is, I'm scared that if I buy an ST30 I will run into the same kind of issues. I'm have OCD which makes me even more sensitive to these things than a normal gamer. I can't stand input lag or any sort of judder or motion blur. The flunctuating brightness also bothers me a lot. Another thing I'm scared of is the whole image retention issue with plasmas. I don't want to have ghosting images lingering around the screen all the time, and I don't want to have to worry about playing short games, only playing a certain amount of hours a day, etc. to avoid this. I really want to make the switch to HD for gaming but I'm scared that I will be disappointed and will in many ways want to be on a CRT instead. Anyone have any input?
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post #2 of 8
4/13/12 at 2:21pm
I just bought a 46ST30 from a guy who was worried about the EXACT same issues you are concerned about. Honestly, IR and burn-in are way over rated and blown out of proportion. Yes, you will get IR. No, it should not stay there for more than a few minutes and you WILL NOT notice it under normal use. Only when you turn off the TV and stare and the black screen for a few minutes after shut off will you even notice anything.

The guy I bought it from was freaking out because he would see slight IR after he turned off the TV after gaming, but that is completely normal, it's just the way of the plasma. I have since put on probably 250 hours (including 100-hour break-in) and have been enjoyning countless hours of burn-free, amazing HD quality gaming, for only $500
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post #3 of 8
4/13/12 at 2:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 04SVT_COBRA View Post

I just bought a 46ST30 from a guy who was worried about the EXACT same issues you are concerned about. Honestly, IR and burn-in are way over rated and blown out of proportion. Yes, you will get IR. No, it should not stay there for more than a few minutes and you WILL NOT notice it under normal use. Only when you turn off the TV and stare and the black screen for a few minutes after shut off will you even notice anything.

The guy I bought it from was freaking out because he would see slight IR after he turned off the TV after gaming, but that is completely normal, it's just the way of the plasma. I have since put on probably 250 hours (including 100-hour break-in) and have been enjoyning countless hours of burn-free, amazing HD quality gaming, for only $500

Thanks for the reply, Cobra. You definitely made me feel better about the burn-in/IR issue. But what do you have to say about the judder/motion blur and the fluctuating brightness while playing games?
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post #4 of 8
4/13/12 at 4:45pm
I have a 50s30 and use it for gaming 90% of the time it does retain images like the map on mw3 but i play it a lot. it goes away in about a week of normal tv viewing mixed with screen washes. Its hardly even noticeable. I have no issue with fbr or motion blur/judder
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post #5 of 8
4/13/12 at 8:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jameslieb1 View Post

Thanks for the reply, Cobra. You definitely made me feel better about the burn-in/IR issue. But what do you have to say about the judder/motion blur and the fluctuating brightness while playing games?

Honestly, my opinion may not be the best since this is the first major TV purchase I have made so I don't have much previous experience to go by, but from what I can tell there is none what-so-ever on my set. Nothing I seem to notice anyways. In fact I have been playing Crysis 2 in 3D and it's amazing!

Unless you are gaming for more than 12 hours at a time I don't think you should experience any problems or have anything to worry about.
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post #6 of 8
4/13/12 at 10:13pm
Plasma won't have blur but the increased size and resolution combined with the superb motion handling of plasma can make lower frame rate games (30 fps) a bit jarring as you'll tend to notice the individual frames more than your old CRT.

Each tech has it's pros/cons (for gamers):
Plasma has excellent motion handling and low latency *simultaneously* but suffers from IR and consumes more power.
LCD is more energy efficient and is more resilient as it doesn't suffer IR but makes you choose between better motion handling OR lower latency-- you can't have both.
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post #7 of 8
4/14/12 at 12:52am
I ended up with some very very very slight IR that took a while to go away after playing SWTOR on mine for like 100+ hours within a 2-3 week period. The pixel orbiter was fine for most everything on the screen, but the top arch of the minimap was too fat for it. The IR was very faint in the first place, and only noticeable over a solid white background, it has since gone away after about another 300 hours of regular use. Also, if i didnt use an HTPC, i would have never ever noticed it, it was not visible over regular content.
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post #8 of 8
4/14/12 at 12:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 04SVT_COBRA View Post

I just bought a 46ST30 from a guy who was worried about the EXACT same issues you are concerned about. Honestly, IR and burn-in are way over rated and blown out of proportion. Yes, you will get IR. No, it should not stay there for more than a few minutes and you WILL NOT notice it under normal use. Only when you turn off the TV and stare and the black screen for a few minutes after shut off will you even notice anything.

The guy I bought it from was freaking out because he would see slight IR after he turned off the TV after gaming, but that is completely normal, it's just the way of the plasma. I have since put on probably 250 hours (including 100-hour break-in) and have been enjoyning countless hours of burn-free, amazing HD quality gaming, for only $500

yeah that's not even considered IR, that's just discharge.
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