[scitek]

I just had one of the new 4K Vizios die on me, and I'm expecting to have to take a refund on it as I've heard from others here that my particular model has been discontinued.

With that, does anyone have any recommendations for good gaming TVs? The low input lag was one of the reasons I bought the Vizio (less than 20ms on one of the inputs), and one of the other main factors was the deep black levels. I'm thinking of looking into plasmas now, but I know they have/had burn-in issues - my last roommate had a plasma with the Call of Duty HUD burned into his screen, for example. I was PMed by a member here about a NiB 50" Panasonic TC-50PS64, and I think he wants around $600 for it. Any idea if that'd be worth my time? It's likely out of warranty and I'd have to pay for shipping, but I might be able to negotiate something.

If not that, where's a good place to start? I've never owned a plasma before, so any help would be appreciated.

 

[Michael Vincent Praino]

my PN43F4500 has pretty good input lag when set to PC mode and I never experience any kind of IR or Burn-In. That being said, my PN51F8500 seems to give me all sorts of temp IR scares and I have had a very faint CBS logo stuck on my screen for the last few weeks that I am afraid may be permanent. I do game on it once and a while with some longer bouts of SSB4 and always run the screen wipe feature for like an hour after to satisfy my ocd.

 

[mjrgamer]

Best ever for plasma KRP or Signature Pioneer monitors. They are are smooth and have great response compared to some of the best LCD's by Sony for gaming, I tried LG, Samsung, Panasonic there is a huge difference in lag it has gotten better each generation. The one I haven't tried are the Panasonic pro plasma monitors.

 

[Josh128]

Samsung F4500 series. Best all around flat panel (plasma or LCD) for games ranging from NES to Wii U. Not 1080p, but superior to the 1080p 5300's for 720p and lower resolution consoles, and perfectly acceptable even for 1080p sources.

Samsung PN51F5300 for strictly PS4 and Xbox One (and I guess Wii U also, as it has a decent amount of native 1080p games) it has full RGB 1080p.

Both sets have identical lag (~38ms for progressive sources, 50ms for interlaced sources). Note you must mod your 240p systems for RGB then transcode to component for a kick ass picture. If you plan to use composite video, you need to find an SD CRT. If you plan to use S-Video, you need an S-Video to Component transcoder.

@MVP thats an interesting observation regarding IR on the F8500 vs the F4500. Is your 8500 set running much brighter than your F4500? That may have something to do with it. A guy on a gaming forum I spoke to gave himself some stubborn IR on his new F4900 (the Euro version of the F4500), but turns out he was using 20 cell light on a panel with under 50 hours!

He eventually wiped it, but brightness def makes a diff with the IR, especially when new...

 

[W3Rman]

Samsung - PN60F5300BFXZA -- 36-37ms Input Lag I'm enjoying it

 

[W3Rman]

 

[newfmp3]

Samsung F8500. In game mode. After 3 panasonics, which I did love, this is the first plasma where I have had ZERO image retention.

 

[Michael Vincent Praino]

@MVP thats an interesting observation regarding IR on the F8500 vs the F4500. Is your 8500 set running much brighter than your F4500? That may have something to do with it. A guy on a gaming forum I spoke to gave himself some stubborn IR on his new F4900 (the Euro version of the F4500), but turns out he was using 20 cell light on a panel with under 50 hours!

He eventually wiped it, but brightness def makes a diff with the IR, especially when new...

The cell light was 14 and contrast at 98 when it happened. I now run the set with cell light at 8.

The logo is extremely faint now but can still be seen on solid color backgrounds (yellow, gray, etc) if you look for it. It has gotten better over the course of a month so I am hoping it will be completely gone in another month or two.

 

[pdogg93]

Samsung F8500. In game mode. After 3 panasonics, which I did love, this is the first plasma where I have had ZERO image retention.

F8500 sucks for gaming.

 

[newfmp3]

Why would you say that? Do you actually have one? after 3 panny's and gaming on every console / PC on them and now the 8500, in game mode I have no issues with anything...lag, color, notta.

 

[pdogg93]

Why would you say that? Do you actually have one? after 3 panny's and gaming on every console / PC on them and now the 8500, in game mode I have no issues with anything...lag, color, notta.

The input lag was very noticeable on my 8500 when I owned it. My 65ZT60 has imperceptible input lag, and the picture doesn't degrade to hell when I turn on game mode like the Samsung did. Some of the lower end Samsung plasmas are much more suitable for gaming imo.

 

[abouttreefitty]

The input lag was very noticeable on my 8500 when I owned it. My 65ZT60 has imperceptible input lag, and the picture doesn't degrade to hell when I turn on game mode like the Samsung did. Some of the lower end Samsung plasmas are much more suitable for gaming imo.

If you just activate Game Mode and don't adjust the picture settings in Standard Mode, the picture will look like crap. With minor adjustment, you can have it looking almost identical to Movie Mode. I have zero noticeable lag in Game Mode on my F8500.

 

[newfmp3]

As do I. Like I said, I had good panny's prior to the Sammy. Actually, I still have them. Standard mode or game mode doesn't like like crap, there's just something wrong there because it looks FAR better then my older panny did. I found on all my Panny's that movie mode is useless for gaming, way too dull so your forced to Custom which does blow out some colors and adds lots of noise. With the 8500 if I adjust the colors right for gaming I can just turn up/dwn the (can't remember what it's called now) cell light as I need more brightness and the 8500 can go BRIGHT.


I know early firmware had bad lag issues, but by the time I got mine the lag issue seemed to be resolved. I was really concerned hearing the lag comments here but decided to take the plunge and I'm so glad I did. Mind you there is nothing, NOTHING wrong with a ZT60 either.


the lower end Sammy's look like @#[email protected]$. Honestly, I wouldn't give them a consideration at all. I was a die hard Panasonic fan, loved their pictures. Said I'd never own a Samsung Plasma especially given all the burn in and color issues we had with them where I work. But once I seen the 8500...


To each their own I guess.

 

[Josh128]

the lower end Sammy's look like @#[email protected]$. Honestly, I wouldn't give them a consideration at all. I was a die hard Panasonic fan, loved their pictures. Said I'd never own a Samsung Plasma especially given all the burn in and color issues we had with them where I work. But once I seen the 8500...
To each their own I guess.

lol How do you figure that? Ive seen F4500s side by side with Panny S60s and I thought the 720p set looked better. I'd love to know how you came to this conclusion. The Samsung F4500's and the PN51F5300 are fantastic looking sets. The low end Panasonics on the other hand, the X60's, really do look like #$^%&-- theres no comparison. In fact, the F4500 series has one of the best pictures Ive ever seen. For only $300-$400, they're an absolute steal.

Both the 4500s and 5300's have less lag without game mode than the F8500 has when using game mode.

Heres a few photos of the F4500-- what is it that looks so bad about them?

 

[KOF]

There are many good gaming plasmas. It would depend on your priorities and gaming tastes. Also, plasmas function differently from LCDs, so Leo Bodnar numbers aren't directly comparable. The Samsung F5300 I had felt very smooth despite its 36ms number.

The most versatile one is definitely the F8500. It has great black level and spectacular brightness so you can basically throw any games at it and never feel unsatisfied with brightness. Its only shortcoming is rather high input lag, but even on PC mode, it still doesn't look too bad given its brightness capability.

The F5300B is also a great gaming plasma for a budget. Not as bright as the F8500, but still decent once you adjust pots for more brightness. The 60 inch one/the 64 inch H5000 uses pentile, but I personally didn't really find pentile that much of a detractor, even for games. Of course, full RGB still offers the sharpest/crisp image compared to pentile, but given its value, it's a great trade-off IMO.

The Panasonic S60 is also a spectacular gaming plasma in limited gaming library. It's not really bright, so it doesn't work too well with Nintendo/Japanese games, but for majority of western games (where they usually shoot for realism instead of stylized) I don't really feel inadequate with brightness. It also sports better black level than Samsung plasmas because Panasonics don't float in black. When I first got the Samsung F5300B, I thought it was only little worse in black level than my S64, but now that I get to play with my Panny again, I think my Panny has a clear edge when it comes to black level and contrast ratio and the difference is not small IMO. The only time my F5300B came really close to my Panny in ANSI was in very low APL scenes (night time) while being played in 4:3 window. Other than that, I haven't found my F5300B approaching close to my S64.

The F4500 is more of a specialized gaming plasma. Don't get me wrong. Even with such odd resolution, it handles downscaling rather well, so it's really performant with majority of games. But what's truly great about this plasma is that it's a legitimate successor to Sony XBR960/Sony Trinitron BVM F20 in my opinion. Being a BVM owner myself, I kept contemplating buying the F4500 because of its great potential for retrogaming. While it falls really short when it comes to scaling, (No plasma will ever beat CRTs for 240p pixel output quality) it more than makes up with vastly superior contrast ratio. (yes, my BVM has far lower MLL than most of plasmas, but ANSI is mediocre in comparison) It still has low enough resolution, so old games favor this TV FAR more than 1080p TVs. It's also second brightest Samsung plasma released in its final year. Packing quite a lot for its price.