Quote:
Originally Posted by reyhemula /forum/post/16901520
Alright, I'll consider it.
But I heard from a few other place that plasmas aren't really good for gaming, that's false?
This is certainly false. There isn't a faster TV technology (besides CRT) for gaming, and as I mentioned Panasonic, I and a lot of other people find that Panasonic's scaler works exceedingly well also.
But what you probably heard was actually the reverse--that gaming is bad for plasmas. This is something that actually
was true. Early plasma HDTVs had issues with images that stayed onscreen for long periods of time, like the letterbox or pillarbox bars that you might find on some TV shows and movies, CNN/FOX/ESPN type tickers and the like, and of course, HUDs, scores, maps and other static information that tends to stick around in video games, would cause a burn upon the screen after several hours of use.
This has not been an issue with plasmas for at least as long as I have owned each of mine, and I say this because I game the hell out of both of them and neither the older model (TH-50PHD8UK from 2005) nor the newer (TH-50PF9UK from 2008) have one pixel's worth of problems to show for it. The technology has come a long way, in addition they are now made with lots of features that are made to expressly limit the kind of damage that image burn can do, such as pixel rotation, a toggled feature which does exactly what it says. In the past I have actually attempted to cause an image retention on my screen and failed. Invariably on these boards and many others, when someone says this, another pipes in that they had burn-in after just watching a little Sunday evening football, but I would have to see it to believe it personally. Image burn is still
possible, but you would have to be some kind of braindead idiot to cause it at the level of function that plasmas have managed today, like leaving your game on pause for several days or something... I mean really, would you do that? If so, why? And if not, you have nothing to worry about and an excellent screen to game on.
The reason people still mention this past issue today is because a. they want to feel better about their LCD purchase, b. they've never owned a plasma and are unaware of how well they work or their advancements over the years, and c. when burn-in was a common problem, plasmas cost vastly more than they do today. Seriously, you would be pretty pissed if your 10,000+ dollar HDTV had the pattern of a Weather Channel ticker permanently affixed along the bottom of the screen, and rightly so. But the technology is not just cheaper today, it is way, way better.
