What's The Right TV Set For Gaming?

Thanks to GameSpy for its article discussing the choice of TV sets that are best for playing videogames. The piece points out: "It is also important to keep in mind that bigger isn't always better, and that some types of displays aren't so game friendly", before analyzing the options, including Direct View CRT screens ("Affordable; good resolution... [but] Very large sets; limited progressive scan options"), DLP ("Immune to burn-in; reasonably affordable... [but] Doesn't work as well as CRT in bright conditions"), Plasma screens ("Wall-mountable; bright picture... [but] Phosphor burn-in; expensive") and Front Projection ("Big display; portability... [but] No speakers; depends a dark environment.")

Comments

Re:Interesting to note

[Babbster]

You know why I (and many others) haven't used it? Because they make you special-order the damned component cables from their website. You simply can't buy one in a local store. As a special bonus, they want to charge you $30 (plus shipping) for the privilege of them cutting out the middle peoples. The same functionality for the Xbox and PS2 can be had for $20 and under.

Typical GameSpy excuse for selling ads

[Cecil]

Ah, the usual fluff without any conclusion from GameSpy, full of common sense advice, blatant truisms, and technical inaccuracies. I liked this gem:

• LCD Rear Projection
  
• Pro for Gamers: Reasonably affordable; immune to burn-in.
  
• Con for Gamers: Phosphor burn-in; limited brands.
  

So, does it burn in or not? (The answer is no) Therefore... the only con you could come up with is that there are limited brands (also not really true)? In other words, this display type is excellent for gaming.

Yet it gets a single paragraph hidden away at the end of the rear projection section where they explicitly avoid saying whether it's good or bad. DLP, on the other hand, gets one and a half sections devoted to it (The DLP section and the rear projection section. uhh...)

Meanwhile, a shitty 800x600 projector with a bottom-of-the-barrel 1200 lumens seems to be their choice for gaming, their primary reasoning apparently being "it was designed by Italians!"

• Recommended LCD Projector: 3M S10 Bravo Home Theater Projector; Price: $1400.
  
• Features: Crafted by Italian design firm Pininfarina, 1200 lumens; digital keystone correction; HDTV support; 800x600 native resolution.
  

GameSpy continues to live up to their traditional standard of inspid and useless ad-copy disguised as articles. It's odd how people still find them relevant enough to be submitted to and accepted by Slashdot, though.

Re:Typical GameSpy excuse for selling ads

[hawkstone]

Sorry, no Mod points today, but you deserve 'em. At least you saved me the trouble of typing it all up myself. And just to reiterate, because this is often debated and often gotten wrong: LCD Rear Projection TV's do not burn in. (Excessive heat buildup might cause some temporary afterimages, but that is rare, minor, and temporary, and is thus not burnin.
)
And why on earth did they put LCD rear projection with CRT rear projection, but leave DLP off by itself? LCD RP and DLP (RP) are so much more similar than CRT RP is to either one. I'm tempted to send the author a nice polite note with some educational material.

That being said, there are downsides to LCD RP that the author didn't mention. Specifically, slightly worse contrast ratio and a slightly higher dead pixel ratio than DLP. Also, an SDE (screen door effect) is more likely because of bigger gaps between pixels.

However, I bought an LCD RP because these disadvantages were far less intrusive than the disadvantages I saw with DLP. Specifically, some DLPs had dithering that was very disturbing, the price was far too much (relative to LCD RP), and the moving parts were a slight maintenance concern.