PC Gaming with Plasma TV

[ReplicantImpuls]

I would like to buy the Panasonic 50" ST50 3D TV to use as a my PC gaming monitor. Problem, My monitor will sit 3 feet from my face. I will be running 1280x720 so I can run 120hz vertical refresh rate. Will it be a problem? Will I get headaches being that close? Will I have problems viewing text on screen?

Do any of you have a plasma TV for PC gaming and if so how far does it sit in front of you?

 

[Zorander]

3 feet away from a 50in is way too close IMO. That's the same distance I sit away from my 30in monitor.

I also game on a 55in plasma, but I sit 8-10 feet away from it.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

That's an effective resolution of 29 PPI (Pixels per inch) which is diabolically low, about 1/3rd of a standard monitor, it's going to look like utter shit.

*edit*

To put that in perspective my 1080p projector over a 122" screen is only 18 PPI, but I watch that from about 10 feet away......

 

[BallaTheFeared]

lol 50 inch screen, @ 1280x720 3 feet away...

You can get an idea of how that will look by using the magnifier feature on your current monitor.

 

[hawtdawg]

I have an ST30 that has a computer hooked up to it. I play a lot of games on it, and it's a great TV. I do some 3D stuff on it, but i used side-by-side mode @1080p. Also, even though the newer plasmas are very resistant to IR and burn in, it can still happen. I don't know if i'd recommend using it exclusively as a monitor.

I put in about 100 hours of swtor within a 3 week period on my 65" ST30, and there was some very slight IR from the mini-map. The pixel orbiter will take care of a lot of stuff, but something that's wider than the orbiter can possibly give you some IR if it's on the screen a bunch.

You've obviously done some research though if you're wanting an ST50. It's one of the best TV's ever made, AND it's reasonably priced.

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

I've done hundreds of hours of research. The Panasonic ST50 is the king TV. Everything else is moot. Samsung is worthless, unreliable and prone to failure. Also it has no motion smoothing. If you roll credits of a movie on the screen you will notice that it stutters as the text scrolls down screen, if you look at the Panasonic ST30 its smooth and almost no jitter. On the ST50 it's ultra smooth. The Samsung's suffer from 'flashlight' brightness problems. And those are ridiculously annoying. Panasonic does not. Also if the power supply fails you don't need to spend $800 on their new power supply. All you have to do is pull out the power supply and solder on a new capacitor from the one that went up in smoke. I recommend Nichicon KG.

Video Only will give me the TV for $1100 but a friend of mine got his for $1050 with haggling. That is way cheaper than online. The lowest I've seen is Amazon for $1240. I never thought I'd see in store prices cheaper.

The guy from Video Only told me to try it and if it doesn't work bring it back no questions asked full refund.

Thank you all for your input. I will take it into consideration. I have a 27" monitor right now but I really want 120hz its just I don't want the current crop of 120hz LCD monitor because they still have ghosting and crosstalk. That is annoying to me. I'm contemplating getting 3 Planar 23" 3d lcd monitors and running that in ultra wide res. Those seem to be the best 3d monitors. Problem is they are smaller. But I guess the ultra wide gaming should make up for it. This is why I wanted a 50" plasma. Too bad they dont make a 42" 3d plasma. Panasonic had one, it was an ST30 but I can no longer find it online. All the prices I find it for are the same price as the 50".

 

[hawtdawg]

the problems you talk about with the Samsungs sound like the issues their LCD sets have. Their plasmas are actually very good, and were generally considered slightly better than Pannys models last year. This year though, it sounds like Panny is going to be king, people are already comparing the ST50 line to Sammys E8000 line, which is samsungs best plasma.

Reviewers are saying that the ST50 is as good or better than the VT30 from last year (their flagship model). Samsung it seems, focused more on gizmos like internet connectivity, and maybe lowered the black level some. It sounds like Panasonic is going to be the brand to beat this year period. They started making LCD screens a couple of years ago, and it sounds like their best one this year might be one of the best LCD's ever.

http://hdguru.com/panasonic-2012-tc-l55wt50-led-lcd-hdtv-first-review/7619/#more-7619

 

[Akantus]

Is it possible to run it at 120Hz input? I thought that TVs only accept 60Hz max be it 1080p or 720p.

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

Is it possible to run it at 120Hz input? I thought that TVs only accept 60Hz max be it 1080p or 720p.

1280x720 can run 120hz, 1080p cannot because HDMI doesn't have the bandwidth to support it.

Only Display Port and Dual Link DVI can support it.

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

the problems you talk about with the Samsungs sound like the issues their LCD sets have. Their plasmas are actually very good, and were generally considered slightly better than Pannys models last year. This year though, it sounds like Panny is going to be king, people are already comparing the ST50 line to Sammys E8000 line, which is samsungs best plasma.

Reviewers are saying that the ST50 is as good or better than the VT30 from last year (their flagship model). Samsung it seems, focused more on gizmos like internet connectivity, and maybe lowered the black level some. It sounds like Panasonic is going to be the brand to beat this year period. They started making LCD screens a couple of years ago, and it sounds like their best one this year might be one of the best LCD's ever.

http://hdguru.com/panasonic-2012-tc-l55wt50-led-lcd-hdtv-first-review/7619/#more-7619

Actually incorrect, many people on forums reported several reliability issues with the Samsungs PLASMAS of last year. Check youtube for videos. Also the Panny's had motion smoothing which Samsung did not have at all. There were only a few areas that were considered slightly better in performance but at the cost of reliability. Also the customer service of Samsung is notoriously horrible where as Panasonic is not. Pansonic is the obvious choice.

Also the plastic film that protected the TV from glares on the Samsungs reported by many users would peel off after only a few weeks.

 

[Akantus]

1280x720 can run 120hz 1080 cannot because HDMI doesnt have the bandwidth to support it.

Yea, knew about bandwidth limitation, but still thought they can't accept 120Hz.
Is it this years 3D TVs only?

And to your question, I have 42G30 and I get no IR at all, but I heard that 3D's still suffers from it but its almost no issue.
And with my 42 when I'm using it as monitor I sit about 4 feet away to feel comfortable, but that is at 1080p, with 720p I can sit further back so I'm not sure about your 720p 50" 3feet away...
Best way to know is to try it if they let you...

 

[Denithor]

It's not in the same ballpark as the model you are considering but as a reference point I game & surf on an LG 50" plasma. It's parked 8' in front of my couch. In 1080p mode it looks OK at best for text. For movies & games it's absolutely fantastic.

It definitely does suffer a little from IR that clears up slowly. Pretty often I notice the GoW3 HUD in the upper left corner (counter from Horde mode) and sometimes I can see outlines from my browser window and even the background picture overlaid in a movie or whatever I'm watching.

 

[Railgun]

1280x720 can run 120hz, 1080p cannot because HDMI doesn't have the bandwidth to support it.

Yes it can. But the spec doesn't call for it and most manufacturers follow the spec.

The BW spec for 1.4 is 340MHz. The above resolution is 165MHz.

Looking at bit rate, at RGB 4:4:4 at the above it needs 2.65Gbps, max spec is 3.4Gbps.

The short answer is it won't accept that signal, but not because it's incapable.

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

From what several engineers told me, specs lie. Real world results prove its a bandwidth limitation, but I guess these engineers are wrong and you are right. Maybe they were screwing with me, who knows.

 

[Akantus]

As far as I know hdmi 1.3 (which is used by most *all? TVs) can do 1080p @24 fps per eye for 3D and 720p @60 fps per eye.
Hdmi 1.4 (which I believe is used on 120Hz monitors) can do 1080p @ 60 fps per eye.
I don't know what spec is used by that TV since its new one, but last time I checked all TV's were using hdmi 1.3 that means 120fps at 720p

 

[hawtdawg]

Actually incorrect, many people on forums reported several reliability issues with the Samsungs PLASMAS of last year. Check youtube for videos. Also the Panny's had motion smoothing which Samsung did not have at all. There were only a few areas that were considered slightly better in performance but at the cost of reliability. Also the customer service of Samsung is notoriously horrible where as Panasonic is not. Pansonic is the obvious choice.

Also the plastic film that protected the TV from glares on the Samsungs reported by many users would peel off after only a few weeks.

Ive read of people having issues with the screen peeling and the PSU's buzzing, and i think they have FBr (panny had FBr too, but fixed it). But things like flashlighting are specific to LCD sets, and i've seen nothing negative about their motion performance either, which is also typically a problem with LCD sets.

CNET still has the D8000 plasma from last year ranked at #2 just under the Sharp Elite set. People really liked the plasma sets from both brands, but in the end I think the pros liked the D7000 and D8000 most overall because of their reference color performance. Panasonic seems to have fixed their color issues from last year, while lowering black levels and upping the light output. The 2012 panny models are looking to be really nice. I can't wait to see how the VT50 turns out.

 

[Subyman]

NO, please no. I game on a 50" LG plasma at 1080p. I sit 8-10ft away and it is fantastic. However, if you get too close to a plasma, you will see the pixels fluttering color. It doesn't work the same way as LCD, where the pixel stays one color. They oscillate with their neighbors. If you sit too close, you will notice that and there is no way you would enjoy it.

50" at 3ft will not look good no matter what the tech right now.

 

[hawtdawg]

Good call, I don't know why that wasn't the first thing that occurred to me.

If I get any closer than about 6 feet to my 65 inch set, I can see the graininess from the sub-pixels. Burn in isn't the only reason that they aren't used as computer monitors.

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

Yes it can. But the spec doesn't call for it and most manufacturers follow the spec.

The BW spec for 1.4 is 340MHz. The above resolution is 165MHz.

Looking at bit rate, at RGB 4:4:4 at the above it needs 2.65Gbps, max spec is 3.4Gbps.

The short answer is it won't accept that signal, but not because it's incapable.

The new GT50 screen possesses 4:4:4:

"Here you will also find a new control called 1080p Pure Direct that promises to pass a full 4:4:4 video signal over HDMI, allowing for slightly enhanced chromatic resolution. The acceptance of 4:4:4 is new ground for Panasonic PDP and another sign they’re taking the enthusiast market seriously. There is also a control for Intelligent Frame Creation or 24p Smooth Film (when the content is encoded at 24p) which can be set to Off/Min/Mid/Max. Then there is the Clear Cinema mode for film cadence detection and the Resolution Enhancer control which is essentially another sharpness control and is best left off. The DVI Input can be set to either Normal or Full, where Normal represents video levels (16-235) and Full corresponds to PC levels (0-255) but if the input is straight HDMI – rather than a HDMI to DVI connection – the GT50 will automatically operate in Normal mode." -http://www.avforums.com/reviews/Panasonic-GT50-TX-P50GT50B-P42GT50-42-50-Inch-Full-HD-3D-Plasma-TV_287/Review.html

So can we expect 1080p at 120hz on a PC or what?

 

[ReplicantImpuls]

Ive read of people having issues with the screen peeling and the PSU's buzzing, and i think they have FBr (panny had FBr too, but fixed it). But things like flashlighting are specific to LCD sets, and i've seen nothing negative about their motion performance either, which is also typically a problem with LCD sets.

CNET still has the D8000 plasma from last year ranked at #2 just under the Sharp Elite set. People really liked the plasma sets from both brands, but in the end I think the pros liked the D7000 and D8000 most overall because of their reference color performance. Panasonic seems to have fixed their color issues from last year, while lowering black levels and upping the light output. The 2012 panny models are looking to be really nice. I can't wait to see how the VT50 turns out.

I've seen with my own 2 eyes that all samsungs have a motion smoothing problem. Go to video only and compare them side by side with credits rolling on screen and you will be blown away by how inferior samsung is at this. Also they don't even have a motion smoothing technology in the prior year sets and before. CNET can comment as much as they want on performance for the very brief period of time that they had the sets but they can never comment on the problems that people were having with it because they do not own them and use them everyday like other people do. Check AVS forum and home theater shack and many others for the problems that Samsung was having. If you want i can provide several links for proof. Check amazon tons of proof that prove what I'm saying not to mention Youtube.

 

[Obsoleet]

You guys are pretty hardcore on your plasma selection. As long as you get a plasma you should be good to go. Samsung and Panasonic both make great plasmas, and you can't go wrong either way- just stay away from LCD TVs.

 

[exdeath]

The Panasonic ST50 is the king TV. Everything else is moot.

Uh no it isn't. High end front projection in a light controlled room is.

Seeing flat panel LCD and plasma in stores makes me laugh and puke at the same time. Set top LCD/plasma panels are for little kids rooms to watch Sponge Bob on.

Stop by when you are in AZ some day and I'll be happy to demo Wall-E or Avatar for you at 120 hz on such a projector if you want to see and focus on individual grains of sand in the ground as it pans by at high speed.

 

[hawtdawg]

Uh no it isn't. High end front projection in a light controlled room is.

Seeing flat panel LCD and plasma in stores makes me laugh and puke at the same time. Set top LCD/plasma panels are for little kids rooms to watch Sponge Bob on.

Stop by when you are in AZ some day and I'll be happy to demo Wall-E or Avatar for you at 120 hz on such a projector if you want to see and focus on individual grains of sand in the ground as it pans by at high speed.

no shit sherlock.

This thread is about plasma tv's, and the guy you quoted is spot on.

 

[hawtdawg]

I've seen with my own 2 eyes that all samsungs have a motion smoothing problem. Go to video only and compare them side by side with credits rolling on screen and you will be blown away by how inferior samsung is at this. Also they don't even have a motion smoothing technology in the prior year sets and before. CNET can comment as much as they want on performance for the very brief period of time that they had the sets but they can never comment on the problems that people were having with it because they do not own them and use them everyday like other people do. Check AVS forum and home theater shack and many others for the problems that Samsung was having. If you want i can provide several links for proof. Check amazon tons of proof that prove what I'm saying not to mention Youtube.

could you link me? Not trying to be a dick, I just havent seen anything regarding motion in relation to the D series plasma's, and I visit AVS forum too.

 

[KAZANI]

OP spends hundreds of hours researching to come to the conclusion that he wants a 50inch plasma in order to avoid minor image imperfections, while at the same time contemplating whether he could live with a 3 LCD side-by-side screen setup.

*scratches head*