plasma monitor for gaming??

[slick2004]

does anyone use a plasma for gaming? ive heard they are easier on the eyes than lcd/led and was wondering if anyone uses a plasma for gaming.

thanks

 

[disappoint]

Nope. I use an LCD. But I don't see why you couldn't. One thing you need to make sure of is that there is no input lag. Sometimes TVs don't make good gaming monitors because they process the frames and you end up with lag which makes some games unplayable.

 

[NoQuarter]

Plasma is actually a little better for gaming than LCD. Plasma uses a similar method to CRT's, where phosphors are lit up to provide the image, so the pixels have instant on/off time which means no motion blur. This makes moving text easier to read and makes it easier to focus while moving.

 

[Skott]

Plasma is actually a little better for gaming than LCD. Plasma uses a similar method to CRT's, where phosphors are lit up to provide the image, so the pixels have instant on/off time which means no motion blur. This makes moving text easier to read and makes it easier to focus while moving.

Thats weird. I've often heard the LCD is better for gaming than plasma. I suppose there is a definitive answer. Bound to be some professional reviews doing a comparison somewhere on the net. We cant be the first to talk about it or question it.

 

[Elcs]

Plasma is actually a little better for gaming than LCD. Plasma uses a similar method to CRT's, where phosphors are lit up to provide the image, so the pixels have instant on/off time which means no motion blur. This makes moving text easier to read and makes it easier to focus while moving.

Having owned a 1080i Plasma 42" for 1 year and a 1080p LCD 47" for 2 years and gamed heavily on both sets, I would agree that the Plasma is better but not for the reason you mentioned.

Plasma's have much better IQ for games in my opinion. If you had an LCD and never saw a Plasma in action for a sustained period of time, you would not be disappointed. I regret buying LCD over Plasma for my second set on IQ alone.

LCD's are much more friendly on the heat issue though which I appreciate being in a small room.

 

[NoQuarter]

Thats weird. I've often heard the LCD is better for gaming than plasma. I suppose there is a definitive answer. Bound to be some professional reviews doing a comparison somewhere on the net. We cant be the first to talk about it or question it.

I think the original reasoning for that point of view was because LCD's were much less susceptible to burn in, but now plasmas pixel shift the image to prevent it from burning in.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I think the original reasoning for that point of view was because LCD's were much less susceptible to burn in, but now plasmas pixel shift the image to prevent it from burning in.

burn-in was a legitimate concern for using plasmas as a standard use computer monitor where you have a lot of static images (of which you'd then have a legitimate use for a screen saver ), but for gaming which is mostly moving images its always been considered excellent

 

[NoQuarter]

I went ahead and ran this test that demonstrates motion blur/ghosting:
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/testsoftware/pixperan.html

The program has a lot of tests that will demonstrate the issues of LCD but the one most quantifiable is the simple readability test. It scrolls a set of random letters across the screen at increasing speed to see how long you can make out the letters. The slow response times of LCD quickly shows how motion blur/ghosting makes images lose clarity while moving. The higher tempo you can read at the less ghosting is occuring.

My results:
Asus 2ms LCD - 8
Dell 5ms LCD - 7
Netbook - 6
Plasma - 23

On my best LCD display I was only able to read at a tempo of 8, on a plasma I was able to read a tempo of 23, after which point it was simply too fast to follow the letters. I couldn't run at native resolution because my netbook doesn't have HDMI and I think if I was at native I could've gotten several steps higher. I haven't tested an LCD TV yet but I wager it will be about equal to the netbook in the motion blur department because response time isn't a selling point for HDTV's.

I play a lot of MMO's and one of the things that always bugs me is not being able to read mob names when running around. I also notice in FPS games I have to stop the camera for a split second to really refocus on things. Both those are ghosting issues. I actually wish I could get a 23" plasma display for PC use

 

[Sulaco]

Having owned a 1080i Plasma 42" for 1 year and a 1080p LCD 47" for 2 years and gamed heavily on both sets, I would agree that the Plasma is better but not for the reason you mentioned.

Plasma's have much better IQ for games in my opinion. If you had an LCD and never saw a Plasma in action for a sustained period of time, you would not be disappointed. I regret buying LCD over Plasma for my second set on IQ alone.

LCD's are much more friendly on the heat issue though which I appreciate being in a small room.

This.

I have a 42" Panasonic Viera 1080p Plasma in my room in which I do all my console gaming, next to my PC.

The IQ and color depth on the plasma is much better than the LCDs.

 

[CraigRT]

Glad to see its not a plasma bash fest in here.
Uneducated people think LCD are the best because of "burn in"
I love my 42" Panasonic Plasma if I had to do it all over again I would do the exact same thing.

Plasma > LCD.

 

[Juddog]

I went ahead and ran this test that demonstrates motion blur/ghosting:
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/testsoftware/pixperan.html

The program has a lot of tests that will demonstrate the issues of LCD but the one most quantifiable is the simple readability test. It scrolls a set of random letters across the screen at increasing speed to see how long you can make out the letters. The slow response times of LCD quickly shows how motion blur/ghosting makes images lose clarity while moving. The higher tempo you can read at the less ghosting is occuring.

My results:
Asus 2ms LCD - 8
Dell 5ms LCD - 7
Netbook - 6
Plasma - 23

On my best LCD display I was only able to read at a tempo of 8, on a plasma I was able to read a tempo of 23, after which point it was simply too fast to follow the letters. I couldn't run at native resolution because my netbook doesn't have HDMI and I think if I was at native I could've gotten several steps higher. I haven't tested an LCD TV yet but I wager it will be about equal to the netbook in the motion blur department because response time isn't a selling point for HDTV's.

I play a lot of MMO's and one of the things that always bugs me is not being able to read mob names when running around. I also notice in FPS games I have to stop the camera for a split second to really refocus on things. Both those are ghosting issues. I actually wish I could get a 23" plasma display for PC use

Interesting program, thanks for the mention. I ran it on my Dell LCD and only got to 6.

 

[NoQuarter]

Interesting program, thanks for the mention. I ran it on my Dell LCD and only got to 6.

Well I can struggle through 7 and 8 but real legibility ends at like 5 or 6 The letters on the LCD's just fall apart. Plasma was pretty impressive, pretty sure I could get further on it if I wasn't running at 1280x1024 due to VGA cable. Text just flies by the screen too fast, at 1920x1080 I'd have more time to read em.

 

[zerocool84]

Plasma still is the best for PQ and fast moving images. Plus you get more tv for your money as well. They still have glare though. It's reduced VERY much but it's still there so if you have tons of bright lights or windows that would glare off your screen, you should still get LCD.

 

[zinfamous]

One caveat, and I very much prefer Plasma--is that they are susceptible to Image retention. I assume it is much much better than my current 4 year-old panel, but it's very noticeable in mine, particularly with games--going from super bright colors to dark-high contrast areas.

image retention is not the same as burn-in. Burn-in is permanent, IR is simply the ghost or halo of an image retained on the panel when switching to another image. It tends to go away quickly. For this reason, I recall LCD generally being the preferred panel for games.

and the glare thing is true too. You really need a dark room to get everything out of a plasma.

 

[kamikazekyle]

One caveat, and I very much prefer Plasma--is that they are susceptible to Image retention. I assume it is much much better than my current 4 year-old panel, but it's very noticeable in mine, particularly with games--going from super bright colors to dark-high contrast areas.

image retention is not the same as burn-in. Burn-in is permanent, IR is simply the ghost or halo of an image retained on the panel when switching to another image. It tends to go away quickly. For this reason, I recall LCD generally being the preferred panel for games.

and the glare thing is true too. You really need a dark room to get everything out of a plasma.

I have a current gen Panasonic plasma (purchased last year), and even image retention is pretty much non-existent. I don't notice any retention unless I've had a static image on the screen for several hours, and zero burn in. Current gen plasmas are damn good at anti-image retention and burn in compared to earlier models. For example, I have a 2nd-ish gen Vizio attached to my PC I got dirt cheap refurbed, and it already has 4:3 image box burn in. It already has 4:3 sidebar burn in, and it does have pretty horrible image retention where a ghost of the desktop or something will continue to display for a few moments after a sudden transition. I only use it for IQ testing of movies and not for games or desktop use, but the image retention is still noticable.

I'm a big proponent of CRT and plasma (I have a 32" 1080i Sony CRT still hooked up for my old consoles, and that has better IQ at 1080i than the plasma at 1080p), though I still use LCDs on my computer for higher pixel densities.

Oh, glare. Plasmas are going to have a reflective glass front, but some have a bit of AR coating. Personally, I prefer glossy screens, so it doesn't bother me (I'm still searching for a good high resolution IPS glossy LCD that isn't an Apple or 30"). But if you routinely have light sources facing the plasma, you might get a bit annoyed.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Plasma > LCD for just about everything except length of life (plasmas eventually burn out, typical modern screens should last 10+ years though)

I have an LCD and it has a great picture and does well on my games but somehow I found the darkest LCD on the planet...lol

 

[IEC]

burn-in was a legitimate concern for using plasmas as a standard use computer monitor where you have a lot of static images (of which you'd then have a legitimate use for a screen saver ), but for gaming which is mostly moving images its always been considered excellent

Unless you're playing a game like Demon's Souls with a static HUD. You'll get some serious IR in no time, and have to do some screen wiping to get it to reset.

 

[kamikazekyle]

Unless you're playing a game like Demon's Souls with a static HUD. You'll get some serious IR in no time, and have to do some screen wiping to get it to reset.

My plasma didn't have this problem. There was zilch IR and no burn in. But it is the latest generation and does have pixel orbiting.

 

[coldmeat]

I have a Samsung pn42a450 from a few years back. It's definitely not high end. I get image retention from HUDs, it's not noticeable unless I'm looking for it though.

 

[RockinZ28]

Damnit I beat the game, wouldn't go past level 26.



Using Samsung PN58C7000 in game mode, currently playing Dead Space 2 and TDU2.
Image retention is almost nonexistent on this tv after doing the break-in. I've played hundreds of hours of games and seen very light IR only after playing the same game day after day for 2+ hours at a time. Couple minutes of the scrolling screen and it's gone.

Highly recommend plasma for gaming and movies as long as you don't watch in a bright room.

 

[coldmeat]

^ that says "Input incorrect!"

don't know why they decided to make it green and not red.

 

[Nebor]

I have a Samsung pn42a450 from a few years back. It's definitely not high end. I get image retention from HUDs, it's not noticeable unless I'm looking for it though.

I have an pn50c7000 and it gets image retention in less than 30 seconds from static logos. It's definitely not high end, but it's not exactly garbage.

 

[RockinZ28]

^ that says "Input incorrect!"

don't know why they decided to make it green and not red.

oh lol no wonder it wouldn't let me continue. Damn and I had it correct and changed it. Makes me want to plug up a pc into my 240hz LED to see what the latest LCD tvs can do.

 

[NoQuarter]

Damnit I beat the game, wouldn't go past level 26.

Using Samsung PN58C7000 in game mode, currently playing Dead Space 2 and TDU2.
Image retention is almost nonexistent on this tv after doing the break-in. I've played hundreds of hours of games and seen very light IR only after playing the same game day after day for 2+ hours at a time. Couple minutes of the scrolling screen and it's gone.

Highly recommend plasma for gaming and movies as long as you don't watch in a bright room.

I finally got an HDMI source hooked up to this Panasonic plasma so I could run it in native 1920x1080 and I hit the max rate of 30 (twice now) Very tough to read at 30 but still easier to read than an LCD at 8. I did fail once at 24 on my way to 30 but one wrong letter isn't a disaster. You can select a start tempo before you start the tests to pick up where you left off.

Gonna try out some RIFT beta on it now and see if the unreadable NPC names that bugs me is better on plasma.

 

[Matthiasa]

That test is evil(LCDS suck), I got to 7. On 8 it was total guesses.