Best TV for gaming? (consoles)

readyletsgo

Hey y'all, so I am looking to invest in a new flatscreen but I really dont know what I should be looking for. I have a PS3 and Wii U and will most likely get a PS4 in a year or two.

At the moment I have a 26" Hitachi, its done the trick for me over time, its a little dark but the built in sound is pretty amazing for it. It must be about 5/6 years old now.

What sort of tv would you guys recommend me to invest in at the moment?
I think 40" would be big enough for the size of my room. I think my budget would be €500 max. Would get a nice tv stand for it too

Thanks for any advce you can give guys

Not G.R

readyletsgo wrote: »

Hey y'all, so I am looking to invest in a new flatscreen but I really dont know what I should be looking for. I have a PS3 and Wii U and will most likely get a PS4 in a year or two.

At the moment I have a 26" Hitachi, its done the trick for me over time, its a little dark but the built in sound is pretty amazing for it. It must be about 5/6 years old now.

What sort of tv would you guys recommend me to invest in at the moment?
I think 40" would be big enough for the size of my room. I think my budget would be €500 max. Would get a nice tv stand for it too

Thanks for any advce you can give guys

You want something with a low (below 40ms) input lag.

Input lag is the delay between you pressing a button and an action happening on screen. It's not something manufactures list, it's entirely figured out by end users. "Response time" is listed by manufactures but it's not the same as input lag.

I recently picked up this; http://www.harveynorman.ie/tvs-headphones/hd-tvs/sony-bravia-32-smart-led-tv-kdl32w653abu.html

It's an outstanding TV with an input lag of 38ms with a "game mode" that lowers it to about 30ms.

The 40" version has a 8ms input lag but it's €200 dearer....

Review here;
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/kdl32w653-201310313413.htm

Alternatively for that money you could buy a "crappy" 720p 22" TV for less than €150 and buy a monitor with the rest.

readyletsgo

Thanks Not G.R.! I have no idea what you mean by input lag. Is that something everyone notices or something you really have to look hard at to see on the screen?

And, hmm, is 32" big enough of a screen for gaming? That Sony you have listed up above, I'm not sure I need it to be Smarttbh. How have you found it so far? Seems to have just 2 HDMI ports, why dont tv's have more than two now-a-days.

blatantrereg

Plasmas are better than lcd screens for gaming - especially because of the ghosting you can get on lcds when things move fast on the screen. As alluded to above, the slower the refresh rate, the more noticeable this is. Personally I would notice and be irritated by a 30 ms refresh rate on an lcd.
I have a 37" plasma. I find that to be an ideal size for games.

Robert ninja

You shouldn't pick a 40" based on the size of your room - the size of the display should be related to how close you're sitting to the screen and what you're doing on it. Consoles will be rendering in at 720p usually, a screen that big at medium or close range will make everything look jaggy, but perhaps you won't notice or care if you've had no experience with anything but SD.

Someone mentioned input lag, this is important for any kind of competitive or fast-paced games but otherwise is not something you should worry about - you're on an SD TV right now correct? You're probably used to very little input lag, HDTVs suffer more from it, it's why they don't use typically use HDTVs at any kind of gaming tournaments (or shouldn't anyway). The cable you use also effects it - a low quality HDMI cable will effect input lag.

You're sitting close to your screen given it's SD and small, correct? If so and you're not planning to change that, I actually suggest you go for a 27" monitor with HDMI support, they typically have a lot less input lag and will most definitely be capable of 1080 res for those blu ray movies and such, are somewhat cheaper if you search right. If you're dead set on a TV set though, 3D tvs also have higher response time given their native 120hz support, you won't experience actual 120hz via 120 FPS (consoles and HDMI are limited to 60) but you will typically get faster response times as an unintended side-effect. All HDTVs are a minimum of 32" last time I checked, which is far too big for 1080 in my personal opinion, unless you are sitting far enough away.

Given what you said about your old TV, you value sound? Then I suggest hooking up a separate sound system or even just headphones - when in the market for a display you should focus on the display and not the speakers which are usually terrible. Blu Ray's best quality is not visuals but audio, that's what makes the discs so big(digitally), it's uncompressed audio - you're missing out if you don't get a decent set of headphones or speakers. You also value the stand? - I personally have not noticed anything different between all HDTV stands, but monitors often come with adjustable properties like height adjust, swivel etc. My current display can be turned completely vertical from the versatile stand. Unless you're talking about a separate piece of furniture as a 'stand' for the TV.

calex71

I have a related question on this topic, don't mean to hijack.

What is the best method to calibrate an LED TV for gaming ? Been messing about with mine since xmas and still not 100% happy, each HDMI source can be set individually or I can apply it to all sources. I used the built in calibration on the XBOX One and it's close in terms of blacks etc but find colors a little washed out. (samsung tv)

Also relating to the OP and sound on the TV , how do people rate sound bars? They have an advantage of being small and discrete fitting in with the TV and I wouldn't have room for a 5.1 set up so they are something I was looking into but for the money ???

krudler

calex71 wrote: »

I have a related question on this topic, don't mean to hijack.

What is the best method to calibrate an LED TV for gaming ? Been messing about with mine since xmas and still not 100% happy, each HDMI source can be set individually or I can apply it to all sources. I used the built in calibration on the XBOX One and it's close in terms of blacks etc but find colors a little washed out. (samsung tv)

Also relating to the OP and sound on the TV , how do people rate sound bars? They have an advantage of being small and discrete fitting in with the TV and I wouldn't have room for a 5.1 set up so they are something I was looking into but for the money ???

If you google Samsung LED settings there's a few sites and youtube vids with the settings that should be optimal for different modes. my Samsung has a game mode that seems to up the refresh rate and brighten the picture a fair bit, tends to wash out the colours though.
I fiddle constantly with my tv settings, the thing that wrecks my head about modern tvs is that stupid auto dimming thing where the contrast bounces up and down between light and dark scenes, first thing I turn off on a new tv.

Really it's all down to personal preference, I like blacks to be black but no to the point of everything looking murky a +1 or -1 here and there can make the difference. As a usual standard I'd have contrast at 95-100, brightness at 45-50 depending and colour at around 51, vibrant without colours bleeding into each other. If you have any Disney blurays they usually have a home cinema optimiser on them that runs test patterns to make sure everything is balanced.

Agricola

Just to make sure the TV has some sort of game mode is the main thing I think. I bought a 40" Samsung knowing that the input lag would be pretty poor but that the game mode would lessen the problem to some extent. Turns out that some games are almost unplayable unless you use that mode. Just too much jerky camera movement otherwise.

penev10

calex71 wrote: »

I have a related question on this topic, don't mean to hijack.

What is the best method to calibrate an LED TV for gaming ?

I use this:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basics-Digital-Essentials-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B00ADJG56Q/

There are resources online that you can use, colour charts etc. that you can display and tune from there if you don;t want to shell out £30

gaynorvader

I'd reccommend a Samsung. 20ms input lag and an overall decent tv, we have one at home and it's great for 360/PS3 gaming.

Oafley Jones

Not G.R wrote: »

You want something with a low (below 40ms) input lag
Input lag is the delay between you pressing a button and an action happening on screen. It's not something manufactures list, it's entirely figured out by end users. "Response time" is listed by manufactures but it's not the same as input lag.

I recently picked up this; http://www.harveynorman.ie/tvs-headphones/hd-tvs/sony-bravia-32-smart-led-tv-kdl32w653abu.html

It's an outstanding TV with an input lag of 38ms with a "game mode" that lowers it to about 30ms.

The 40" version has a 8ms input lag but it's €200 dearer....

Review here;
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/kdl32w653-201310313413.htm

Alternatively for that money you could buy a "crappy" 720p 22" TV for less than €150 and buy a monitor with the rest.

The current Sony mid and high end are superb for gaming. I've a 42w805a for gaming and its 6ms.

2smiggy

i have a Samsung LE46C750 , just wondering how would this do with a pc connected to it. i have a pc in a back room and it is getting little use, and am thinking of just putting it in my sitting room.

gaynorvader

2smiggy wrote: »

i have a Samsung LE46C750 , just wondering how would this do with a pc connected to it. i have a pc in a back room and it is getting little use, and am thinking of just putting it in my sitting room.

Apparently it has significant input lag but you can relieve it somewhat by renaming the source to contain "PC". Still not ideal however.

Agricola

2smiggy wrote: »

i have a Samsung LE46C750 , just wondering how would this do with a pc connected to it. i have a pc in a back room and it is getting little use, and am thinking of just putting it in my sitting room.

I have the C650 which is a 100hz set. According to the interwebs, yours is a 200hz set. In game mode the input lag is said to be 42ms which is plenty to cause a lot of problems if you play mainly online FPS's. If you don't, then the performance will be decent for SP games.

Here....

readyletsgo

Not G.R wrote: »

.....I recently picked up this; http://www.harveynorman.ie/tvs-headphones/hd-tvs/sony-bravia-32-smart-led-tv-kdl32w653abu.html

Well Not G.R., I went with your recommendation and got the Sony Bravia 32" Smart tv at the weekend, and it is the perfect size for my bedroom, and is so beautiful, thanks for that!

Just wondering what settings you have yours at? I was reading through some reviews on Amazon about the TV and one guy advised on these settings, this is what he advised:

Target inputs - current (I have no idea what this does)
Picture mode - cinema 1 (I don't think this matters as I'm changing everything below anyway)
Backlight - 8
Contrast - 90
Brightness - 48
Colour - 60
Hue - 0
Colour temp - Warm 2
Noise reduction - off
MPEG noise red - off
Dot noise red - off
Reality creation - off
Smooth gradation - off
Film mode - auto

Advanced settings menu

Gamma - +1
Everything else in the advanced menu set to off

I have my sound set on the cinema default sound and I'm just using the tv speakers. I put the voice zoom on plus 1.

I used these settings, and yes, it makes it look good, but wondering what settings you have yours set at and what you think of these setting?

Again, super please with this tv, it kinda does everything and TLOU and Mario look amazing!

EDIT: Also, the sound on this tv is pretty damn impressive! No need for a sound bar at all!

calex71

target inputs - current , it's other setting is likely all, meaning you can apply the settings to the current HDMI source or all of them in one go.

JohnBoy26

If going for a 32 I'd be opting for a Panasonic txl32e6b over the Sony kdl32w653. It has much better picture quality than the sony imo and has a 25ms input lag so it's slightly better than the Sony in that regard too. It also comes with a Panasonic 5 year warranty(retailer dependent). It is a bit more expensive than the sony though but worth the extra IMO.

Edit: oops, just seen now that you purchased a tv.