HD, yea or nay?

[TheDXM]

I, personally have been considering dumping my puny old 20' tube television and if I'm going to put the money into it I might as well make an investment that's going to last. So, vote, and you're helping me out. Or.

We can just discuss the aspects of high-def gaming.

Personally, I've had the opportunity to game in 1080i at my friend's, and I frankly found the surround sound more impressive than the visuals themselves. For some of the price tags out there I'd think we could do better with the high-def era.

[Tapewolf]

I, personally have been considering dumping my puny old 20' tube television and if I'm going to put the money into it I might as well make an investment that's going to last. So, vote, and you're helping me out. Or.

What technology are you looking at?  Because I think the good old particle-accelerator is the only one that is going to last more than 5-10 years.  That and the standards seem to be a little bit up in the air, so it could get obsolete very quickly.

Plasma displays have a half-life.  This used to be about 18 months or so, although apparently things have improved a lot since then.  I believe they are still very susceptible to burn-in, though.

LCD's tend to fade and their colour reproduction is none too good either, at least not with the units I've seen.  With an analogue TV signal they look pretty disgusting, IMHO.  That said, most of the CRT units I've seen seem to have some kind of MJPEG-compressed digital frame store so they look grim as well.  For now I'm hanging on to my all-analogue TV

Don't forget to check that it supports the latest Digital Rights Mismanagment system or you won't get any high-definition signals anyway   

My vote: No, don't want one
(Not getting one, because flat display technology is too immature and also because I don't have space for something that size.  Or any HD program material to play on it.  For the foreseeable future...)

[TheDXM]

Absolutely agree on the plasma. We played for an hour's time (I forgot to mention it was a plasma) at most and I could see the afterimage burned into the TV for a good while afterwards. And considering how much plasma TV's are going for I wouldn't want to risk a nasty screen-burn as early as a few years into owning it. The price tag on the TV itself was somewhere above five thousand dollars.

I might go with rear-projection, but I'm iffy on that, and only because I haven't found tube TV's in HD yet.

[Reese Tora]

me? no.

There's still the question of HD content being scarce (tough not so much anymore)

Now, I don't particularly care if I get HD or not, but I don't want to get a new TV, and I don't really CARE about jumping from photorealistic to higher quality than visible to the naked eye.

I do all my gaming on my PC anyway.

[ITOS]

I do all my gaming on my PC anyway.

So get a HD screen for your PC.

[bill]

I want one, because the FOM has screwed with the Formula One onboard cameras so they look like crap, unless you have a widescreen HD. Please die, FOM.

[Vidar]

I do all my gaming on my PC anyway.

So get a HD screen for your PC.

Most analogue computer monitors , and some LCD screens can display resolutions higher then HD, so that would be moot.

Also, I don't want HD, until the DRM crap has gone the way of the dodo. I'm good with my flat screen CRT tube.

[Ryudo Lee]

I wouldn't mind getting one, but I flat out don't have the coinage for it.

[Cvstos]

I have HD.  It's a CRT, although there are very nice LCDs available, you just have to do your research and not impulse buy that super-cheap $500 model you find at Wal-Mart (and why are you shopping at wal-mart anyway?  There's never, ever a good reason to go there).   Good LCDs can cost money, but they save lots of space and use only a fraction of the electricty.

If implemented well, HD is awesome.  But, the real awesome of HD comes with the surround sound.  A nice 5.1 system is what really sells HD, and they aren't as expensive as you'd think.

[Azlan]

My 50' HD TV is rather nice.  For what small amount of programming is out there at the moment, it is truly a wonderful picture.  My gaming is done mostly over PC and I use a simple 20' LCD WSXGA format and non-wide screen.

[Tapewolf]

Dunno if these are HD, but it's kind of amusing (if not quite on topic)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/home-theatre/one-for-csi-nine-freezes-on-lg-tv/2007/03/19/1174152957353.html

[Turnsky]

Plasma displays have a half-life.  This used to be about 18 months or so, although apparently things have improved a lot since then.  I believe they are still very susceptible to burn-in, though.

if my memory serves, Plasma TV's use the same kinda tech in them as the average fluroescent tube. so yeah, short working life for the expense of it.

[Tezkat]

Most analogue computer monitors , and some LCD screens can display resolutions higher then HD, so that would be moot.

Well... I wouldn't say that "most" computer monitors can do 1920x1080 justice. Still, for the price of a entry-level plasma TV, you can get an excellent widescreen PC display that has the inputs, HDCP compliance, and whatnot needed to hook up HD devices anyway--with the added benefit of having a nice, big monitor for work as well as play. The current crop of LCDs handle games quite well, with very little input lag or ghosting (though some panels fare better than others), and frankly I find them plenty large enough for watching TV or movies.

I admit I'm not much of a console gamer, though. Heck, I even watch TV on my PC far more often than in my living room.

[TheDXM]

Well, to be honest it isn't impossible to get a PC moniter display to work with a console, there's some technical hoops to jump through, but it's been done before. And let's face it, a 1980X1600 display is the only real advantage you could ever need online.

[Turnsky]

Most analogue computer monitors , and some LCD screens can display resolutions higher then HD, so that would be moot.

Well... I wouldn't say that "most" computer monitors can do 1920x1080 justice. Still, for the price of a entry-level plasma TV, you can get an excellent widescreen PC display that has the inputs, HDCP compliance, and whatnot needed to hook up HD devices anyway--with the added benefit of having a nice, big monitor for work as well as play. The current crop of LCDs handle games quite well, with very little input lag or ghosting (though some panels fare better than others), and frankly I find them plenty large enough for watching TV or movies.

I admit I'm not much of a console gamer, though. Heck, I even watch TV on my PC far more often than in my living room.

depends on the monitor, graphics grade PC monitors have limited ghosting, however, my 23" LG LCD TV is pretty good..

anywho, Dell have a few monitors with a swath of inputs, http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4335
this one's a good example, even has component inputs.

[TheDXM]

Here's a notion: an HD front projector.

A friend of mine actually suggested it, I think it's crazy, but it doesn't sound impossible. Anyone ever heard of a decent front projector holding up during gaming? My biggest concern would have to be the idea of translucency in even a moderately lit room. You can also project them against walls, but I would think that could really mess up certain textures if the wall hadn't just been mudded last month or something.