High Definition Televisions

[GameCynic]

If anybody's got some good reliable resources for info on HD in general, I'd appreciate it.

This is a pretty good sight, they've listings for what games support what resolutions too
http://www.hdtvpub.com/

You sure about 720p always being displayed widescreen? I saw someone playing THUG at work and it looked sharp as hell (even sharper than normal 480p I thought). I assumed he was using the 720p mode (which I think this game supports) but I suppose it may have just been 480p. It was in 4:3.

Well, it might have been playing on a really nice HDTV. I think 720p is normally a full screen resolution, but not a lot of HDTV's (at least not the cheaper ones like mine) support it in its naitive format; so it gets upscaned to 1080i which is a fixed widescreen mode. Consequently, whenever I play Soul Calibur 2, it gets displayed in a box in the center of the screen, like its letter boxed horizontally and vertically which really sucks. But like I said, its the only 720p game I've seen that doesn't support widescreen so its not that big of a deal.

[Six]

Just (last couple of months) got a Samsung 32" HDTV. It was a crazy deal from work and I'm more than pleased with it. I only have two component inputs so the Gamecube is still looking like ass with the standard composite crap. Still looking into a switchbox.

IMHO it's a waste of money to get a large set that *isn't* HD. You're paying $500+ for something that's already outdated. Of course this thread isn't about HD vs. Analog so I'll shut up.

I wasn't a believer in the power of quality cables until I got the tube. The wires are 100% of the difference in clarity.

[Taito]

Don't buy a HDTV just yet if you still play lower res video games (ie. 32-bit 3D, low res 2D). Stick with the regular analog Wega. Most HDTV lack scanlines on the screen, and older games just aren't meant to be seen without them. Third Strike is such a pixelated eyesore on my HS510. High res images on the other hand (which is basically DVDs at this point, meh), look absolutely stunning.

Until HD becomes the standard for television, HDTVs are kind of a worthless luxury at this time.

[ssbomberman]

Okay so not much mentioned about gaming on this puppy (edit: except Taito above). Masaka, will you be running systems besides the Xbox, GC? Because if so, I recommend having an interlaced set or RGB monitor too for the older stuff.

Right now I own interlaced sets, RGB sets, and a HDTV, so I will talk from that perspective.

First off, HDTV is the way to go. It is the future. If it says HD ready, that is in regards to HD signals because you can buy more expensive sets with the tuner built in.

I have a standard set and really do wish I had gotten a widescreen. I do have 16*9 mode on mine and it runs in progressive so that is fine.

Now, why do you want a HDTV? If it's primarily for anamorphic DVDs, Xbox and GC, then you are in for a treat. I run the GC, Xbox, and the DVD player in progressive mode on the games that support it and it is pure bliss -- the most beautiful picture you are ever going to see. I can run the DC too -- just make sure your HDTV has a VGA input the same as computer monitors (I can, but I don't because it's a mess, read on for more).

But I know you are a GGXX and old school 2-D player so I must warn you about that -- older systems and low-res games look like utter garbage, complete crap on non-interlaced, i.e. HD sets.

Let's even start with Xbox -- even running CvS2, MvC2, etc. in progressive mode sadly does the pixel explosion you get when playing low-res games on a VGA screen...

DC does the same thing, except for hi-res games like GGX and 3-D games on the system. Now on to PS2 -- it looks like ass. Blurring all over the place. HDTV makes you realize how crappy the PS2 really is. I thought the 3-D stuff would look crisp and clean in component, well I ended up returning my component cables and hooking it up to my interlaced set with s-video for a while and it now resides on one of my RGB setups.

One thing you'll notice when you make the jump to HDTV is that systems that are not outputting a pure progressive signal will have blurring on movement. That means, say you use s-video on DC to bypass the pixel mess of progressive mode, well then you get insane blurring on movement. Maybe some people won't notice this, but I do -- and my HDTV booklet even makes mention of this. Older systems become almost unplayable, because of the blur.

And don't even consider going backwards -- the Genesis (even my modded s-video version) looks horrendous, the Saturn looks craptacular, the N64 is a mess, NES is unplayable -- you get my point.

So yeah, HDTV is good for some gaming applications -- the Xbox stuff looks brilliant, Metroid Prime will look insanely good. GGXX may look good for you IF you can get it to boot in Hi-res like it's supposed to. The problem is the game is encoded at 525p, an odd Japanese progressive signal that my TV won't recognize.

So you might want to hold onto to that interlaced set or pick up a small RGB monitor. The difference really is night and day. Older and low-res stuff is untoppable in RGB, while new stuff (hi-res 2-D and 3-D) looks too good.

Hope this helps.

Just (last couple of months) got a Samsung 32" HDTV. It was a crazy deal from work and I'm more than pleased with it. I only have two component inputs so the Gamecube is still looking like ass with the standard composite crap. Still looking into a switchbox.

IMHO it's a waste of money to get a large set that *isn't* HD. You're paying $500+ for something that's already outdated. Of course this thread isn't about HD vs. Analog so I'll shut up.

I wasn't a believer in the power of quality cables until I got the tube. The wires are 100% of the difference in clarity.

Does your TV have a VGA input? You can get a custom VGA cord from Matt on these boards to play progressive GC games on your HDTV. Also, http://www.cablewholesale.com/ has an adaptor to plug 2 component sources into one...I'm thinking of trying a couple out, because I don't really don't need a $100+ swithbox for 1 or 2 more component sources.

This is a pretty good sight, they've listings for what games support what resolutions too
http://www.hdtvpub.com/

Well, it might have been playing on a really nice HDTV. I think 720p is normally a full screen resolution, but not a lot of HDTV's (at least not the cheaper ones like mine) support it in its naitive format; so it gets upscaned to 1080i which is a fixed widescreen mode. Consequently, whenever I play Soul Calibur 2, it gets displayed in a box in the center of the screen, like its letter boxed horizontally and vertically which really sucks. But like I said, its the only 720p game I've seen that doesn't support widescreen so its not that big of a deal.

Hmmm... what version is that? I have the Xbox version in progressive and it boots it down to 480p since my TV doesn't have 720p. I have the Zenith 27 inch HDTV. That's really strange. Even if I set my tv to 16*9 mode, it still works fine, no upscanning or anything. Glad I got the set I did after hearing some of these horror stories.

[GameCynic]

Its the XBOX version of Soul Calibur 2. Like I said its not a huge deal, because if the game supported Widescreen mode (like most other 720p games do) it would look great. Its easily fixable by just turning off 720p mode on the xbox dashboard, but I'm kinda lazy about stuff like that

[Compass]

Its the XBOX version of Soul Calibur 2. Like I said its not a huge deal, because if the game supported Widescreen mode (like most other 720p games do) it would look great. Its easily fixable by just turning off 720p mode on the xbox dashboard, but I'm kinda lazy about stuff like that

My GC SCII has a widescreen option. The XBox one doesn't?

[DHG Otaku]

if you get your TV professionally calibrated or at LEAST use AVIA to set up the display, then playing older consoles games is fine. I was horrified when we got our original flatscreen (and it wasn't even HD), and I saw how horrible TV, 2D games and old 3D looked on it (pixelly and grainy). Had a professional calibration and did a little bit of personal taste tweaking and now everything's perfect. My SNES, etc games have never looked better, and Xbox, Cube etc look great! DVDs in anamorphic 16x9 mode... there's no going back. I would also recommend against a widescreen set if you're like me, and play a lot of SNES etc shit. Sure you can put on bars to give you the proper 4:3 aspect, but it just feels weird playing and having that part of the screen un-usable. I just couldn't get used to it. You don't really gain anything with a widescreen set anyway, except you don't have to look at black bars when watching DVDs...whoopy. Also, a regular CRT will still give you the BEST Television picture quality. Plasma technology doesn't have quite as good or accurate picture quality and has less contrast to boot, and those screens burn fast. Only an LCD projector display (or VGA monitor) will give you better image quality. And don't ever think of touching projection if you care about optimal picture quality! Fuck size...! 36" should be enough to deal with...or if not, get that super large 40"...

[K3V]

if you get your TV professionally calibrated or at LEAST use AVIA to set up the display, then playing older consoles games is fine. I was horrified when we got our original flatscreen (and it wasn't even HD), and I saw how horrible TV, 2D games and old 3D looked on it (pixelly and grainy). Had a professional calibration and did a little bit of personal taste tweaking and now everything's perfect. My SNES, etc games have never looked better, and Xbox, Cube etc look great! DVDs in anamorphic 16x9 mode... there's no going back. I would also recommend against a widescreen set if you're like me, and play a lot of SNES etc shit. Sure you can put on bars to give you the proper 4:3 aspect, but it just feels weird playing and having that part of the screen un-usable. I just couldn't get used to it. You don't really gain anything with a widescreen set anyway, except you don't have to look at black bars when watching DVDs...whoopy. Also, a regular CRT will still give you the BEST Television picture quality. Plasma technology doesn't have quite as good or accurate picture quality and has less contrast to boot, and those screens burn fast. Only an LCD projector display (or VGA monitor) will give you better image quality. And don't ever think of touching projection if you care about optimal picture quality! Fuck size...! 36" should be enough to deal with...or if not, get that super large 40"...

Word.

How much did professional calibration cost you? I was thinking about getting it done on my new Sony 36" KV36FS100 WEGA, but I wouldn't know where to begin to find someone in the area to do it, or how much it would set me back.

[ssbomberman]

You make a good point, but we're talking about professionally calibrating a $1000 or less HDTV set for a couple hundre bucks, when you could get a 25 inch RGB monitor for under 100 bucks and get the best possible picture on almost any consoles. My main problem is that even with calibration, low res 2-D games are still going to pixelate through progressive for the DC and Xbox...

Is the blurring really gone even with calibration? I thought this comes from the original signal being interlaced. Even with proper color calibration, blurring in older systems and 2-D fighters is still going to occur, right? Or can they calibrate it to remove this?

[Compass]

I think he was saying he had his non-HD set calibrated which fixed things. The blurry-ness and general ugliness of old systems played on HDTVs can't be calibrated away (from my understanding). That's why I'm keeping my analog 36" Sony set even if I do end up getting an HD one in the near future. Two giant tvs in my little room... a gamer must sacrifice the living space!