1. What’s the word on burn-in these days? I heard some earlier TV’s had serious issues with it.
The newer plasmas are not really any more prone to burn-in than the CRTs they replaced.
2. Plasma? LCD? DLP? What’s best for games?
LCD offers sharper graphics and slightly better color, plasma offers no lag and better contrast. I got a plasma from my father in law when he had to get rid of a company apartment in Tokyo, and it’s pretty comparable in quality to the LCD my friend bought a few months back. My plasma looks a bit more natural for movies, his LCD has slightly sharper text. It’s mostly personal preference since you’d have to be paying pretty close attention to really notice the difference.
The trade off with LCD is mostly price and the risk of dead pixels. You should probably get an extended warranty and research the exchange/refund policy with the store you buy from if you buy LCD. Plasma have fewer manufacturing flaws due to the ease of manufacture, this is reflected in the price differential.
If I’d bought instead of getting a hand-me-down, I would have gone for the same Sharp LCD as my friend, partly because he has access to more extensive tweaks and other features, and he also gets slightly better color and sharpness. On the other hand, my display looks pretty damn good and even if I’d bought it myself would have cost only about 2/3 of what he paid.
DLP has the most lag of the three technologies and is definitely not recommended for gaming.
3. What’s this about “latency?”
4. I’ve heard that some HDTV’s cause a lag between actions and what appears on screen with video games. What is the factor that causes this, and what do I look for to prevent it? I saw “Guitar Hero” in a store on a big HDTV and it was unplayable because of this lag.
Both of these are pretty much the same thing. Some models have some problems converting signals from the input source to a display signal. That causes latency. It’s more of a problem with bigger (42"+) displays of certain makes and models. It really varies from TV to TV, and there’s no one manufacturer who has this problem exclusively. Some Samsungs are great, while several have been cited as having this issue. Check gaming forums for the ones that are problems.
Some LCDs have slow response times that cause display artifacts when particularly quick motion is displayed. This is much less of a problem now than it used to be.
5. 1080i? P? 720? What can the current systems put out, and what do I need to take advantage of it?
Many Xbox 360 games are only 720p, and the standard console will scale up to 1080p, assuming you have the right connection for that resolution. You need to use an HDMI (Elite only) or VGA connection to get the best display; component won’t cut it. Anything less than HDMI or VGA, and you can only carry enough bandwidth for up to 1080i. Some games are already 1080p, and more are expected to be released in the future. You can save some money now by going for 720p, but you’re pretty much future proof if you go for 1080p; that’s the max anything is offered in right now and for the foreseeable future.
You probably will notice jaggies and other artifacts with 1080i. It will make text a bit harder to read. Interlacing is not all that noticeable in many movies, but is quite obvious with most game graphics. If your set will only handle up to 1080i, you should probably make your maximum signal for gaming only 720p.
The PS3 does not scale either up or down. You’re limited to the native resolutions of the games you play, or you have to rely on the scaling features that might be within the capabilities of your TV. Some TVs will do it, some won’t, and some will do it but will be really really bad at it. Almost all of those displays that scale images don’t do it particularly well. If the game only does 480p and 1080i/p, and your TV is only capable of up to 1080i, you’re going to be using the lower resolution. If the game also has resources for the middle resolution, 720i/p, then you can fall back to that. Obviously, getting a display that can do up to 1080p solves most of that problem.
The Wii only handles up to 480p.
For video, you will want to get an upscaling DVD player. Regular DVD resolutions look pretty crappy. A selling point for the PS3 is that it’s also a blu-ray player. Apple TV offers HDTV downloads, including both rentals and files you can own. Digital cable is worth looking into also.
Frequently recommended manufacturers:
Panasonic, Pioneer (plasma)
Sharp Aquos, Sony Bravia (LCD)
You’ll have to research specific models, but that should give you some idea of which manufacturers are usually top of the heap. Gaming forums are helpful for model recommendations and which to avoid.