Game mode

[Drunkenmonk]

is it needed on plasmas? playing mostly ps3 on it if it matters, $200-300 difference in price between 1080p with and 720p without

[Balthasar]

I thought "game mode" on TVs was just a quick way to change the contrast/brightness. The price difference is probably just from the 1080p vs 720p.

[Jojimbo]

I think game mode generally refers to removing most of the post-processing effects to improve response time. How well it does this varies from tv to tv.

[Binkie]

Pay the difference for 1080p, you'd probably end up regretting the 720p.

[Darus Grey]

For Samsung plasmas? Yes, makes a huge difference.

For Panasonic plasmas? The difference is negligible, they're incredibly fast without, and just slightly faster with.

The answer to this question varies A LOT by make AND model.

[Drunkenmonk]

panasonic s2 and c2, sorry, samsung's 720p i looked at had game mode.

[Veikuri]

Do you play fighting games? If so you might want to get one with the least bit of lag.

[octopus]

I think game mode generally refers to removing most of the post-processing effects to improve response time. How well it does this varies from tv to tv.

I'm sure you meant input lag rather than response time, but I just wanted to point out that they are very different things.

You want minimal input lag for FPS, Fighting games, etc.

[xopher]

Game mode only matters if you're inputting an interlaced signal. Will be important if you play PS2 era or previous music games or fighters.

If the signal is progressive you don't need to worry about it. Any lag will not be from input. It'll be the response time/refresh rate of the TV beyond that. Most progressive signal music games will have a calibration to compensate for this though. Rock Band and Guitar Hero do.

[Darus Grey]

wat?

[octopus]

Game mode only matters if you're inputting an interlaced signal. Will be important if you play PS2 era or previous music games or fighters.

If the signal is progressive you don't need to worry about it. Any lag will not be from input. It'll be the response time/refresh rate of the TV beyond that. Most progressive signal music games will have a calibration to compensate for this though. Rock Band and Guitar Hero do.

Just no. There are many contributing factors to input lag. A lot of the newer TVs does some kind of image enhancement that produce input lag. Game mode tries to disable a lot of this but not all game modes are equal. Scaling from the native HDTV resolution will also produce input lag.

[xopher]

Just no. There are many contributing factors to input lag. A lot of the newer TVs does some kind of image enhancement that produce input lag. Game mode tries to disable a lot of this but not all game modes are equal. Scaling from the native HDTV resolution will also produce input lag.

what the hell are you talking about. why would a native progressive signal have to be scaled?

[Sythe]

I would suggest if possible to bring your game console in and testing out the tv you like. Even though the t.v. may advertise a game mode doesn't mean its gonna be good. I made that mistake and wound up with a great samsung t.v. with TERRIBLE input lag.

[octopus]

what the hell are you talking about. why would a native progressive signal have to be scaled?

Please read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag

"LCD, plasma, and DLP displays, unlike CRTs, have a native resolution. That is, they have a fixed grid of pixels on the screen that show the image sharpest when running at the native resolution (so nothing has to be scaled full-size which blurs the image). In order to display non-native resolutions, such displays must use video scalers, which are built into most modern monitors. As an example, a display that has a native resolution of 1600x1200 being provided a signal of 640x480 must scale width and height by 2.5x to display the image provided by the computer on the native pixels. In order to do this while producing as few artifacts as possible, advanced signal processing is required, which can be a source of introduced latency. Anecdotally, input lag is significantly less when displays operate in native resolutions for a given LCD screen. External devices have also been shown to reduce overall latency by providing faster image-space resizing algorithms than those present in the LCD screen."

[randomized]

input lag = the time it takes when you switch from a non HD to an HD channel? like while it resizes the reso or whatever

or is that something different?