dose game mode make a difference with the viera plasmas

[zanzabar]

i need a new tv as mine just died, im thinking of a 42" 720p viera plasma as they accept 120hz input, can display from a 1080p/i source and are plasma so the darks are nice. but im torn on getting the normal one thats $500-600 or the x series with game mode. i dont see why it would need a game mode as it should have low latency from not being an lcd and having the 600hz display and 120hz input.

im hoping that some1 here has one or something similar and can tell me if it makes a difference, and if its worth $200-300

[STEvil]

Plasma doesnt mean low latency if there's a scaler involved. Game mode can help with that but sometimes the game mode screws with colors for some reason.

[zanzabar]

i thought that at native resolution plasmas were low latency, or atleast when compared to lcds

[EniGmA1987]

Ah but what is native resolution? ;)

If you notice on those 720p plasmas, most seem to be 1024x768 as their native, which isnt even widescreen... Thus I would assume a scaler would be involved. They still look really nice dont get me wrong, and for the money they are near impossible to beat on image quality. Another thing you have to go and look at for yourself is that the Panasonic plasmas can seem a little bit "soft" rather than sharp. Very smooth looking. Some people prefer it, some dont. They still look great for the price though.

If you are even contemplating spending $300 more for a "game mode" then you might want to look in to the 50" LG plasma, model 50PS60. Thats a VERY nice display for only $999.

[zanzabar]

thats it, i dont want to spend the extra. but if 720p isnt its native i may have to rethink it

edit- after further inspection all tvs that i can find that are rated for 720p run at 1366x768 or 1024x769, that seams wrong and that there is something sneaky here

[STEvil]

nothing sneaky. 720p is 720 vertical pixels.

native resolution means nothing in regards to latency.

[zanzabar]

nothing sneaky. 720p is 720 vertical pixels.

native resolution means nothing in regards to latency.

dosnt 720p mean 720x1280, and they are 768x1024 for the most part that just seams wrong

i found the lg for the same price with a proper aspect of 1366x768 so thats 720p+ over scan
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05775809000P

i also found that game mode dosnt matter for a console, what it dose on the panasonic and lg is remove the soft frames but thats not going to help a console as they run slow enough that the soft frame will make it smooth instead of lag

[EniGmA1987]

Ya TECHNICALLY 720p just means 720 pixels of vertical resolution, but it is SUPPOSED to be 1280x720. I would try and get something that is 1366x768 though as at least that is a widescreen aspect ratio. You may have a problem with ATI graphics cards though because of the overscan pixels (Nvidia too). Nvidia will be easier to fix as they have an option for adjusting over/under scan in the control panel. ATI you will need to modify a registry value to change the over/under scan percentage.

[zanzabar]

ati has an overscan option there is no need to regedit, its been there atleast a year (maybee longer the 1st time i needed it was a year ago and it was there.)

i think that it going to go for that lg, taking my grandma for the employee/retiree discount and getting the store to match bing cash back i can get it for under $500

[Mescalamba]

Not sure if it helps, but I gamed a bit on my LCD Viera (set to 1280x720 or native) and even for IPS it was pretty fast.. I guess that plasmas will be just faster than this. I´ve used it as monitor for a while, found quite interesting, that Panasonic is able to create such good TVs that you can use them as monitor. :D

[crackhead2k]

No, the 600hz is the sub feild thing...

Use HD Size 2 on plasma tv and there will be no cut off or border
Use custom color for more accurate color

on nvidia use 1080p/60

work fine for me

Enjoy your plasma

[EniGmA1987]

600Hz is 10 subfields x 60Hz each. Its a marketing thing to make you think it is some uber technology that is way better than the 120Hz and fake 240Hz that LCD has. Although the plasma has a base refresh rate of 60Hz still (as far as I am aware) it does a lot of subsampling (those 10 subfields...) and gets much better motion displayed than a 60Hz LCD, basically the plasma with a 600Hz subfield drive is flashing the pixels at a speed of 600 times per second. Older plasma TVs had 8 subfields (480Hz), some nice ones (Pioneer Kuro) even used 14 subfields, which could be marketed as 840Hz. So basically if you see a "600Hz subfield drive" spec on a plasma, that means it has 10 subfields.

LCD and plasma work really different and are not exactly comparable to each other in some specs, but since LCD marketing was pushing their refresh rate so hard, plasma decided to do the same for some easy pwnage on any number LCD could throw onto a box. Here is a quote I found some some random guy that I really like and think illustrated how TVs are:

"the fact is that LCD's compete with plasma...not the other way around."