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[TOP SHOTTA]

I am looking to upgrade my old rear-projection TV to the very same JVC model on which I spent most of last weekend playing through Halo 3 with my brother in law. It is a JVC HD56FN97 1080p DLP set (JVC HD-56FH97 - HD-ILA 56" High-definition 1080p LCoS Rear Projection TV). I was thoroughly impressed at the TV and it coincides very well in terms of timing with my upgrade plans. I need a new tv and I think this is going to be the one. It also supports "twin mode" which lets you have side by side panels of content playing at the same time. Think Oblivion on the left and a football game on the right. Absolutely awesome for my ADD brain. It has PC input as well which I have not been able to get working properly on my current tv that only has component inputs.

My only hang up is that it is DLP tv. The thought of getting a DLP set makes me nervous for one specific and potentially stupid reason and it relates to an issue a friend of mine had with his DLP tv a few years ago.

You may remember that there were some Samsung models that, due to the upscaler built into the tv, caused a slight delay in sending the image from the video source to your eyes. It was something you'd never even notice with normal TV viewing - but it made gaming on this tv a major pain in the ass. The delay caused by the upscaler was just enough to throw your timing off and it scared me away from DLP sets from that point forward.

So, if anyone remembers this issue, can you tell me if that is still an issue at all with DLP sets being manufactured today, or is the upscaling delay a thing of the past? I am concerned because the set I am looking at states the following:

Our newest GENESSA Chip detects and seamlessly up-scales all SD sources (480i and 480p) and all HD sources (720p or 1080i) and displays at 720p or 1080p. This customized upscaling insures that no matter what the original video source, the images will look as sharp, bright and smooth as intended.

So it upscales - I have to assume that almost all HDTVs today, especially the 1080p variety, must do this sort of thing by default, so my worries are probably unnecessary. Also I did not notice any delay while playing this weekend but it didn't even occur to me until today when I began shopping for the tv and remembered that whole delay/upscale issue. Basically If you were watching a TV show or DVD, nobody would ever notice if there was a half-second delay between the signal going into the display and when it appears on the screen, but some games would be unplayable if the action on the screen was a half-second delayed from what the game was actually doing. This is the issue with which I am concerned.

Before pulling the trigger on this thing, I wanted to check with you folks here to see if you had thoughts about it. Particularly if you remember the upscaling issue that Samsung had to dance around once gamers figured out that their fancy new $2,000tv was basically useless for precision high-def gaming.

Thanks in advance,
AA

 

[PG2G]

Its mainly a problem with 480i sources. Feed the TV a decent signal (480p, 720p, 1080i/p) and delay should be negligible.

This is not a sympton of DLP, its a symptom of any fixed pixel display (i.e. plasma, lcd, sxrd, dlp). They all have to convert their input to whatever is native. Some of them implement game modes to minimize lag, but honestly... if you're doing current gen gaming its not an issue.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Its mainly a problem with 480i sources. Feed the TV a decent signal (480p, 720p, 1080i/p) and delay should be negligible.

Depends on the set.

Regardless, expect a minimum delay of 2 frames if feeding it anything other than 1080p. Anything faster in an integrated scaler is unusual.

 

[squatingyeti]

You shouldn't worry one bit. Those past TV's experienced the problems of lag when dealing with SD material. I remember trying to kick the ball in Madden was seriously a test of maddening proportions. However, the newer models don't suffer from this issue. In fact, I replaced my 4 year old Samsung DLP with their new LED DLP and I'm more than happy.

 

[Beer Monkey]

My understanding is that Rock Band will have lots of preset lag settings based on the TV in question. Will be fascinating to see the results.

 

[TOP SHOTTA]

What do you mean? Based on the tv in question I mention in my post - or are you sayng that Rock Band will have a select list that, once you choose your tv, will adjust itself to work properly for it?

 

[watership]

Like one of the above posters said, this is really a big issue with 480i sources. Also, if you have a 360, it's internal scaler will output in 1080p if your TV supports it.

 

[TOP SHOTTA]

The TV will be used for the following (you guys are awesome by the way - thanks so much for the help).

- Heavy Xbox 360 usage (HD-DVD drive inbound for Xmas from the inlaws so that too)
- Wii with Component cables @ 480p
- Charter HD DVR
- PC (gotta take advantage of that pc input - been wanting that forever)
- An eventual PS3

AND, combinations of the above mentioned sources through that sweet twin screen option

Thanks,
AA

 

[FraGNeM]

I thought issue had passed since the majority of problems stemmed from analog signals, but I just recently played a game of Halo on a Hitachi set at Best Buy, and the lag was noticeably, and almost unplayably, bad.

It was a 1080p large plasma, and I noticed similar lag on a 1080p Samsung LCD beside it.

The input was HDMI from an Elite 360, and I tried 1080p and 720p output but didn't notice a difference. I looked to enable a "Gaming Mode" but couldn't find one in the Hitachi's menu screen -- most likely it didn't have the functionality.

Before this incident, I hadn't witnessed input lag for a long time, so I was surprised to experience it then. The best answer would be to heavily research any TV before purchasing, and for the most part, this experience seems rare.

 

[Smokey]

you should probably PM andrewfee or put this in the stickied thread at the top.

that man knows everything.