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[poodaddy]

I've been searching for a good CRT, not necessarily a Plasma as I'm afraid of burn in, but there's a guy literally less than a mile away from me selling a th50px60u in perfect condition for a hundred bucks and from what I can tell online it's a hell of a TV. Will this be as good for a retro gaming set up as a great CRT or do I keep looking?

 

[BennyBlanco]

I have had a Panasonic Plasma in my living room for years and years. They are fantastic. Idk how good it would be for retro gaming specifically but they are incredible displays.

 

[poodaddy]

I have had a Panasonic Plasma in my living room for years and years. They are fantastic. Idk how good it would be for retro gaming specifically but they are incredible displays.

If you're me, and you have several OLED's throughout the house and good Sony set for the living room downstairs, do you buy this gorgeous TV for the guest room, despite it being a hundred pounds and up two flights of stairs? That part matters bro, I'm not getting any younger lol. He sent me videos of it running and it looks absolutely spectacular.

 

[poodaddy]

I have had a Panasonic Plasma in my living room for years and years. They are fantastic. Idk how good it would be for retro gaming specifically but they are incredible displays.

And again, just to reiterate, he came down to a hundred bucks for me. Hell of a deal seems like, what do you think?

 

[bender]

If you're me, and you have several OLED's throughout the house and good Sony set for the living room downstairs, do you buy this gorgeous TV for the guest room, despite it being a hundred pounds and up two flights of stairs? That part matters bro, I'm not getting any younger lol. He sent me videos of it running and it looks absolutely spectacular.

88.2 pounds without the stand so an easy two man job. If you've never had a plasma before, there will be a noticeable hiss from the set which is worse at elevation.

 

[poodaddy]

88.2 pounds without the stand so an easy two man job. If you've never had a plasma before, there will be a noticeable hiss from the set which is worse at elevation.

So what do you think, worth a hundred bucks for the guest room?

 

[BennyBlanco]

And again, just to reiterate, he came down to a hundred bucks for me. Hell of a deal seems like, what do you think?

Yeah I would absolutely take it for $100. I have OLEDs in my bedroom and my battle station too. Panasonic Plasmas are legendary for a reason. They still look good to this day.

 

[poodaddy]

Yeah I would absolutely take it for $100. I have OLEDs in my bedroom and my battle station too. Panasonic Plasmas are legendary for a reason. They still look good to this day.

Thanks bro, decision made, seriously thanks for your opinion.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

$100 is a steal…plus it will double as a space heater if you sit close enough.

I have a 65’ pano. plasma that I still use for ps3 and Xbox 369 games…it’s a beauty!

 

[Traxtech]

No brainer, especially since it's so close. Get it!

 

[bender]

So what do you think, worth a hundred bucks for the guest room?

It's a $100 bucks and has quality reviews. Keep in mind it's a 16:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1366 x 768. I'm a Kuro snob so I'm the wrong person to ask about plasma.

 

[simpatico]

Nice plasma, but imo it absolutely does not replace a CRT for gaming.

 

[poodaddy]

Nice plasma, but imo it absolutely does not replace a CRT for gaming.

Shit man, I bought the thing and it's sitting in my foyer right now. It's a gorgeous TV that he kept in impeccable shape. Can I ask why a CRT is better just out of curiosity?

 

[StereoVsn]

It's a $100 bucks and has quality reviews. Keep in mind it's a 16:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1366 x 768. I'm a Kuro snob so I'm the wrong person to ask about plasma.

This could be good Xbox 360 and PS3 display if one still plays those consoles.

 

[bender]

This could be good Xbox 360 and PS3 display if one still plays those consoles.

I guess those are considered retro too, but I always assume older generations than that when discussing CRT.

 

[StereoVsn]

I guess those are considered retro too, but I always assume older generations than that when discussing CRT.

I think for older gen I would go for a CRT. But that’s because I have no idea how this TV processes 240p, 4080i, etc…

 

[simpatico]

Shit man, I bought the thing and it's sitting in my foyer right now. It's a gorgeous TV that he kept in impeccable shape. Can I ask why a CRT is better just out of curiosity?

Responsiveness, refresh rate and curved screen. It's not objectively better, I just like how it makes 8- and 16-bit games feel. F-Zero only ever feels right to me on a CRT.

It's a great set, and as long as you have space for it, I think it beats the hell out of most any entry level LCD. Even if pricing was equal. I was a plasma lover, so I certainly think you got a screaming deal. It just wouldn't fill the role of a CRT for gaming on those systems for me.

 

[poodaddy]

Responsiveness, refresh rate and curved screen. It's not objectively better, I just like how it makes 8- and 16-bit games feel. F-Zero only ever feels right to me on a CRT.

It's a great set, and as long as you have space for it, I think it beats the hell out of most any entry level LCD. Even if pricing was equal. I was a plasma lover, so I certainly think you got a screaming deal. It just wouldn't fill the role of a CRT for gaming on those systems for me.

Fair enough, that makes sense I guess. Now I'm wondering if I should put it in my and my wife's bedroom for movies and stuff before bed rather than the guest room for retro games.

 

[kevboard]

Plasma TVs are absolutely awful from a modern perspective. I don't think they have any benefit for retro gaming... they are just bad OLEDs basically

 

[Rentahamster]

If it works, maybe. If you can negotiate for $70, even better. It depends if 1080p is a dealbreaker or not. Personally, I would want 1080p. I don't know what area you live in, but I'm sure a 1080p plasma will pop up for sale eventually.

The black levels and motion clarity of plasmas are great.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Fair enough, that makes sense I guess. Now I'm wondering if I should put it in my and my wife's bedroom for movies and stuff before bed rather than the guest room for retro games.

It’s fine for retro honestly, it’s not going to be great for modern console, but that’s not what you are targeting anyway.

Now if you choosing between this and a PVM (high end crt) then you go with the PVM but finding a great one of those now a days can be difficult, pricey, or depending on what you want to get it can be BOTH!

 

[SkylineRKR]

Well my Panasonic Plasma had double RGB scart, component, 4x HDMI, S-video and the whole shebang. Now when I want to hook up a retro system (without mods), I think... did I deserve this?

I don't know about this particular one. Its not 1080p. I'd look out for a 2010 model or so, like the VT series. They were masterful.

 

[marquimvfs]

they are just bad OLEDs basically

Hell no! Sun will freeze the day that any oled reach plasma levels of motion clarity.

 

[Rentahamster]

Hell no! Sun will freeze the day that any oled reach plasma levels of motion clarity.

With BFI, it's coming close. It's only getting better.

 

[The Pleasure]

$100 is a steal…plus it will double as a space heater if you sit close enough.

I have a 65’ pano. plasma that I still use for ps3 and Xbox 369 games…it’s a beauty!

Give me my tv back. My Panasonic plasma is also 65 inches. Wonderful for ps3-ps5. And sports. Their motion is great for sports.

 

[marquimvfs]

With BFI, it's coming close. It's only getting better.

Better? Yes, definitely. Close? Only if you're legally blind and cannot drive without glasses.

 

[Rentahamster]

Better? Yes, definitely. Close? Only if you're legally blind and cannot drive without glasses.

As OLEDs approach higher peak luminance and 400+refresh rate, the hardware for achieving brighter and shorter pulses is already seeing huge advancements. If additional modern technology like G-sync pulsar can be adapted to OLEDs, that will be another huge advancement too. With a high end GPU and a fast enough display, high fidelity motion clarity can essentially be brute forced with enough FPS and none of these features enabled.

On the software side, CRT beam simulator shaders also add another layer of improvement for motion clarity.

High FPS and low FPS solutions to motion clarity for LCDs and OLEDs are close, and if you don't think so, you're not updated on the latest tech.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

If you are playing any 30 fps content… ie switch, last gen, ps3/360 plasma is going to be the better bet maybe even ps2 and Xbox/gc. It’s best normally to match the display with the tvs out at the time. CRT is going to shine ps1 and prior etc.

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

Had the black model way back in high school.

 

[simpatico]

As OLEDs approach higher peak luminance and 400+refresh rate, the hardware for achieving brighter and shorter pulses is already seeing huge advancements. If additional modern technology like G-sync pulsar can be adapted to OLEDs, that will be another huge advancement too. With a high end GPU and a fast enough display, high fidelity motion clarity can essentially be brute forced with enough FPS and none of these features enabled.

On the software side, CRT beam simulator shaders also add another layer of improvement for motion clarity.

High FPS and low FPS solutions to motion clarity for LCDs and OLEDs are close, and if you don't think so, you're not updated on the latest tech.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

I've been searching for a good CRT, not necessarily a Plasma as I'm afraid of burn in, but there's a guy literally less than a mile away from me selling a th50px60u in perfect condition for a hundred bucks and from what I can tell online it's a hell of a TV. Will this be as good for a retro gaming set up as a great CRT or do I keep looking?

I wouldn’t use a Plasma as a retro gaming tv personally, but it would be perfect for for 7th gen consoles.

 

[marquimvfs]

Said what I wanted to say, without saying a word.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I've actually owned a Panasonic plasma and burned it in. Turned a $2500 TV into a paperweight

But for a hundred bucks why the fuck not, that's the price of like 1.5 AAA games, if you do fuck it up just throw it away

 

[kevboard]

Hell no! Sun will freeze the day that any oled reach plasma levels of motion clarity.

dude... Plasma has awful grey to grey response time. in mid tones you will have obvious trailing.
they also have bad black levels and are super dim compared to modern 1000+ nits OLED screens. the brightest Plasma screens reached maybe a bit over 200 nits max brightness.

also any OLED that is remotely modern has BFI, which mimics exactly what a Plasma does, it strobes the screen, which will have near perfect motion clarity on any decent OLED.
due to the faster pixel response time of OLED you will get the same motion clarity with BFI, without any of the trails caused by the Plasma's slower pixel response.

also critical for retro gaming specifically is input lag. and Plasma TVs are from a time where the best of the best TVs had around 30ms of input lag. with some having more than 40ms. looking at reviews of Panasonic Plasmas from around that time, I find 54.2ms of lag being found in reviews. which is, in one word... unacceptable... especially for retro games.

meanwhile a modern OLED has around 9.9ms at 60hz, which is very close to the 8.3ms of lag a CRT has.
my OLED has lower input lag if I turn on frame interpolation than that Panasonic has in the best case scenario... that's insane.

Plasma TVs are crazy overrated. bad black levels, less than half the brightness of OLED, awful input lag, bad image retention issues, plasma decay leading to more and more motion trailing the older it gets and so on.

 

[poodaddy]

dude... Plasma has awful grey to grey response time. in mid tones you will have obvious trailing.
they also have bad black levels and are super dim compared to modern 1000+ nits OLED screens. the brightest Plasma screens reached maybe a bit over 200 nits max brightness.

also any OLED that is remotely modern has BFI, which mimics exactly what a Plasma does, it strobes the screen, which will have near perfect motion clarity on any decent OLED.
due to the faster pixel response time of OLED you will get the same motion clarity with BFI, without any of the trails caused by the Plasma's slower pixel response.

also critical for retro gaming specifically is input lag. and Plasma TVs are from a time where the best of the best TVs had around 30ms of input lag. with some having more than 40ms. looking at reviews of Panasonic Plasmas from around that time, I find 54.2ms of lag being found in reviews. which is, in one word... unacceptable... especially for retro games.

meanwhile a modern OLED has around 9.9ms at 60hz, which is very close to the 8.3ms of lag a CRT has.
my OLED has lower input lag if I turn on frame interpolation than that Panasonic has in the best case scenario... that's insane.

Plasma TVs are crazy overrated. bad black levels, less than half the brightness of OLED, awful input lag, bad image retention issues, plasma decay leading to more and more motion trailing the older it gets and so on.

Man....I wish this post was there before I made the purchase.

Well shit, I mean, it's a hundred bucks, and it's in the guest room now and I love it. I can't believe how good the speakers are on this thing, and the folks saying it's a good 360/PS3 machine are on point, tried some 360 games and it sings, need to hook the PS3 up as well. Tried retro content and it looked great, I will say that after playing the NES classic to try it out, tried Dr. Mario with my daughter for literally like ten minutes if not less, and I could see that the image was burnt in, (temporarily) after turning off the NES, and that was very fast. Had the burn in reduction turned on in the NES settings as well.....might have to be careful about how long I play games on this, but I'm honestly quite happy with the purchase, and I think it makes the guest room pretty cool for the guests huh? Got a hacked SNES Classic, NES classic, both Sega Genesis Mini's, and a 360 hooked up to it, and soon a PS3. Not a bad little set up I think.

I'll try to upload a pic here in a sec when I can remember how to do that from my phone haha.
Did this work?

 

[kevboard]

Man....I wish this post was there before I made the purchase.

Well shit, I mean, it's a hundred bucks, and it's in the guest room now and I love it. I can't believe how good the speakers are on this thing, and the folks saying it's a good 360/PS3 machine are on point, tried some 360 games and it sings, need to hook the PS3 up as well. Tried retro content and it looked great, I will say that after playing the NES classic to try it out, tried Dr. Mario with my daughter for literally like ten minutes if not less, and I could see that the image was burnt in, (temporarily) after turning off the NES, and that was very fast. Had the burn in reduction turned on in the NES settings as well.....might have to be careful about how long I play games on this, but I'm honestly quite happy with the purchase, and I think it makes the guest room pretty cool for the guests huh? Got a hacked SNES Classic, NES classic, both Sega Genesis Mini's, and a 360 hooked up to it, and soon a PS3. Not a bad little set up I think.

I'll try to upload a pic here in a sec when I can remember how to do that from my phone haha.
Did this work?

100 bucks is a good deal I think yeah,
I simply wanted to point out that Plasma TVs are often way overrated.

they are really good for watching 1080p Blurays and DVDs, because the slower pixel response times lead to a smoother looking image compared to OLED.
OLED screens have such extremely fast pixel response that 24fps video looks stuttery, which leads to TVs now having very lite interpolation options to smooth that over without adding too much of the "soap opera" effect.

 

[Calverz]

Nice plasma, but imo it absolutely does not replace a CRT for gaming.

I acquired a crt monitor yesterday and I’m honestly shocked how good the Dreamcast looks on it! It’s VGA input only but man, I never knew 480p could look so sharp!

 

[marquimvfs]

Man....I wish this post was there before I made the purchase.

Well shit, I mean, it's a hundred bucks, and it's in the guest room now and I love it. I can't believe how good the speakers are on this thing, and the folks saying it's a good 360/PS3 machine are on point, tried some 360 games and it sings, need to hook the PS3 up as well. Tried retro content and it looked great, I will say that after playing the NES classic to try it out, tried Dr. Mario with my daughter for literally like ten minutes if not less, and I could see that the image was burnt in, (temporarily) after turning off the NES, and that was very fast. Had the burn in reduction turned on in the NES settings as well.....might have to be careful about how long I play games on this, but I'm honestly quite happy with the purchase, and I think it makes the guest room pretty cool for the guests huh? Got a hacked SNES Classic, NES classic, both Sega Genesis Mini's, and a 360 hooked up to it, and soon a PS3. Not a bad little set up I think.

I'll try to upload a pic here in a sec when I can remember how to do that from my phone haha.
Did this work?

Don't worry. You won't regret your purchase, at least regarding image quality.

 

[Rentahamster]

tried Dr. Mario with my daughter for literally like ten minutes if not less, and I could see that the image was burnt in, (temporarily) after turning off the NES, and that was very fast. Had the burn in reduction turned on in the NES settings as well.....might have to be careful about how long I play games on this,

For what you paid, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's probably just image retention, which is temporary. You can't do permanent damage after 10 minutes. I still have 2 plasmas that haven't died yet and I still do 3+ hour gaming sessions on them about once a month, along with general tv/movie use about once a week. They get image retention, but it goes away.

There is very mild burn in after 15+ years of use, but it's hardly noticeable at normal viewing distances and normal usage.

 

[poodaddy]

For what you paid, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's probably just image retention, which is temporary. You can't do permanent damage after 10 minutes. I still have 2 plasmas that haven't died yet and I still do 3+ hour gaming sessions on them about once a month, along with general tv/movie use about once a week. They get image retention, but it goes away.

There is very mild burn in after 15+ years of use, but it's hardly noticeable at normal viewing distances and normal usage.

Thanks for this post, seriously. Makes me feel a lot less stressed about it, so I'm good to just enjoy the TV huh? I usually don't play longer than an hour or so anyway, so I think I'm just good to go huh?

 

[Rentahamster]

Thanks for this post, seriously. Makes me feel a lot less stressed about it, so I'm good to just enjoy the TV huh? I usually don't play longer than an hour or so anyway, so I think I'm just good to go huh?

Probably. I can't guarantee anything since I don't know how the previous owner treated it, but if it was me, I wouldn't stress about it. Get your enjoyment out of the product while you can.

Like I said in my other post, I personally would have held out for a plasma TV that does at least 1080p, so even if the one you just bought shits the bed in a year or so, you could probably find a 1080p set on Craigslist or FB Marketplace for cheap anyway.

 

[poodaddy]

Probably. I can't guarantee anything since I don't know how the previous owner treated it, but if it was me, I wouldn't stress about it. Get your enjoyment out of the product while you can.

Like I said in my other post, I personally would have held out for a plasma TV that does at least 1080p, so even if the one you just bought shits the bed in a year or so, you could probably find a 1080p set on Craigslist or FB Marketplace for cheap anyway.

Fair enough, I can see that. I will say that I live in a really small town in Maine, so they don't exactly pop up often, but if I see one I'll definitely snatch it up to be ready for when this one shits the bed.

 

[Rentahamster]

poodaddy one more thing - ignorance is bliss, so don't go out of your way to try to find where the image retention or potential burn in is on your set. I made the mistake of trying out a test pattern and now I know exactly where the mild burn in on my TVs are, and even though I know it's not noticeable in regular use (no guest so far has ever noticed. Most are amazed at how good the picture looks for such an old TV), my brain can't help but keep telling me it's there.

 

[poodaddy]

poodaddy one more thing - ignorance is bliss, so don't go out of your way to try to find where the image retention or potential burn in is on your set. I made the mistake of trying out a test pattern and now I know exactly where the mild burn in on my TVs are, and even though I know it's not noticeable in regular use (no guest so far has ever noticed. Most are amazed at how good the picture looks for such an old TV), my brain can't help but keep telling me it's there.

Hell yeah bro, I'll bear that in mind. I'm really paranoid about burn in in general, so maybe I should just chill on that ya know? Like, just enjoy my stuff and stop thinking about it so much. I need to apply that mindset to so much in life bro....I just overthink shit way too much. Work in progress bro lol.

 

[peish]

So what do you think, worth a hundred bucks for the guest room?

A hundred bucks or even two, sounds like small change for you. Just do it if this will be your first plasma experience, dodo rare and all. There are worst ways to throw away fu money

That said keep your expectations low, as long as its working with some burns in

I had older version, definitely have some burn in, uneven brightness and corner of the screen coating peeled

 

[Rentahamster]

they don't exactly pop up often, but if I see one I'll definitely snatch it up to be ready for when this one shits the bed.

Both Craigslist and FB Marketplace have filters and alerts so whenever 1080p plasma TV pops up, you get an email or notification. I use a lot of those when I'm trying to buy certain second hand goods on those websites.

 

[SaturnSaturn]

No its not, px60 is 720p, you can get a a 720p plasma for like 10-20$. I had about 9 plasmas, have a Kuro 5090H and a Panasonic VT60 atm.

I actually had a px80 42 inch, got it for 30 bucks. Solid 720p plasma but nothing more, so it got sold when i moved

For a hundred bucks, you can get a nice 1080p plasma, the PX series is just a entry model, if you are going for 720p get 42 inches or below, will look magnificent on a 360 or ps3. IF you are going to use a plasma for modern gaming which you should, get a Kuro or maybe Pioneer Elite as they are know as in the states, or a Panny 1080p panel. you will get one for 100 bucks easy.

Look for the GT series, VT or ST if you are going the panny route, GT has the lowest input lag. forget the ZT even though it is the "best", atrocious input lag.

Also stay away from any LG plasmas, they get super bad black levels as they age and are just usually cheap pieces of junk

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

dude... Plasma has awful grey to grey response time. in mid tones you will have obvious trailing.
they also have bad black levels and are super dim compared to modern 1000+ nits OLED screens. the brightest Plasma screens reached maybe a bit over 200 nits max brightness.

also any OLED that is remotely modern has BFI, which mimics exactly what a Plasma does, it strobes the screen, which will have near perfect motion clarity on any decent OLED.
due to the faster pixel response time of OLED you will get the same motion clarity with BFI, without any of the trails caused by the Plasma's slower pixel response.

also critical for retro gaming specifically is input lag. and Plasma TVs are from a time where the best of the best TVs had around 30ms of input lag. with some having more than 40ms. looking at reviews of Panasonic Plasmas from around that time, I find 54.2ms of lag being found in reviews. which is, in one word... unacceptable... especially for retro games.

meanwhile a modern OLED has around 9.9ms at 60hz, which is very close to the 8.3ms of lag a CRT has.
my OLED has lower input lag if I turn on frame interpolation than that Panasonic has in the best case scenario... that's insane.

Plasma TVs are crazy overrated. bad black levels, less than half the brightness of OLED, awful input lag, bad image retention issues, plasma decay leading to more and more motion trailing the older it gets and so on.

I haven’t seen the latest implementations of BFI, admittedly. What I know is that it did absolutely nothing to improve motion clarity on the fabled LG C9, while adding a number of image issues. I also tried BFI on my current midrange Sony LED TV and all it does with sub-60fps games is the same that happened on the C9: it causes terrible stuttering and doubling of images while turning the camera. I actually had to turn it off while playing Psychonauts, because the standard stuttering of OLED was still better than that caused by BFI. BFI may mitigate the issues with sample-and-hold while watching TV and movies, but for games, it might as well not be there base on what I’ve seen. I can believe the tech has improved, but I’d want to see it with my own eyes. From what I’ve seen myself, plasmas kicked OLED’s ass easily and unquestionably when it comes to motion, at least up to 2020. And plasma doesn’t have perfect motion, far from it.

As for input lag, I gamed for thousands of hours on plasmas and seriously never noticed anything that made any game unplayable. And I used plasmas for systems all the way back to NES. My Panasonic reportedly had 22ms of input lag. Meanwhile, I couldn’t play some rhythm games on my current Sony LED TV because the timing was completely off - and yes, I do set game mode on my TV, duh.

Image retention on plasmas is real, but actual, irreversible burn-in is something I never got on the two plasmas I owned.

 

[Rentahamster]

I haven’t seen the latest implementations of BFI, admittedly. What I know is that it did absolutely nothing to improve motion clarity on the fabled LG C9, while adding a number of image issues. I also tried BFI on my current midrange Sony LED TV and all it does with sub-60fps games is the same that happened on the C9: it causes terrible stuttering and doubling of images while turning the camera. I actually had to turn it off while playing Psychonauts, because the standard stuttering of OLED was still better than that caused by BFI. BFI may mitigate the issues with sample-and-hold while watching TV and movies, but for games, it might as well not be there base on what I’ve seen. I can believe the tech has improved, but I’d want to see it with my own eyes. From what I’ve seen myself, plasmas kicked OLED’s ass easily and unquestionably when it comes to motion, at least up to 2020. And plasma doesn’t have perfect motion, far from it.

As for input lag, I gamed for thousands of hours on plasmas and seriously never noticed anything that made any game unplayable. And I used plasmas for systems all the way back to NES. My Panasonic reportedly had 22ms of input lag. Meanwhile, I couldn’t play some rhythm games on my current Sony LED TV because the timing was completely off - and yes, I do set game mode on my TV, duh.

Image retention on plasmas is real, but actual, irreversible burn-in is something I never got on the two plasmas I owned.

BFI on TVs suck.

BFI on high refresh rate monitors are better. ULMB, gsync pulsar, and specialty made software shader solutions like electron beam simulators are the most promising technologies that are available now or soon.