Pretty simple.  Tell us what brand and model number TV you have and a few thoughts about it.  I'm in the market for a new TV and I wanna get an idea of what all you other VGM lovin' gamers play on.  I currently have a Samsung 30" CRT HDTV (TXS3082WH).  Too small for my tastes and the CRT is starting to really strain my eyes, plus it has geometry issues.  I plan on upgrading to a 46" LCD.  Either the Samsung 46A650 or 46A750.

-Mike

I have an awful, awful TV. I'm in the market to buy a new HDTV soon. But I might be too poor to go flat-screen.

Ramza

Maybe I'm the only member who doesn't have a TV, and uses a PC display instead.

Man, what's with everyone and tech-upgrades today?  First sound cards, then laptops, now televisions? o.O

Mike, you might want to check out these two threads.  They sort of work in conjunction, since the hot topic is the Sharp Aquos LC-GP3U - and I doubt a lot of us have seen upgrades within the last four months:

http://www.soundtrackcentral.com/forums … hp?id=1665
http://www.soundtrackcentral.com/forums … hp?id=2169

I settled on that red 32GP3U, and it's been keeping me duly happy so far.

I currently have a Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR2 that I got in November/December of 06.  Pretty much right after that they upped the refresh rates on LCD TV's and everything looks so much better IMO on newer models compared to mine (I'm a visual whore lol, plus it seems I'm the type that's never satisfied with what I have). 

I'm currently waiting for the new Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 that's due out in the fall sometime in Sept/Oct.  This is the one I've wanted pretty much all year.  I'd like to sell my old set, which I probably can't fob off on anyone for more than $1000, but everyone I try to talk to about taking my old set off my hands doesn't want to pay even that for a decent widescreen 1080p LCD television. (I dunno, am I asking too much?)  If I can't get anyone to buy it off me to help offset some costs, I'll just have to accept it and just give it to my brother as a wedding present for his upcoming marriage (great brother aren't I? lol).

A Daytek 32" LCD tv that I paid $600 on costco.ca. It's absolutely wonderful for HD games, ok for ps2 games, and god-awful for old games. But I love it. I’m probably going to get a 42” Sharp 1080p when I move to a bigger place and need a second tv though.

I'll probably be in the market for a new TV sometime in the near future... the AV connectors on the front of my set are shot from unplugging the PS2 and plugging in the DVD Player and vice versa all the time, so I have to fiddle with the connectors sometimes. Needless to say I'll get a splitter so this doesn't happen with another set.

Also, I think the tubes are going on the set anyway. There's a certain spot where color's appear lighter than they do elsewhere. If I do get a new TV I might go pretty simple though with a larger sceen as I like older games and don't feel like getting a top of the line set that'll have a super high RES. I'm so lost when it comes to this stuff and it makes current gaming so freakin complicated.

Sony 27" WEGA CRT SDTV. Shiny silver chassis, fancy flat screen, amazing 4:3 aspect ratio! It's perfect for everything I use it for (DVDs and not-current gen gaming). I am an anti-progressive traditionalist when it comes to this stuff, but I am so glad I sold my HDTV and went back to my good ol' box.

Like Zane, I too do not have an HDTV. I have an old Sony flat-screen, that's approaching 10 years of age! However, I must say I've had absolutely no problems with it! Size-wise, it's 20-some inches, so not very large, but works great. As a grad student, I think it might be a long time before I upgrade to an HDTV...

Yo Zane, what made you get rid of your HDTV? Just no use for it? I guess if you do a lot of classic gaming, sprites look pretty crappy on HDTVs...

cheers,

-avatar!

That's my big concern with upgrading to an LCD.  Old school systems are most likely going to look like crap and I'm gonna have some input lag.  I thought I had the best of both worlds by buying my current CRT HDTV but I was wrong, older systems even look bad on that and I still think there is some lag.  I'd like a big LCD and maybe a smaller CRT just to keep around for old school gaming.  I wonder how cheap a decent 19" CRT would run me.  I still wanna be able to play my old trusty Genesis and SNES without them looking like poop.

-Mike

To answer your question with a quote:

That's the long and short of it. There were three things that made me sell my TV:

1) Most of the things I used it for ran in 4:3 ratio, and it was a 16:9 TV. Whether it was watching Twin Peaks on DVD or playing Sly Cooper on PS2, I usually ran those in their native aspects, which left black bars on the TV. I'm not a HD, wide-screen type of dude, so that alone made me rethink my purchase.

2) I didn't have a big stand for it, so I had this really low, round table. I had to completely rearrange my loft to get it in a comfortable place that didn't look too weird. I like to keep things hidden or out of sight, but I didn't have that luxury for my TV - there were wires (and dust!) everywhere. I live on the third floor and I have a big bay window and two skylights, so there's a ton of sunlight and dust up here. I was cleaning the area constantly just so it would look presentable. I had my 360, SNES, 64, PS2 and Wii there... now that is a lot of wires.

3) The final nail in the proverbial coffin was that my SNES looked weird and there was serious lag. LAG! I tried to play Super Castlevania IV and the screen keep trying to catch-up with itself as it was scrolling. If I was huge into current gaming and wanted all things HD, I would have totally kept the TV - it was smooth, and really awesome. 34" Sony XBR CRT HDTV.

But, the TV just wasn't for me, and I ended up selling it to a nice family on Craigslist that just bought their kids a Wii for Christmas and it wouldn't work on their old TV. I had them over to check it out and showed the kids Mario Galaxy on it, and they loved it. I ended up taking a bit of a loss on it ($200), but whatever. I'm happy, they're happy... and my room is back to how I like it. And I can play Donkey Kong Country lag-free now!

Well, I've two.

There's the 42'' Toshiba Plasma 1080i HD jobby (dunno the model # right off) in the living room. I put the PS3 and Wii on it when I can (made damn sure to play MGS4 the first time on it - seeing how it runs on my othger TV afterward was jarring to say the least), but my play time on it is usually deferred by others in favor of watching sports or science specials and blah blah blahh...

The other is my primary gaming TV, a modest 13'' GXTV from 1998 that still has the best sound I've found in a TV. I keep it in my room and surround it with articles of worship. Maybe I'll take pictures of my setup someday.

a veteran 1999 21-inch Sony WEGA. Not thinking about any upgrades until someone goes horribly wrong with it.

I haven't had a TV for a few months now (sold it). I won't be getting a new one until November or December.

I have a 1080p 32" Sharp GP1U.  No real complaints, but you have to tweak the settings considerably for different types of games (read: older 2D games require much less color and contrast; older 3D games need less sharpness, and dynamic contrast should be disabled for all games).

Ooops, double post >.<

At home I use a 30 ish inch flat screen Toshiba CRT... the only CRT I could find at a store with S-video!!  I love it... it makes the non-HD stuff (which for me is anything from SNES to PS2) look amazing... though I've heard that high res TVs with 1000$ convetors can make them look even better now... hmm...

Odd to get used to the scrolling on a flat-screen though

I've been thinking about this as a matter of convience for university this year, but decided against it since it seems awfully expensive to set up (as opposed to grabbing a used TV off Craigslist)

.

I have an Olevia 32". So far, it works pretty decently and hasn't given me any problems... but the company recently went out of business and now I'm paranoid.

Hmm indeed.  I'd like to hear more about this.  My budget for the new TV is $2,000 and I'd love if it didn't make old school systems look like dog poo.  I'll have to research this a bit more.  That's the ONLY thing holding me back on buying a TV right now.  If my pre-PS2 games end up suffering, I'll be very sad.

-Mike

So I've got a question sort of related to this topic:

Does the PS3 automatically scale games down to 480p if your TV only goes up to 1080i?  I've heard this about games that have a resolution of 720p.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/718/718587p1.html  This is where I read about it.  Quite pricey , hopefully they will start making lower priced specialised models (as the article states.)

I believe that was one of the first things they fixed in an update they sent out...?

Ohhh those.  I thought you meant actual TVs with built-in converters.  I wouldn't pay thousands or even hundreds of dollars for a deinterlacer/upscaler but I did come across one a few days ago called HD Box Pro and it's only $55 + shipping.  The people over at shmups seem to like it, too.  It's definitely a consideration.  Anyone have any experience with these kinds of devices?  For anything pre-PS2, I'd want two things.. 1) no noticeable lag so I can play input-sensitive games without falling out of sync (which is especially frustrating in music/rhythm games) and 2) graphics to not look like poo.  From what I can tell, the HD Box Pro does both.  I might just order one and give it a shot on my current TV since I already know it has trouble playing games like Parappa/Lammy and Bust A Groove.

-Mike

Yeah, apparently I'm behind on the times.  I guess that makes this a non-issue then.  (My TV only goes to 1080i)  Sorry everyone - back on topic.

I'm a JVC fan. I have a 27" SDTV and a 52" 720p projection screen HDTV. I heard that they've outsourced production and are basically going to make cheap sets now so my next TV might have to be a different brand