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Denver, 10:16 AM
Wed Nov 25
54 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/24/09
07/23/09
I had no choice. My old Zenith 36 inch TV broke.
07/23/09
@Orionsaint:
I then bought a 37" Sharp Aquos 1080p and I've been happy ever since.
07/23/09
Thats a massive jump over what people were using last generation.
07/23/09
07/23/09
You say the glass isn't a glass at all.
07/24/09
07/23/09
I know myself recently bought a 1080p 42" 120hz LCD HDTV, I think other than the pricetag of these things that drives people away is simply that there are so many technical terms involved, and stuff companies hide on the bad ones that people just don't want to get involved.
A good number of people out there I'm sure panic when they start seeing these different terms.. and are afraid to spend so much in a recession on something they know next to nothing about.
07/23/09
I'd rather play more games in SD than a few in HD. Granted... right now I'm playing a few in SD. haha.
07/23/09
If you've been playing games on a VGA monitor, chances are you're by most standards playing HD games and possibly at resolutions far surpassing TV "HD." You could have a Mitsubishi MegaView and have been enjoying "HD" gaming for years on your set well before the current flat screen revolution. Calling yourself "an SD gamer" but using a VGA monitor capable of "HD" resolutions seems a bit silly to me since you've likely been enjoying many of the advantages of a sharper display, just on a smaller scale.
07/23/09
The definition of "HD" shouldn't differ from person to person, but it might just due to people being ignorant of what it means. High definition is either a 720p or 1080 i/p resolution for a television. That is the definition of "HD" in relation to TV's, period. It may have been a marketing buzz word in the past but it now means real, measurable differences in resolution.
And you can't get resolutions that "far surpass TV "HD" when you have your console hooked into a monitor. The console decides the resolution, not the monitor, and so far only the PS3/360 have used a 1080p resolution. Just because the monitor is capable of higher resolutions doesn't mean the image being displayed iat those resolutions.
07/23/09
Except that some monitors have offered such resolution for years now. I don't see it being a concrete term in the least since it changes as do the display standards. If HD is "either a 720p or 1080 i/p resolution for a television," what do you call it when running Crysis at 1920 or the latest 2560 and above sets?
And you can't get resolutions that "far surpass TV "HD" when you have your console hooked into a monitor.
That's true, and I was wrong for saying that. Obviously the input determines the output, but displays capable of "HD" graphics are hardly new, and playing on a VGA monitor is in effect offering "HD" capability to the user, even though the game itself may not support it. I think most people think of SD as old CRT TVs, so any LCD (including modern VGA monitors) would be "HD" to them.
07/23/09
thank you for manning up and running an article like this.
I have an HD TV, but I don't leave my head in the sand pretending that's the only way to play and/or enjoy video games.
HD gamers are the minority.
HD gamers that insist that's the only way to play/enjoy games are elitists.
media outlets that perpetuate that fallacy are not doing the culture of gaming any favors.
is HD the future? yup. well, unless something else comes out and makes it obsolete. .... that tends to happen before full adoption now-a-days because companies are making fast grabs for your cash!
and they count on that sense of elitism to encourage others!
(for the record, I got my HDTV for $100 (w/ cables) from a friend who got a new TV as a wedding gift)
bottom line: people need to recognize facts like these and realize gaming isn't about screen resolutions.
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
Anyone who buys a 1080p at a size less than 42 inches, if they're sitting at the recommended distance from their set, is not really getting the benefit of increased resolution on their picture unless they're sitting way closer than they should be.
07/23/09
And for the price of a good HDTV, I could grab a Wii and PS3. Until my SDTVs crap out, I'll be just fine with my scan lines and 19" screens.
07/23/09
And I don't see why people are bitching about how SD games look on HD. I've seen the comparisons and I can tell you right now that unless you're a nitpick, you'll be too busy actually playing the damn games to notice that they look a little weird.
07/23/09
07/23/09
I will admit that I am pretty picky about it, but if it's something I'll be using for half a decade or more, I'd like to be satisfied with my purchase.
Anyway, it's not even so much that older games look BAD on an HDTV. I just don't care for how pixelated they become without the scanlines to soften the edges.
07/23/09
Playing Team Fortress 2 (my favourite game) on a HD screen isn't even comparable to what I saw on my SD box. My mind was blown in twain when I saw all the details and crispness which I had been missing. I even dusted off Fable 2 to give its beautiful, lush environments a whirl, and I was genuinely excited to pop Fallout 3 back into the machine. Hell, even watching my son play Mirror's Edge had me riveted by the frank and brilliant colours.
There is real, real attention to detail and sincere artistry being put into the development of these games which can sincerely only be fully appreciated on an HD screen. That may sound really infomercial-like, but it has re-ignited a joy and a love of gaming that, while always still there, needed to be re-ignited.
07/23/09
07/23/09
If you can't afford this yet, gamers, do yourself a favor and save your money and treat yourself one day when it won't break your back. Spend a couple hundred bucks on a flat screen 720p set and an on-sale surround sound system. You'll never see your games the same again!
07/23/09
However, in many ways, upgrading to surround sound made the game far more immersive and was a much larger shift in the gaming experience than going to HD for me ... I dunno if anyone else has had that experience.
07/23/09
07/23/09
I never have issues reading with the Wii's 480 output, but it was a struggle at my friends house to read stuff on his Xbox 360 with a SDTV. Even on my 26" HDTV with the crisp writing, it's still tiny and I have to sit about 6 feet away from the TV to read it.
I understand that they make the graphics with the HDTVs in mind, and that makes sense. But, for text, they should really design to a SDTV standard and then work back just to make it more crisp on HDTVs.
07/23/09
I'm currently testing it on both a 26" HDTV and a 13" SDTV. I believe that my customers will appreciate the extra work.
I added a link for anyone who wants to see it :D
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
As for knocking the board off from pressing in an HDMI cable - I'm not in the repair business so I dont have as much experience, but I would probably blame that almost completely on user error. In my experience, I havent found an HDMI port that required any force at all.
07/23/09
07/23/09
My brother's TV (which we had all our games and cable hooked up to at the time) was so old that about a year ago when I got my 360, the screen was messing up. In between each horizontal line, there would be a blank space. Then at the top of the screen, the top 20% of the screen would be flipped ON TOP OF ITSELF.
Absolute pain in the ass to play games on a fuzzy, broken SDTV.
07/23/09
What I'm getting at is that cost is not a barrier to entry anymore. I would even go so far as to argue that it wasn't that huge a barrier to entry to begin with, as evidenced by my first-hand experience. I'm of the opinion that if you want to buy an HDTV and have a steady income, there's nothing stopping you from getting one. Sure, a 52" Sony Bravia might be out of the question, but something in the 20" range by Vizio or Westinghouse? Not a problem.
07/23/09
07/23/09
Personally, I'd be willing to get a slightly smaller screen in exchange for an HD quality picture, but that's a decision that will undoubtedly differ from person to person.
07/23/09
I've tried playing Operation Darkness, Too Human, and Mass Effect on a 72" SD projection screen television. The map on Operation Darkness is unreadable, as are the text in Too Human and Mass Effect.
When I used to stay over my friend's house in high school, he used to have a 52" SDTV. One day I bought a 22" HDTV from Best Buy and I would bring my 360 and TV over to play with him. The picture was so clear compared to all of the TVs except for the 1080p 52" Vizeo his parents had in the living room that he would ask me if he could play on my TV for the night when I eventually got tired of playing games and set up my laptop.
TL;DR version: small HDTVs are DEFINITELY better than some of the larger SDTVs out there. You will know the difference if you buy one.
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
HDMI video quality is exactly the same as S-video. What HDMI basically is, is S-video and Optical audio on one cable, to save cable-space. That's really all it is. The connectors are also very fragile and break easily (both on the cable and on the receiver). Infact, I've seen several cases where the customer pressed the HDMI cable into the receiver so hard that it knocks the board off completely.
Sure, the step from Composite video to S-video is pretty clear, but anyone who tries to tell you that they see a difference from S-video to HDMI is just delusional.
07/23/09
Other than that, they're *exactly* the same. /sarcasm
Your tv is a piece of crap if you can't tell the difference between S-Video and HDMI.
07/23/09
If we're talking anything above a 480i image, HDMI wins by default because S-Video maxes out at 480i.
07/23/09
As an expanded explanation, my post was mostly a stab at those people who just HAVE to have HDMI (which I mostly see as middle-aged men who just have to have their widescreen TV to watch "the game" on), when HDMI isn't necessarily that special. It simply saved cable space.
Flame away at my dyslexic post, people. FLAME.