This 720p Plasma TV from 2008 is very unique and quite nice in many ways. It used to retail for around $1300. If you can find one it's a great choice for retro gaming. Overview/Image quality This is a plasma TV, which generally means at least the following: nearly infinite viewing angles, and jaw dropping weight. That's true in this case as well. This 42" model weights 75lbs. At native resolution (720p) this TV crops 20 pixels off the top/bottom and 30 off the sides. 480p/i crops 20 pixels off all sides. Both modes have aliasing, too, though it's not too bad. There's really no excuse for aliasing on a TV this big: you know the panel was designed specifically to be a tv. Why not hit 720p exactly? And as for 480p/i, they could have at least offered a zoomed out mode with black borders and 1:1 pixel mapping. But no such luck. There are zoom/stretch options to crop even more, but none that crop less. While the native resolution supposedly is 1366 x 768 it does accept...
Summary: This 4k TV (3840x2160) has very low lag but makes up for it with long response times, making the overall speed just ok. Image quality? This is a capsule review since the unit I tested had a significant crack, lowering my acquisition cost to zero but preventing any in depth tests of image quality. I did check the upscaling performance on 480i content and was very unimpressed; everything was very blurry and there seemed to be some kind of post processing filter applied to smooth the edges and curves with an effect much like 2xSaI. Heavy blur plus post-processing is a bad combo; though I'd be happy enough if these were toggleable options. They are not, however; indeed there seem to be almost no picture processing options (and what there are, are disabled in gaming mode). Input Lag I used a piLagTesterPRO to measure input lag. This device sends a frame of video over HDMI and measures how long it takes to display it. All tests were in game mode. For progressive content t...
High speed monitors are all the rage now, with quoted response times of 1-4ms. But does that mean that 1-4ms after you make an input (say, jump) you will see that on your screen? No. Often a much bigger issue is Input lag. This is the delay between your computer / game console sending a video frame to your display and your display starting to actually show it, and it ranges from 4ms to 80ms. The problem with measuring input lag is that you can't, at least with everyday hardware. The solution for hardware review sites is to purchase dedicated lag testers such as the leo bodnar tester, timesleuth (both ~$100), or the pi lag tester pro ($40) or use homegrown methods utilizing an oscilloscope ("free" if you already own a $400+ oscilloscope and perhaps a $50k+ engineering degree). Here I introduce a $5 solution (or, "free" if you own the required equipment). What's required: A Raspberry Pi Zero ($5 + S&H from several sources). This single b...
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