I've been doing some testing, and thought I would share my findings with you. All of this topic is very subjective, and if you have any thoughts (either agreeing or disagreeing) please post away. Its always interesting to find out what people prefer.
Anyway, back on the topic at hand. The test subjects:
Xbox 360 & Xbox. Console shouldn't matter to that significant of a degree.
Panasonic 32" HDTV with all the trimmings. 1366x768 native res (iirc).
Connected via component for X360, RGB SCART for Xbox.
Dell 2001FP
Connected via VGA for X360, S-Video for Xbox.
InFocus LCD Projector with native res of 800x600.
Connected via VGA for X360, S-Video for Xbox.
The projector certainly displayed the largest image of all the screens
Largest I tested with was 80", smallest around 50". Since it was a relatively low-end projector the colours were incorrect and the contrast fairly poor - I did not take these factors into account during testing. The projector was most useful when mates are around for some split-screen gaming on the sofa. Games on such a large screen with mates are great, and tbh colours & contrast ratios barely made a difference. However, I found the screen too large, it was difficult to take everything in at once, too look at the HUD you had to almost move your head to get a clear view. I ran the Xbox 360 at a resolution of 1024x768, this resulted in a moderately clear image that worked with all games. S-Video input on the projector was exceedingly poor and seems to be poor across multiple InFocus projectors. Ghost Recon 2 worked much better on the projector than my monitor, however I didn't test the game on the TV. Being able to see enemies in the distance easier (due to their larger size) was very helpful.
The Dell 2001FP is my main monitor, and it has numerous scaling options allowing for the testing of the X360's in-built scaling. I ran at a resolution of 1024x768 and 1280x720 (720p). 1024x768 seems to be rendered as a HD resolution internally in the Xbox, then scaled down. Let me tell you - the X360 can't scale that well. I set the monitor to display 1:1 pixel mapping, resulting in a fairly small image in the centre of the screen - the image was far too soft, the scaling seems to either put a blur filter over the image (similiar to nVidia's Quincunx antialiasing - 2xQ in the control panel), or its just not scaling that well. This would be why the image from the projector was fairly soft (hence why I mentioned 'moderately good image'). Aspect scaling on the monitor worked well and not much image quality was lost which surprised me, I was expecting something much worse. I have a very comfortable chair at my desk which means I found it really comfortable swinging back and using the wireless controller to control the characters on my monitor. The image from the Xbox was adequate, S-Video clearly limiting the quality of the signal to start with. The monitor had many controls for cleaning up the image, and like all good screens, saved all the colour/brightness/contrast/etc. settings for the S-Video input only. I would highly recommend only using RGB SCART as a baseline for any input from any console tbh.
The 32" Panasonic HDTV is hands down the best way to enjoy the X360, and the original Xbox. The image was exceptional, even the original Xbox appeared to have a fairly high resolution image (its 640x480 in actuality). You must use RGB SCART however, to get this sort of image. Component leads can be imported from Japan if you want even better quality, and reportidly they do work well. The screen was also just about the right size for gaming, I wouldn't want it any bigger, thats for sure. Would I want it smaller? Probably not. I didn't find any difference in quality between 720p and 1080i, and I didn't notice the scaling which surprised me. I was expecting to notice typical scaling artefacts (softened image, extra aliasing, dodgy antialiasing) in both 720p and 1080i - yet I picked up on neither. I was also expecting blurring at 1080i, however again I didn't notice any problems. I ran in 720p just in case though, so no extensive testing of 1080i - sorry.
The end result of all of this? The best screen imo for console gaming, is a 32" HDTV with a full range of high quality inputs. I would also like to mention that strong colour and a high contrast ratio (probably colour first) is very important. Sometimes I found it hard to pick out certain details, and the details practically jumped out of the screen on the TV. My monitor displayed a more accurate image, most assuredly, but the Panasonic TV displayed a more vibrant image.
Oh for TV / Films, the projector beats them all easily No matter which way you cut it, an 80" image with surround sound feels like the cinema without the annoying kids and the munching going on all over the place.
I would like to hear from some people who have a Dell 2405FPW. Is the image sharp like running native res from your PC, or is it slightly blurred? Reason I ask is I value a super-sharp image over all else.
Will probably right this up in a more formal article format and post snipergecko's the-reviewer site
Anyway, back on the topic at hand. The test subjects:
Xbox 360 & Xbox. Console shouldn't matter to that significant of a degree.
Panasonic 32" HDTV with all the trimmings. 1366x768 native res (iirc).
Connected via component for X360, RGB SCART for Xbox.
Dell 2001FP
Connected via VGA for X360, S-Video for Xbox.
InFocus LCD Projector with native res of 800x600.
Connected via VGA for X360, S-Video for Xbox.
The projector certainly displayed the largest image of all the screens
Largest I tested with was 80", smallest around 50". Since it was a relatively low-end projector the colours were incorrect and the contrast fairly poor - I did not take these factors into account during testing. The projector was most useful when mates are around for some split-screen gaming on the sofa. Games on such a large screen with mates are great, and tbh colours & contrast ratios barely made a difference. However, I found the screen too large, it was difficult to take everything in at once, too look at the HUD you had to almost move your head to get a clear view. I ran the Xbox 360 at a resolution of 1024x768, this resulted in a moderately clear image that worked with all games. S-Video input on the projector was exceedingly poor and seems to be poor across multiple InFocus projectors. Ghost Recon 2 worked much better on the projector than my monitor, however I didn't test the game on the TV. Being able to see enemies in the distance easier (due to their larger size) was very helpful.The Dell 2001FP is my main monitor, and it has numerous scaling options allowing for the testing of the X360's in-built scaling. I ran at a resolution of 1024x768 and 1280x720 (720p). 1024x768 seems to be rendered as a HD resolution internally in the Xbox, then scaled down. Let me tell you - the X360 can't scale that well. I set the monitor to display 1:1 pixel mapping, resulting in a fairly small image in the centre of the screen - the image was far too soft, the scaling seems to either put a blur filter over the image (similiar to nVidia's Quincunx antialiasing - 2xQ in the control panel), or its just not scaling that well. This would be why the image from the projector was fairly soft (hence why I mentioned 'moderately good image'). Aspect scaling on the monitor worked well and not much image quality was lost which surprised me, I was expecting something much worse. I have a very comfortable chair at my desk which means I found it really comfortable swinging back and using the wireless controller to control the characters on my monitor. The image from the Xbox was adequate, S-Video clearly limiting the quality of the signal to start with. The monitor had many controls for cleaning up the image, and like all good screens, saved all the colour/brightness/contrast/etc. settings for the S-Video input only. I would highly recommend only using RGB SCART as a baseline for any input from any console tbh.
The 32" Panasonic HDTV is hands down the best way to enjoy the X360, and the original Xbox. The image was exceptional, even the original Xbox appeared to have a fairly high resolution image (its 640x480 in actuality). You must use RGB SCART however, to get this sort of image. Component leads can be imported from Japan if you want even better quality, and reportidly they do work well. The screen was also just about the right size for gaming, I wouldn't want it any bigger, thats for sure. Would I want it smaller? Probably not. I didn't find any difference in quality between 720p and 1080i, and I didn't notice the scaling which surprised me. I was expecting to notice typical scaling artefacts (softened image, extra aliasing, dodgy antialiasing) in both 720p and 1080i - yet I picked up on neither. I was also expecting blurring at 1080i, however again I didn't notice any problems. I ran in 720p just in case though, so no extensive testing of 1080i - sorry.
The end result of all of this? The best screen imo for console gaming, is a 32" HDTV with a full range of high quality inputs. I would also like to mention that strong colour and a high contrast ratio (probably colour first) is very important. Sometimes I found it hard to pick out certain details, and the details practically jumped out of the screen on the TV. My monitor displayed a more accurate image, most assuredly, but the Panasonic TV displayed a more vibrant image.
Oh for TV / Films, the projector beats them all easily
No matter which way you cut it, an 80" image with surround sound feels like the cinema without the annoying kids and the munching going on all over the place.I would like to hear from some people who have a Dell 2405FPW. Is the image sharp like running native res from your PC, or is it slightly blurred? Reason I ask is I value a super-sharp image over all else.
Will probably right this up in a more formal article format and post snipergecko's the-reviewer site
. For me this had the best of both worlds, but I'll stick mostly to the 360. OK, one of the reasons I switched back to SD was partly accidental. I was playing with settings on the xbox whilst I had the LCD and put it into 848 x 480 res to try to get NFSMW to run smoother. I forgot to change it back and I didn't actually notice for 2 days. Then I started having a really good look to see the difference. In games like kameo the difference between SD and HD is quite noticeable, but in NFSMW and PGR3 it was only apparent during the title screens, wher ethe text was a fair bit sharper in HD. The blurring effects used extensively by both games rendered the pixel count meaningless. Thats the reason I decided to switch back to SD (ie I could get a 42" SD set for the same price as a 26" HD set). The plasma is a really nice way to play games. The screen is big, but not to the levels mentioned by boogle - ie you can take the whole image in without moving your head. Colour reproduction is superb - somewhere between the CRT and LCD - colours are more vibrant than CRT but tonal range seems much deeper than LCD leading back to that cinematic feel. Jaggies are none existant, which was a suprise - I was expecting a 480p resolution at 42" to be more jaggy than the 720P at 26" but thats not the case at all. Cant really explain it - images look pin sharp but anti aliased. PGR3 looks truly stunning as does COD2. Its true that Kameo loses some image quality though. I think its fair to say that SD is fine when you want things to look real, after all DVDs look pretty damned good at 480P, but when a game is supposed to look like a game thats when HD makes a difference. For me I dont really play that sort of game much so I'll go for the cinematic look every time.
