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Plasma or LCD/LED for old school gaming?


tillenterprises

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Hi folks,

 

Well my TV took a dump, and it's time to upgrade it anyway, so I've been researching what the best option is for me if I want to be able to play my Atari, Colecovision, INTV, etc without worrying about screen burn-in. I was leaning towards buying the plasma, but I was told that it was more susceptible to burn in with the old games due to the static images than the LCD or LED tvs.

 

Any input or advice?

 

Thanks!

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plasma, hands down. you wont have an issue with burn in. get the panasonic as they make the best plasma.

 

yes, I had heard that for plasma, Panasonic is the way to go. However, the guy at the store warned me that burn in is far more likely to occur with plasma vs. LCD/LED. I should note that I don't usually do marathon gaming sessions where the same image would be on the screen for an hour or more. I usually just play a few minutes of each game at a time (possibly up to 30 minutes), so I'm guessing that wouldn't hurt the TV, right?

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Oh, the other question is- since the display on the Atari was meant for 4x3 size screens, do you normally stretch the screen so it appears widescreen, or have the TV display the Atari screen as how it was intended at 4x3? If you do display it in the original ratio, I'm assuming that you'll have those black bars on the sides of the screen, which could burn in, right?

 

Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to ruin an expensive new tv!

Edited by tillenterprises
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Plasma or LCD/LED for old school gaming?

 

Absolutely not.

 

 

Oh, the other question is- since the display on the Atari was meant for 4x3 size screens, do you normally stretch the screen so it appears widescreen, or have the TV display the Atari screen as how it was intended at 4x3? If you do display it in the original ratio, I'm assuming that you'll have those black bars on the sides of the screen, which could burn in, right?

 

Depends on the game. I'll play Astrosmash stretched, but other stuff in 4x3.

 

No, you won't burn black, as it's not being lit.

Edited by Rex Dart
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Plasma definitely all around for old school gaming. I wouldn't worry about screen-burn either. Pretty remote chance of that happening, unless you leave the same image paused for days on end.

 

You can adjust the aspect ratio of course, but I usually play with it stretched. Not a big deal though to switch to 4:3 with the vertical bars on each side. These TV's today are so large anyway, smaller screen is refreshing once in a while.

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yeah..dont pause your nes and go mow the lawn or go to school..lOL

 

the plasma is great, but the led tv's look amazing for things like secret of mana....and Breakout! lol!

 

 

Yeah and leach knows what hes talking about. And hes sooooo witty. Hes my hero!!!

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Burn in on plasmas is a thing of the past unless you have a still image on the tv for a long long time. lcd/led give to much motion blur and or have a soap opera look when trying to correct motion blur. But i agree crt tv is the way to go for old school games! But for movies and shows plasma has a much more natural look compared to led lcd.

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Yes, I also prefer to play Atari and old games on a tube tv, however, the tv I am replacing (the one I normally have the game systems set up on) is a large projection TV that fits like a glove in a built in entertainment unit in my basement rec room. To find a large enough CRT tube tv that would fit in there and still look good, it would have to weigh a ton! Plus, we also watch alot of movies and we also have new game systems that we play on there too, so I would want to upgrade to a modern TV to replace the old projection one, but still want to be able to play the old game systems on it, too. Plus, I do have a couple of nice tube tvs that I can always use to play the old games more authentically if I want!

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I'll say this... I have a Samsung lcd and the colors are great on my svid modded 7800 and 2600. It looks pretty good with the composite connection. Asteroids has some wierd mesh effect going on with the asteroids. Still looks good on everything else. My Magnavox lcd on the other hand looks bad with svid or composite. The colors are dark and Asteroids on it is a jittery mess. The whole screen shakes and sputters.

My point is lcds handle low def retro systems differently. My nes looks like poo also on that tv. If possible it is good to try out a retro system on the hd monitor before you buy. They are not all equal in how they handle legacy gear like vcrs and gamesystems.

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Plus, I do have a couple of nice tube tvs that I can always use to play the old games more authentically if I want!

 

 

That's good; you'll definitely be wanting them. Atari looks pretty horrible on an LCD/Plasma... you'd be better off emulating them if that's your display type.

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Hands down, the best tv I have ever seen for anything 480i or older is a 36" Sony WEGA! I have a 36" JVC that that is VERY nice, but not totally flat, and at 165 pounds it is a beast, BUT the Sony is even better and at approx 240 pounds it has very limited appeal. My in-laws have one and it is about 12 years old and still looks perfect.

I would never buy plasma, even if they are better. I saw what Forza would do to one, 1 day later, you could still see the speedometer burn in.

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I personally think the colors look alot better on a plasma compared to LCD. It also depends on what plasma you end up getting. I was playing/testing my non-modded light 6-switch on a 65" Pioneer Elite. Even tho I had it hooked up via RF switch box it looked just as good as the composite mod of my other one.

 

Also, I didn't have to 'refresh' the screen to get the picture to work either like I do on my LCD tv.

Edited by Mark T
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Hi folks,

 

Well my TV took a dump, and it's time to upgrade it anyway, so I've been researching what the best option is for me if I want to be able to play my Atari, Colecovision, INTV, etc without worrying about screen burn-in. I was leaning towards buying the plasma, but I was told that it was more susceptible to burn in with the old games due to the static images than the LCD or LED tvs.

 

Any input or advice?

 

Thanks!

 

For old games all you need is a traditional tube TV. That's what those consoles were designed to be played on. Just pick one up cheap from a pawn shop, thrift store, yard sale or whatever.

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Perhaps I should restate my original question, as there seems to be some confusion... Yes, obviously I prefer to play the old game systems on an original tube tv as intended. That being said, I am going to replace the large projection tv in my basement with modern tv, but still want to be able to play the old game systems on it, and wanted to know which would be better for this- plasma or LCD/LED.... I'm not asking if old games are better on an old tube tv vs today's tvs. I just want to know between plasma and LCD/LED, which would be better to run the old games on....

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