maybe a silly question Fami/NES on newer tv (widescreen/high def)

[sconley666]

Does anyone notice laggy controls on a newer tv even in lower res mode and widescreen off?  I have played on many tvs and it seems some do and some don't.  what gives?  Thought maybe someone could shed some light on it.  I have seen some NICE tv's but they don't have a "game mode" and some tvs that needed it to be on "game mode" and some that have it and it doesn't make a difference with the lag.

Maybe I am stupid and missing something WAY obvious, IDK.  I have two CRT TVs they both work great, but that is what is really stopping me from buying a new tv is that I would want to play nes on it if I wanted to.

I know that you have to have CRT for Zapper/Light gun games, but how often do i play a zapper game?!? never.  I have had my fill of duck hunt, i'm good.  But I'd keep a CRT so I still COULD.

Any Ideas Folks?  Maybe even brands/models that are better than others?

[Frank_fjs]

Depends on the brand and quality of TV. I've found Panasonic and Toshiba to be amongst the best in terms of gaming, with Samsung being the worst.

[tonev]

I have samsung and sony hdtv's and both are great with my nes and famicom... but i think that my sony has better picture than my samsung i will post pictures later...

[GohanX]

The problem you are having is going to happen with all HDTVs, the question is to what degree? The lag is caused by the fact that a HDTV can't display the NES (or any old game system) resolution natively, so the signal has to go through the TV's upscaler to process the image into a resolution that the TV can handle. Not all upscalers are created equal, some are minimal and you'll never notice, and some are terrible. The problem is that the lag is never listed in the specifications and rarely listed in reviews online.

There are a couple of ways around this. The easiest is to pick up a SDTV for classic gaming. Another is to pick up an external scaler, which would do a much better job but may cost a small fortune. Or, look for a new HDTV but poke around the various game forums to see what people recommend.

From anecdotal evidence, the best newer TV for playing old games seems to be Panasonic plasma TVs. There is minimal lag, and the upscaled image looks pretty decent. One of these days I'll grab one myself, but only when I have room for two TVs, as I never want to hook up any of the SD game systems to a HDTV.

[ulera]

The problem you are having is going to happen with all HDTVs, the question is to what degree? The lag is caused by the fact that a HDTV can't display the NES (or any old game system) resolution natively, so the signal has to go through the TV's upscaler to process the image into a resolution that the TV can handle. Not all upscalers are created equal, some are minimal and you'll never notice, and some are terrible. The problem is that the lag is never listed in the specifications and rarely listed in reviews online.

There are a couple of ways around this. The easiest is to pick up a SDTV for classic gaming. Another is to pick up an external scaler, which would do a much better job but may cost a small fortune. Or, look for a new HDTV but poke around the various game forums to see what people recommend.

From anecdotal evidence, the best newer TV for playing old games seems to be Panasonic plasma TVs. There is minimal lag, and the upscaled image looks pretty decent. One of these days I'll grab one myself, but only when I have room for two TVs, as I never want to hook up any of the SD game systems to a HDTV.

This... I have a very rednecky setup that seems to work pretty well for me.

A Pelican AV switcher which all my consoles are connected to leading to this: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-COMP2VGA-Composite-Converter-Computer/dp/B00006B8EI

which is connected to this: http://www.amazon.com/Component-video-YPbPr-Converter-Up-scale/dp/B0016SN49Y/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1339907395&sr=1-5&keywords=video+box+hd+upscaler

Which goes into my 42" VIZIO. It doesn't look great but it does look better than plugging directly into my TV

[Phosphora]

Your issue is input lag of the video processor that is doing a large handful of useless things. Many if not most modern displays have too much post-processing and it causes this issue. Some new displays perform better than others that have "Game mode". Disable/turn off all DNR/noise reduction for starters. disable as much as you can, as it will only hurt your gaming experience. This especially goes for frame interpolation or better known as 120hz/240hz/smooth motion etc. Modern video processors cause more and more gaming input lag as consumers lean towards post processing as the answer to everything flawed in their movie viewing experience. A popular Sony Bravia will most likely have much more input lag in it's Game Mode than an average Toshiba or JVC with their game mode disabled.
All the "Game Mode" is, is a function to disable *most* of this post processing. You can do it yourself on almost any set without relying on the the lazy "game mode" option that does the same thing. Please beware, some TVs with game mode are 2/3 worse than other displays without. TV companies really don't care about gaming at all. It will take heavy research to find a "modern" display that I would barely consider suitable for any gaming at all. The situation really is bad for gamers in the world today. A cheapo Emerson or Hisense will BLOW AWAY a $3000 Sony any single darn day of the week when it comes to input lag. It boils down to how much of an input-lag fail that you're willing to accept.

As a hardcore gamer, I can only advise that in the future you check with an actual tech community such as the AVS forums and inquire about the input lag of the displays you are interested in purchasing. Typically the "less impressive" display with an inferior video processor is worlds superior to a similar popular TV model when it comes to gaming and input lag.
Playing video games really isn't the area in which TV companies care to cater towards, and that even(especially) includes Sony. The better the TV is for games, the less voo-doo post processing they can offer to ruin the calibrated movie viewing experience for the dullards that demand the laziest and worst of their.... viewing experience.