Best HDTV for PS2, Gamecube and Xbox

[dsofrank]

Greetings All,
My Sony Wega Tube TV died this week and I've been tasked with finding an HDTV replacement. We play a LOT of PS2, Gamecube and (original) Xbox on this TV. What's the best HDTV brand/type currently on the market for these older systems? Personal experience welcome. I have component cables for the PS2 and Xbox, S-video for the Cube.

Many thanks.

[Majors]

Buddy of mine replaced his 3 year old 38" XBR3 with a 54" Panasonic V10 after much research. All he does is play PS3/360...no TV, maybe a Blu-ray every now and again. Check AVSforums...if you have the time to read the threads.

[Jayson]

If all you plan on playing is last gen stuff/watching DVDs then save yourself the money and go with a good 720p LCD. Especially if you plan on getting something relatively smallish like a 32"-37". Check AVS forums for the model # to see if they have anything bad to say about the way SD stuff looks.

I bought a 720p Toshiba Regza 37" LCD a couple of years ago and have been really happy with it. SD stuff looks pretty good on it and so does my 360 and PS3. Similar TVs are really dirt cheap right now opposed to some of the higher end 120hz 1080p LED LCDs that wouldn't benefit you at all with the older stuff.

You can always buy another TV later when you are ready to make the jump to HD and by then the prices would have come down lots and you will have this TV for your older systems or maybe a bedroom TV.

[corn619]

I have a 42" Vizio 1080P LCD and love it. I had to make some ajustments when switching from a CRT to LCD. There are some things to consider when playing PS2 games on a HDTV. First off, nonprogressive PS2 games look like shit on a HDTV. I feel component cables make the older games look worse giving the games a "chopped up" look.

I played Ico on a HDTV and it looked so bad, it hurt my eyes. Progressive games look good, but to be honest I prefer S-video when I play a PS2 on a HDTV. The lower resolution kinda smooths out the jaggies and makes the games look better if you ask me. I now use a 60GB PS3 to play my PS2 games and they look awesome with upscaling and smoothing on.

Xbox games look awesome with component on my Vizio. Playing Otogi 1&2 and Panzer Dragoon Orta is feast for the eyes. Gamecube looked awesome with S-video......until I got my Wii and now I play my GC games on my Wii in progressive mode and they look pretty freaking great as well. I love Vizio TVs and my house has three of them now. Good price and great picture. I use a old Sony CRT to play my retro systems like N64, Saturn, SNES, Genesis, NES etc and etc. Hope this makes your chioce easier!

[h8b1llg8ts]

Super happy with my Panasonic 42" 1080p. I run every CD based system off her, except my Neo Geo CD and every game looks great. And by every I mean every (see backloggery below). The only very small issue I have is the S-Video on some GBA games through the Gameboy player are a little blocky but that's only on about 15% of the games I own ...

[dsofrank]

Thanks for all the replies so far. h8b1llg8ts, what is the model of your Panasonic?

[Niode]

Pretty much the only brand worth considering these days for gaming is Panasonic. Their Viera range of TVs are unbeatable as far as image quality and upscaling is concerned.

If you can get true RGB into a Viera (not some forced s-video to component shit) you won't be disapointed. Composite signals on my Viera look ok, but with RGB it's completely different. No colour bleed and sharp, defined pixels. It looks as sharp as it could do. I guess the only issue is interlace effects used a lot in SNES/MD games (as the image is rendered with forced interlace, therefore making the image 'wobble' on photon beam TVs, IE ones that render lines from top to bottom) just look static. Which is quite amusing, but jarring at the same time, especially when you open a dungeon on Link to the Past or during the opening of Super Metroid. The screen just stays still, but with noticeable scanlines while the audio plays a rumbly sound. You know it's supposed to move, but it doesn't due to the difference in display technology.