Gaming Wii input lag - CRT better than LCD?

[k4ever]

I bought my wii 2 months ago, and its connected to a 20" Phillips CRT 4:3 Flat Screen wth component cables. When I switched to using component cables instead of the regular av ones, there was a huge improve in the graphics. Even though my TV is not capable of displaying 480p ( only 480i ), it looks way better than before.
Now I want to upgrade my tv in order to get the most out of the graphics of my wii. I was planning in buying a 26" or 32" LCD TV. I know the wii cant do 720p, but sure I will see the change in a 480p display. The thing is that I have done some research and it seems that most videogame consoles have problems being played on an lcd hdtv ( image scaling, etc ... ). I dont want to have lag when playing games, especially online ( add the lag of the network, etc ... ), so now I dont know if I should buy an lcd tv or maybe a used 26" - 32" CRT widescreen EDTV capable of 480p.
Does this problem only appears when you hook up consoles with max output of 480i ( the old ones like ps2 or xbox )? Or is this something common in every console?
Thanks.

 

[OSW]

never heard of such problems in the current gen consoles, afaik they are designed to work with HDTVs and look damn fine on them

I think the majority of people here are playing on LCD or plasma screens, personally I play on a 32" panasonic LCD and alls good.

Don't get CRT screens, unless your budget is uber low, because it's old technology. However, i would avoid any ultra budget LCD screens, because they look terrible!

 

[PrinceNOOB]

I must say the wii looks excellent on CRT tv's. On Hdtvs horrible :/

 

[George Dawes]

I play the wii on both a 50" HDTV plasma and a 30" CRT and it looks good (as far as the wii can) on both of them.

With Component/RGB scart of course. It'll look awful on any TV using composite.


Keep the 4:3 TV for playing retro consoles on - they look absolutely awful on anything but.

 

[ChrisRX]

Unless you are playing japanese rhythm games where your timing determines your score then I wouldn't worry about lag at all.
LCDs naturally have a couple milliseconds of lag compared to CRTs because they have to load an entire frame into memory before showing it, compared to a CRT which displays the image as its received.

This is different for HDTVs receiving SD signals though as the TV has to upscale the image first and how fast this happens depends on the manufacturer. This should still only be a couple of milliseconds though, and as I said, unless you're playing japanese rhythm games then you probably won't even notice this lag as it's only a few milliseconds.

 

[kimikal27]

on my HDTV LCD Toshiba regza 32" and component cable, the image looks great (as far as wii grafs go of course)

plus im a GH addict and i see no lag at all...

 

[Am0s]

I think he is referring to image retention, I have done some research on this and yes some plasma TV's do suffer from image retention dunno about LCD though

 

[Anakir]

never heard of such problems in the current gen consoles, afaik they are designed to work with HDTVs and look damn fine on them

I think the majority of people here are playing on LCD or plasma screens, personally I play on a 32" panasonic LCD and alls good.

Don't get CRT screens, unless your budget is uber low, because it's old technology. However, i would avoid any ultra budget LCD screens, because they look terrible!

When you play games that require you to be frame perfect, you'll feel a huge difference between CRTs and LCDs - especially games for the Wii. Xbox 360 and PS3s are a different story because they're made to support such resolutions.

------

@OP: You're kind of out of luck if you want to play with as little lag as possible on LCD. All LCD will lag. It just takes some getting used to. CRT is the best way to go.

I play Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Wii and the lag varies depending on the TV; games like Melee makes every frame count. Even some CRT may lag more than others. It just depends how fast the TV converts the output. The reason why LCDs lag is because the Wii's hardware isn't on par with what the LCDs display. It makes the LCD put in extra work to "downgrade" itself into the Wii's level. Regardless, always keep a CRT with you as its good for the Wii.

If anything, play the games that require you to be frame-perfect on your CRT. Anything else, just play on your LCD. There was a topic like this over on Smashboards because there are many people who would like an LCD that's specifically made for gaming.

Read this. Its useful. It'll explain everything:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=558125

 

[kimikal27]

never heard of such problems in the current gen consoles, afaik they are designed to work with HDTVs and look damn fine on them

I think the majority of people here are playing on LCD or plasma screens, personally I play on a 32" panasonic LCD and alls good.

Don't get CRT screens, unless your budget is uber low, because it's old technology. However, i would avoid any ultra budget LCD screens, because they look terrible!

When you play games that require you to be frame perfect, you'll feel a huge difference between CRTs and LCDs - especially games for the Wii. Xbox 360 and PS3s are a different story because they're made to support such resolutions.

------

@OP: You're kind of out of luck if you want to play with as little lag as possible on LCD. All LCD will lag. It just takes some getting used to. CRT is the best way to go.

I play Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Wii and the lag varies depending on the TV; games like Melee makes every frame count. Even some CRT may lag more than others. It just depends how fast the TV converts the output. The reason why LCDs lag is because the Wii's hardware isn't on par with what the LCDs display. It makes the LCD put in extra work to "downgrade" itself into the Wii's level. Regardless, always keep a CRT with you as its good for the Wii.

If anything, play the games that require you to be frame-perfect on your CRT. Anything else, just play on your LCD. There was a topic like this over on Smashboards because there are many people who would like an LCD that's specifically made for gaming.

Read this. Its useful. It'll explain everything:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=558125

very interesting link but it was posted in 2005 and updated at 08-21-07...
HDTVs have improved since then, might be my tv but one of the games that u have to be perfect frame is GH and that is actually the game that i play the most and with no lag problems at all...
plus, that post does not talk about the wii at all.
as i said it can be my tv and if that is the case im a lucky SOB

 

[Anakir]

It doesn't need to talk about the Wii. It's talking about any console that isn't meant to be played on the higher resolution displays.

 

[kimikal27]

but look how old it is, in 5 years much as happen

 

[darkranboria]

My TV gives about 20ms of video lag (My other one gives 60ms T_T).
There is some lag, but it is BARELY noticeable, unless you are playing guitar hero.
You can't even notice it playing regular games.

 

[tk_saturn]

Yes, CRT's will normally have lower inpug lag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag

came across this a while back

CRT's still suck.

 

[kimikal27]

i do play GH ALLOT

guess i have a good LCD for gaming then
cool

 

[Anakir]

but look how old it is, in 5 years much as happen

I agree the post is old but its still very informative. It explained clearly why there are consoles that lag with LCDs. And, although its old, all LCDs out there that will still give a varying degree of lag. I'm never gonna touch an LCD with my wii. I can barely play the games I want on them. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to very technical games like super smash bros. melee. I try my best to make every frame count and an LCD cannot do that for me even if its the best one out there as it still has input lag.

QUOTE(kimikal27 @ Jun 13 2010, 10:18 PM) i do play GH ALLOT

guess i have a good LCD for gaming then
cool

You might just be used to the input lag from your LCD. If you played it from the start, that should explain why. If you spent many years playing on a CRT and switch to an LCD with the same game, I'm sure you'd beg to differ, even if it is very minimal.

 

[kimikal27]

you are right Anakir, unless u get lucky as i got with my tv
i did noticed lag before with the standard cable, but now using component cable i see no lag any more

edit: i play GH since the first in the ps2

 

[Dangy]

I know what you mean. I noticed some huge input lag at a Brawl tourney I went to once.

(I'm used to a 46in CRT.)

 

[kimikal27]

thats a big ass CRT
damn

 

[DunkrWunkah]

Weird I've never heard of people having this problem before. What exactly causes input lag?

 

[Delta517]

LCD>Plasma>CRT

LCD screens are best since its made for both movies and gaming. Plasma however is only made for movies, which makes the display when gaming worse than LCD screens. CRT just sucks...