Best Small Gaming TV (32" or smaller)

[huskercubfan]

Quote from willow_twf : well that's why i ordered it after checking to make sure i can take it back to any target store for a refund. the 8ms response time listed by vizio could very well be the same as a 4ms response time listed by another company as there are literally no, repeat no, industry standards for measuring pixel response time. there's even a lot of chatter that the response time is turning into the new refresh (60hz 120hz 240hz) rate or contrast ratio wars where companies pull seemingly random numbers out of thin air and only kinda sorta maybe back them up with real science. until there is a concrete way to have televisions independently rated and cataloged there is simply no way to find out if a tv is good enough for you without first hand knowledge. you'll never really know until you plug in your gaming system and play something with fast action (like COD4, Halo 3, DiRT, GRID etc.)

I know for a fact that Vizio is one of the only brands that sides with advertising the true (static) contrast ratio of their televisions rather than the dynamic contrast ratios. I wouldn't be very surprised if they also sided towards the true response time rather than some stretching-the-truth response time.

Vizio makes good stuff. A very good TV for the money.

[willow_twf]

Quote from huskercubfan : I know for a fact that Vizio is one of the only brands that sides with advertising the true (static) contrast ratio of their televisions rather than the dynamic contrast ratios. I wouldn't be very surprised if they also sided towards the true response time rather than some stretching-the-truth response time. Vizio makes good stuff. A very good TV for the money.

i agree. there is enough speculation around the internets (most notably on AVSforum) about how manufacturers measure pixel response time. it's supposed to measure the amount of time a pixel goes from black to white to black again (a full cycle - on, off, on), but lately there have been manufacturers who simply record the white to black (a half cycle - off, on) and claim much faster response times simply by measuring it in a new way.

the industry needs regulated, independently verified, testing. but that probably will not ever happen. until then slick dealers will just need to take advantage of cheap deals and robust return policies.

[Phrozt]

Quote from willow_twf : well that's why i ordered it after checking to make sure i can take it back to any target store for a refund. the 8ms response time listed by vizio could very well be the same as a 4ms response time listed by another company as there are literally no, repeat no, industry standards for measuring pixel response time. there's even a lot of chatter that the response time is turning into the new refresh (60hz 120hz 240hz) rate or contrast ratio wars where companies pull seemingly random numbers out of thin air and only kinda sorta maybe back them up with real science. until there is a concrete way to have televisions independently rated and cataloged there is simply no way to find out if a tv is good enough for you without first hand knowledge. you'll never really know until you plug in your gaming system and play something with fast action (like COD4, Halo 3, DiRT, GRID etc.)

You should really spend some time going through www.tftcentral.co.uk. They have some great articles, and a good parts database that will take all monitors down to their base panel for a more accurate reading of what the specs on it are.

[WERTXL]

can anyone suggest me an Amp that makes the Audio louder and clearer when you hook noise canceling headphones directly to the TV

it should be $120 or Less

[Phrozt]

check www.head-fi.org

Lots of great resources and a good community there that knows what they're talking about.

[willow_twf]

i've had the 26" - Vizio VL260M now for just about a day and i've had a chance to test it playing over Xbox Live.

1. this tv is a definite step up from what i was used to. my old tv was an 18" RCA tube television that worked fine, but didn't really present the games in the way they were intended to be played.

2. audio. i messed a lot with the settings for the audio on this tv. out of the box all the audio sounded tinny and small. first thing i did was turn off the TruSurround mode that is supposed to simulate surround sound. this mode might work if you have the tv mounted on the wall, but i don't (i assume it simulates surround by using a reflective surface behind the tv to bounce sound). anyway; my tv sits on a small table about 2' from the wall behind it. turning on the TruSurround just made it sound like all the audio was coming from a far away place.

the next thing i did was adjust the equalizer. having this function in the tv is brilliant. i personally know what i want Halo 3 and COD4 to sound like so it was quick and easy to keep messing with the equalizer sliders until i found a nice balance for my ears. (i then tested it on some video as well. it produced natural sounding voices for shows like House and Big Bang Theory). the only thing lacking is a nice, deep, low end. this, however, is lacking on almost any TV set so it's not that big of a deal.

3. on the 8ms response time. i'm decent at Halo 3 (highest level is 46, i've played just over 3000 games, etc.) and it was NOT immediately obvious to me that this new LCD was causing me to miss headshots. suffice it to say that i was still able to snipe across large maps like Avalanche and having the extra detail, along with a bigger picture, actually feels like it's improving my use of the Battle Rifle.

(for those of you not into Halo 3 the screen lag was not immediately noticeable. ie i played a FPS for a few hours and i didn't walk away thinking "man, this tv is making me play terrible, i can't shoot anything, etc." ... if anything i thought this TV made the game more fun and it definitely improved my ability to see enemies coming)

response time has been much bandied about lately in regards to fast action video games. the official TV used at all MLG events has a response time of 5ms. so this isn't quite as fast as their TVs, but i'm not sure the difference is noticeable enough for it to make or break your decision to buy the tv.

4. picture quality (or PQ). overall the picture quality is great and the level of customization on the Vizio is nice. i immediately turned off almost all of the options in the menu like auto dimming and that helped. you can adjust a lot of the settings on this set and that makes it nice. granted the blacks on this TV don't appear as startling black as the blacks on a tube television (CRT), but i honestly can't complain about the level of contrast.

5. viewing angle. viewing angle seems to hold up pretty well for at least 150-160 degrees off center to the left and right. for above and below the TV i would say you can't really go more than 2 or 3 feet above the sweet spot before you lose contrast and color (but who does this anyway) so i would say about a 145 degree viewing angle in the vertical. i know it's listed as a 178 degree viewing arc in both directions and while you can certainly still see everything that's happening on the screen it's not nearly the picture quality you get when you've set it up a little more on center.

6. hardware. according to a Vizio rep over the phone this TV is built using a 1080p LG made IPS panel and that's always nice to know (it also supports the color gamut of 1.06 billion colors as opposed to the 16.7 million that are often found in this size TV. basically this means that your TV can display more colors and shades of colors).

FINAL THOUGHTS

overall i think this TV is more than adequate for gaming. for the price (i paid right around $300 total) you can't beat this size tv with a 1080p panel. i would even go so far as to recommend the Vizio VL260M to others looking to purchase a small TV.


if anyone cares i can post later about how the TV looks when hooked up as a computer monitor and how the audio coming from the headphone jack sounds. i haven't had a chance to use either of these functions as i was so caught up in simply having fun playing on Xbox Live with my new TV.