Buying a TV for Gaming

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Decide to buy the biggest flatscreen possible on which to play Call of Duty and you might end-up with low-fuzzy foregrounds and blurry battlefields.

You’ll get no cheat codes from us, but this handy guide to buying the best TV for gamers might help you skip forward a few levels in finding the ideal TV for you.

LCD or LED?

Primarily, there are two types of display – LCD and LED/LCD (the latter is simply a tweak to existing LCD tech by adding either Edge or Direct LED lights — let’s call the LED TVs in this article to simplify things).

LED backlighting as a genre adds better contrast to LCD models, and also tend to include other high-end features useful for gaming – such as 100Hz modes.

“Plasma traditionally produced smoother motion, but now the many of the high end LCDs use 200Hz panels and direct local dimming LED backlighting to match this performance as well – while providing superior brightness, sharpness and more brilliant white output,” says Tom Henderson, TV trade marketing manager at Philips.

Sharpness and Motion Blur

Two sides of the same coin: LCD & LED TVs are traditionally sharper with still images, but tend to display a blur when showing fast-moving sequences.

“When it comes to using a TV for gaming it is important that the TV is capable of creating strong vibrant colours, bright images, sharp edges and smooth motion,” says Henderson. “It’s also crucial that there is absolutely minimal lag – the time it takes from the picture to come from the games console or computer to being displayed on the TV screen – which requires switchable processing and fast response panels.”

The scanning rate on an LCD panel is now routinely doubled from the normal 50Hz by software that inserts repeats and estimations of frames of video, though any advance on 100Hz is technically down to ‘creative arithmetic’ and, usually, ‘backlight scanning’, which is basically some flashing lights.

We suggest an LED TV with 100Hz (and no more) if ultimate sharpness is your goal.

Contrast and black levels

Plasma wins the day here, no question, though the gap is closing with LED backlighting becoming more and more effective. Edge LED sets – which tend to be slimmer, so more popular – don’t achieve the kind of contrast possible with the (slightly) chubbier, more expensive Direct LED backlights, but we’re fast approaching a plateau where the differences between the various technologies in this areas are slight enough for gamers (though perhaps not home cinema addicts) to ignore.

“Plasma handles motion really well and is best for black reproduction levels,” says Web, who think s your choice of screen should depend on what you primarily play. “Contrast is important if you’re playing a first person shooter, whereas if you’re playing football the colour and motion are really important.”

“LED TVs can typically produce brighter, sharper images and now, with the majority of LCD sets using LED backlighting, they can also accurately recreate the dark scenes and very high contrast levels to match or even beat the best of plasma sets,” says Henderson at Philips.

LED TVs vs LCD TVs

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Since LEDs are designed differently than standard fluorescent backlight systems, this means that the new LED backlit LCD sets offer a number of differences over standard LCD TVs. Here’s 5 reasons why you should look at purchasing an LED TV:

  1. Lower power consumption. As we covered in this post earlier
  2. No mercury is used in LED TVs, unlike some other LCD LCD TVs.
  3. Better balanced color saturation.
  4. In LED/LCD TVs using the Full Array blacklight method, there is little or no light leakage in dark scenes. This contributes to even better black levels than traditional LCD televisions or LED Edge-lit LCD televisions.
  5. Full array or full LED TVs are thicker than Edge-lit LED TVs. LED TVs that use Edge backlighting can be made much thinner than both standard LCD TVs and Full Array LED TVs.

 

When your LED TV is an LCD TV

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There has been a lot of hype and confusion surrounding the introduction of “LED” Televisions (LED TVs). It is important to note that the LED designation refers to the backlight system used in many newer LCD Televisions, not the chips that produce the image content.

LCD chips and pixels do not produce their own light. In order for an LCD television to produce a visible image on a TV screen the LCD’s pixels have to be “backlit”.

LED TVs are still LCD TVs. It is just that these new sets use LED backlights rather than the fluorescent-type backlights used in most other LCD TVs.

How LED Technology is Used In LCD TVs

The are currently two ways that LED backlighting is applied in LCD flat panel televisions.

One type of LED backlighting is referred to as Edge Lighting. In this method, a series LED backlights are placed along the outside edges of the screen. The light is then dispersed across the screen. The advantage of this method is that the LED/LCD TV can be made very thin. On the other hand, the disadvantage of Edge lighting is that black levels are not as deep and the edge area of the screen has a tendency to be brighter than the center area of the screen.

The other type of LED backlighting is referred to as Full-Array (also referred to sometimes as Full LED). In this method, several rows of LEDs are placed behind the entire surface of the screen. The advantage is that these sets can employ “local dimming” (if implemented by the manufacturer).

So the next time you’re out and about, you’ll be able to understand the different kinds of lighting for your next LED TV, and be sure to check out the image quality and colour representation to suit your tastes.

LED TV Buying Tips

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Buying an LED TV is always a big decision. Not all LED TVs are created equal, and there’s definitely a few different things to consider:

  • Contrast Ratio
    The contrast ratio represent’s a TV’s ability to show detail in images on its panel.
  • Viewing Angle
    The best way to test this particular aspect, is in person. But a screen’s viewing angle is the range from which you can still see a legible image on the TV.
  • Colour & Motion
    Not such an issue with LED TVs anymore, as they are the leading style of television technologically, they all support 100Hz refresh rates or more. Colour however, is a very important factor and it should be noted that your LED-TV should be using an RGB LED for the widest range of colour display

Are LED Screen TVs really more energy efficient?

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Yes.

Instead of backlighting the whole panel with a cold cathode flourescent tube (CCFL), individual LED chips are lit. Some technologies utilize a light chip that illuminates with very little current, in the range of a microamp.

CCFLs are not very efficient light producers so when they are used as backlighting it requires a significant amount of light, which translates to a larger amount of power required to produce the same amount of light as an LED chip.

Since you are directly viewing the led chips themselves, they need very little luminosity, and very little energy is needed in order for them to be visible. The savings are there, but the specific amount of energy saved is variable since people watch TV at different light intensities.

To get a bigger picture for yourself, take a look at the power dissipation rating for conventional a back-lit flat screen and the power rating from a comparably sized LED TV. The initial cost is higher, so whether you recover that difference in energy saved over time is debatable. The picture is slightly better by being more responsive and fluid than LCD screens.

CNet has a short guide about TV Energy Efficiency which raises some interesting points about TV Power usage.

What does LED stand for?

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LED TV- do you know what that means? Most people would answer, “Um, a big flat high-tech TV”.

It is hard to understand all of the jargon of electronics and translate the names of the devices to what they really mean. For some it is not so important for them, for others it is extremely important to know the facts and what they are purchasing and for others they genuinely enjoy researching and keeping up to date with modern technology.

So what is LED TV? For all those people who did think “Um, a big flat high-tech TV” well LED actually stands for “Light-Emitting Diode”. LED televisions undergoes a process when energised called electroluminescence. This process emits light through a semiconductor diode.

In fact, Einstein believed that an electromagnetic field is capable of producing light by the light hitting metal photons knock electrons out of their atoms which then creates a flow of free electrons or electric current. This is achieved by the electronic device known as diode which give off light; hence ‘light emitting diodes.’

There are two types of LED televisions: LCD TVs and LEDS.

LCD TVs use liquid crystals to create an image but they require a light source behind the crystals. Traditionally, fluorescent lamps have been used as the light source but some later models are using white LEDs as the light source, whereas, LEDS illuminate red green and blue LEDS in each pixel to create the image. The LEDS are the only lighting source in these televisions and usually have a faster response time with images. If you are prefer your electronic devices to be greener and more energy efficient LEDS tend to reduce power consumption because there is no additional light source when creating the image.

So now when you are asked what a LED Television is you can respond with a well-informed answer! Not to mention, you will know what you are looking for when purchasing or interested in a LED TV.