I Love Mondays - 09/10/2012

Another Vinny and Jeff sports game Quick Look? I love it.

I'm already there Jeff, thank you.

@Silentz0r: Belvita is fucking awesome

@Brad: Yep. Plasmas are much superior to LCD in pretty much every aspect. The input lag is so close to CRT levels which is really good for gaming. Plasmas also don't have that nasty ass LCD motion blur so fast action/movements looks wonderful. And don't get me started on uniformity issues such as clouding/backlight bleed on LCDs especially on side lit LEDs. Nasty. The numerous advantage of plasmas severely outweigh the annoyance of image retention and the danger of a burn in (burn-ins are extremely rare now its still there if you're an idiot but again the chances of it is still really rare). Seeing an inferior tech like LCD sell for such high prices and people still buying it in droves saddens me.

Hearing Brad say "breakfast cracka" is the whitest I've ever felt.

Panasonic plasmas are awesome. 
 
Either that or an OLED TV. 
 
Better yet, OCULUS RIFT!

Jeff, you should get a NVidia Geforce 660Ti or even better a GTX670. They aren't that expensive ($300/400) for the power they give. You'll max out all your PC games with either of those cards, and they have adaptive power setting that when unneeded, slows down your GPU to cut down on power & heat. Plus the Win8 drivers are pretty damn solid.

SARA LIMA

A WILD G-MAN APPEARS!

While I'm not a fan of AT&T (I really hate AT&T) or Verizon, last year I switched to Verizon. While data speeds and coverage are better, the one feature I didn't think would effect my daily life has driven me insane. With Verizon, you can't access data while on a call unless your on wifi. Most of the time you wouldn't think this would cause a problem, but when those rare instances do occur, it is nothing short of maddening. Just a heads up.

@xanavi said:

@Brad:

Make sure you talk to Will and Norm, I hear they know a thing or two about these things!

Save some time and just listen to this guy:

Buy a plasma. You will always get a better contrast ratio with less bloom and that is the most important aspect of picture quality. Color accuracy is definitely the most important secondary aspect of picture quality. I'd recommend any of the new Panasonic plasma TV's. They're awesome. I own one. :)

Don't get a plasma for gaming, I got a panasonic G15 about 2 years ago and if an image is onscreen for more then a minute it takes about 5 hours of scrolling white image retention bars to get rid of the burn in.

Woo! Psyched for NHL13! Play as the Rangers, please. :p

I hope we see Tony and Sara for the Big Live Live Show Live, I miss seeing them guys.

@Silentz0r said:

Stay crunchy, my friends.

Halo and iPhones, strap in for the most overhyped and overrated week this year!

The first seconds of the video, we see a man descending.

From his proud and dignified way of life, doing what is required of him at his own pace and resisting the invasive lifestyle of camera; to resignation of normality and privacy, surrendering himself to the ever-present eye of the GerstCamm.

@synesthesik said:

Buy a plasma. You will always get a better contrast ratio with less bloom and that is the most important aspect of picture quality. Color accuracy is definitely the most important secondary aspect of picture quality. I'd recommend any of the new Panasonic plasma TV's. They're awesome. I own one. :)

I agree that a plasma is a better TV in every way possible, except burn-in is most definitely still an issue. I recently bought a Panasonic ST50, and if you're any kind of gamer that can easily spent 2-6 or more hours for a hardcore gaming session, you're going to get burn-in.

Yes, to anyone already saying it, you could just not be a stupid and not play video games for a shit-ton of hours in a row, but hey, fuck you.

I hope more people buy Snapshot after the QL.

Love Sara response...

Just take the Bart down there brah. It's super easy to get from 2nd to the airport that way, and cheaper than Uber

mmmmm breakfast cookie.

Image Retention =/= Burn in

IR is temporary which can last few seconds to a few hours depending on your set. Burn in is permanent. Unless you have a Pioneer Kuro, IR is still somewhat common on plasmas but burn in is rare. I can live with IR with all the advantages of a plasma compared to other TVs.

I’d recommend against buying a Plasma Brad. Despite what people on the internet may claim, while “burn in” may not be a problem any more, they have taken to calling it “temporary image retention”. People claim this may only last a few minutes after playing games, but I know people that bought Plasma TVs for gaming—against my advice—and they have had image retention on their display that has lasted literally months. It seems to get worse as the display ages too.

For example, whenever one of my friends puts on his TV, any time there is a large area of relatively flat colour such as the sky, he sees an after-image of the Dark Souls HUD as he has recently put in something like 60 hours of gameplay. (2011 Panasonic)

Other issues with Plasmas include dither, flicker (despite claims like “2500Hz” which actually refers to the fact that the panel can be addressed in 0.4ms, the image refreshes at 60Hz) and the “ABL” circuit which dims the TV the brighter the picture gets. (A full white screen will have less than half the brightness of a small white window for example—this is very obvious if you ever try using a PC with one) The TVs can often buzz when displaying brighter images on-screen too. Many people can also see a coloured strobing effect similar to the “Rainbow” effect on DLPs and other displays that use sequential colour. (Plasma’s RGB phosphors decay at different rates which causes this) Many people have coined the term “phosphor lag” for this effect.

I don’t know what model Sony TV you have been thinking of but ideally you want an HX9 series TV. The HX8 and lower are all edge-lit LCDs whereas the HX9 series LCDs are backlit panels with full array local dimming for plasma-beating contrast. Put one of them in game mode and you will have 33ms or less latency—two frames at 60Hz, and about as good as your are going to get with an HDTV these days. (older Panasonic Plasmas were the best, at roughly 17ms—one frame at 60Hz—but are now up to 33ms too)

No display technology is perfect, but when you play games for a living, and are likely to be on for more than just a quick 30–60 minute session in-between watching other content, I would strongly advise against going Plasma. I speak from experience as someone who has had something in the range of 15–20 HDTVs in the last five years, and has written reviews for one of the more prominent sites that actually tests and measures HDTVs. (rather than opinion-style reviews that forego objective testing)

You will likely hear arguments for and against Plasmas/LCDs, and many of them have merit. The better Plasmas do tend to have higher contrast than most edge-lit LCDs, the viewing angle on any LCD is terrible (yes, even IPS) and you don’t have to spend nearly as much on a Plasma to get great image quality as you do with an LCD.

If you can deal with the potential for image retention, and are not susceptible to seeing the flicker or “phosphor lag”, the current Panasonic Plasmas are very good value for money though.

P.S. Don’t buy a Vita, even if you aren’t going to get that Sony LCD.

Yeah Brad, go LED play it safe, i just bought a 47" Panasonic LED and it has a beautiful contrast and image.

I hope Brad does the smart thing and save those points for a PS4 instead of Vita.

@IamAwesome said:

@Brad: Seeing an inferior tech like LCD sell for such high prices and people still buying it in droves saddens me.

I was looking at TVs in a Best Buy recently, and I don't know if it's more the environment or the settings to blame, but the plasmas did not look good compared to LCDs. I think a big part of the problem is harsh store lighting which creates glare on plasmas regardless of whatever anti-reflective coating they put on there. Matte screen LCDs come out looking better in that environment. The plasmas also looked very dim, which I presume might be some of power saving or anti-burn-in measure since they're on a constant 12 hours a day.

I mean I'm a "casual" tech geek, but I still like to go to the store and see what a TV looks like in person before plunking down a bunch of money on one. For the average consumer that doesn't want to/can't dedicate a bunch of time to research and is primarily making a decision based on what they see in store, it's understandable they go for an LCD when the store presentation of plasmas isn't good.

not a vita, not an iphone

Sara is my favourite part of I Love Mondays.

@Brad: One thing that annoys me about my Plasma is the temporary image retention, basically if you were to say, bring up a skill menu in a game and take a couple minutes to decide which skill you pick then a slight ghost image of that skill menu would be visible for 2 or 3 minutes.

You can usually only see the ghost image on very dark one colored backgrounds but, it still annoys me.

Ha, I made the "crackers" page.

Looking forward to the BLive liveshow live.

@Sweetz said:

I was looking at TVs in a Best Buy recently, and I don't know if it's more the environment or the settings to blame, but the plasmas did not look good compared to LCDs. I think a big part of the problem is harsh store lighting which creates glare on plasmas regardless of whatever anti-reflective coating they put on there. Matte screen LCDs come out looking better in that environment. The plasmas also looked very dim, which I presume might be some of power saving or anti-burn-in measure since they're on a constant 12 hours a day.

I mean I'm a "casual" tech geek, but I still like to go to the store and see what a TV looks like in person before plunking down a bunch of money on one. For the average consumer that doesn't want to/can't dedicate a bunch of time to research and is primarily making a decision based on what they see in store, it's understandable they go for an LCD when the store presentation of plasmas isn't good.

It doesn’t matter how advanced the coating is on a Plasma TV, they will likely never handle high levels of ambient light nearly as well as an LCD does due to how the technology works. (each pixel—well, subpixel—is a small cavity with a phosphor-coated surface, filled with gas) They are also not capable of going nearly as bright as LCDs which is why they look dull in comparison. This is only a problem when trying to use the TV in a bright room though, when watching TV at night in the dark, Plasmas should have sufficient brightness.

With LCDs, a matte screen will show large diffuse reflections on the surface of the display, showing glare and reduced contrast as a result.

A glossy LCD will show hard reflections, but will avoid glare by keeping the area affected by the reflection to a minimum, retaining the highest contrast in a bright room. If you can position the set well, this allows you to get an image with minimal visible reflections, and good brightness and contrast in a bright room.

Anyone recommending matte LCDs over glossy ones either has probably not done side-by-side comparisons in the same environment with comparable displays (often the only time people can compare this, is looking at their old set next to the one replacing it) or they simply cannot tolerate hard reflections at all. (most people are able to focus on the screen and not the reflections which are at a different depth)

Note: do not buy a glass-fronted LCD that is not from Sony—only Sony bonds the glass to the surface of the LCD panel (similar to what Apple does with the iPhone 4/4S) and other manufacturers simply have an air gap between the LCD and the glass which seriously compromises image quality. (severe reflections and glare)

I'm surprised you guys don't hold your pinkies out when you talk about getting a new phone. This is going to be the 2nd year in a row that I won't be able to watch the whole live show due to work. In any case I have high hopes for the show itself since I'll probably have to watch it from the archives. Also Sara looks so deep in thought in the background. She must be thinking hard about crazy segments for the BLLSL. The only thing I real want to play this week are Double Dragon Neo and maybe that Kirby collection but I need to see some quick looks. Some sports game reviews out of Alex would be nice too. Keep doing these videos.

@ruhkandae: I believe that issue with not accessing data while on the phone is a CDMA only issue. The Galaxy S3 can do data and voice over 3G on Verizon. The limitations of CDMA bandwidth is why you can't talk and browse.

@Jeff As far as AT&T screwing over customers with the unlimited data plan when LTE is fully launched, as of July (last time I heard about it), you can still get the plan on LTE but you need a supervisor/manager to approve it. The data cap for throttling also moves from 3GB on 3G to 5GB on LTE.

Nice, looking forward to Brad's coverage of 343/Halo.

@shadowwolf9 said:

Woo! Psyched for NHL13! Play as the Rangers, please. :p

I cant wait for the new "Lockout" Mode. Now we can simulate all our stars playing in other countries! Huzzah!

NHL 13!

...Who the hell is John Gerstmann!?

I think the Plasma/LED thing is very much a matter of personal preference. I really like my LED TV, but some people swear by Plasma. I deliberately set my TV's colors to be a bit oversaturated, because color accuracy isn't super important to me, and some people think I'm crazy. But that's totally okay - there's a lot of personal taste involved with choosing a TV you like.

Be there Sara gosh.

It's my birthday. Let's fucking do this.

I don't own a Vita (yet).

Brad, spend the points on a Vita.

Sara better be there. I'm hoping for no less than three Tony run Comic Vne segments that are groan inducingly bad. I've missed those so much.

Brad's girlfriend sure spends a lot of time trying to make him into something he isn't.

Plaid Brad is best Brad.

@EricSmith said:

Brad's girlfriend sure spends a lot of time trying to make him into something he isn't.

A guy who eats crackers for breakfast?

FWIW, I've been gaming on a 50" Panasonic plasma for over 3 years with no issues. There is some image retention sometimes, but you can only see it when you turn the gaming system off and the TV is still on. And it goes away as soon as the screen is turned on again. It has NEVER affected my gaming in the slightest.