What's the best TV to play NeoGeo on?

I'm thinking about getting a Sony Wega. What do you guys think?

I wouldn't recommend anything bigger than a 27" Vega as larger screens horribly distort the composite picture quality and magnify all visual discrepancies such as color-bleeding. However, just as with the recent Consumer Reports profile, the Sony Vega technology does provide the best picture representation and overall quality for a mid-priced home viewing unit.

Sincerely,

Kale

Follow Kale's advice. The 27" Wega is, in my opinion, the unabashedly best TV for general purpose Neo-Geo gaming. It's what I use. I've hooked my S-Video modded home cart (or is that AES? hehehe) system up to a 36" XBR Wega, and the larger CRT size unfortunately magnifies the system's less-than-perfect video output quality. Expect to see noticeable distortion lines and pronounced color bleeding at sizes larger than 27" with the home cart system. This may not be the case for everyone, but it most certainly is with my system. More modern consoles with non-hacked S-Video output look stunning on a larger CRT, however.

------------------

DolphinLord: Plaguing the online Neo-Geo scene since 1997.

Visit #SNK on EFnet IRC for SNK/Neo-Geo chat!

The 27" was the size I was planning on buying. So I guess I'll go ahead and get that one.

Why not get the Samsung LCD TV? It's got a 16:9 aspect ratio as well as 40" of screen. All for only $1800 and it weights 65 lbs.

James



[This message has been edited by yuckydog (edited January 24, 2001).]

yuckydog thatll make it look much worse..its pretty obvious

How will it make it look worse? You can force it to display in the 4:3 ratio and with almost a million pixels and 480p resolution, it should look just as sharp as a tube tv.

James

How bout 32 inch one instead of 27?
Look here: http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/wega/products/kv32xbr400.html

I found this reply at Video Asylum about thoes XBR TVs:

New Series of Sony Wega XBR Televisions

Re:
The model you are refering too is the xbr 400 not 300, it will have 2 componet inputs, it is the same tube, so I doubt if there is going to be much improvement in picture, you should actually wait a little longer because shortly after the xbr 400 , sony is comming out with the xbr 500 which will also have a fire wire connection, since the industry still has not settled on what connector is going to be standard for hd, I would not buy a tv at his time, it could be rgb, fire wire or who knows what, people buying so called hd ready tv's right now could be in for a surprise, good luck.

Click to expand...

I say go for it cuz the Wega tube is too cool to wait for the high end connection shit to settle in and you can always get a HDTV later.

------------------

Sony TV picture is nice and on some tubes it is great but overall they are overrated. Try Panasonic or Phillips superflat widescreen set.

Try RCA's ProScan brand. I have my Neo hooked up through the S-VIDEO mod and it looks fantastic. No color problems whatsoever, and its a 36" screen. Sweet.

Originally posted by DolphinLord:
and the larger CRT size unfortunately magnifies the system's less-than-perfect video output quality. Expect to see noticeable distortion lines and pronounced color bleeding at sizes larger than 27" with the home cart system. This may not be the case for everyone, but it most certainly is with my system

Click to expand...

What do these distortion lines look like? Are these the lines, where if you look closely at the screen, especially if the color is red, it looks kind of like a chain link type of thing? I have noticed this. I only use a 25" Samsung Stereo TV with front and rear AV inputs, not as fancy as some of you other guys.

Ryan



[This message has been edited by rstreck (edited January 24, 2001).]

If you decide to go 27" Wega, make sure you get the newest model with 16:9 enhance mode. I say this for 2 reasons:

1) That model retains the side speaker layout of the original Wega series which just looks better. The new "look" has the speakers on the bottom which IMO is butt ugly.
2) The 16:9 enhance mode really works. If you want to watch any DVD's at all on your set, then this is essential. What the feature essentially does is this: When you set your DVD to display at 16:9, discs that are enhanced for widescreen put out more lines of resolution to fill up the entire screen. When you do this on a regualr TV, it makes the picture adjust to the 4:3 tube resulting in a squashed picture. The Wega enhance mode unsquashes it so you still get all the extra resolution, but it display at the normal letterbox ratio.

I hope that didn't sound too confusing.

Anyway, I have this very same model of Wega and I freakin love it. There are 4 picture settings and I highly recomend tweaking them for different purposes. The settings are Movie, Vivid, Standard and Sports. Here's what I did:

- First, use Video Essentials to "propery" calibrate ALL settings.The Wega default settings are WAY too sharp and distort the pictures.
- Second, Decide what each setting will be used for and tweak it accordingly. What I did was:
- Movie: Did not tweak from calibrated settings. I use this mode to watch DVD's.
- Vivid: Using various Neo, Genesis and SNES games, I tweaked this setting to give the most accurate sprite display.
- Standard: Using various DC, PS, PS2 games I tweaked for maximum detail on 3D games.
- Sports: Tweaked it for optimum TV viewing.


Yeah, it takes effort, but SO worth it to get the best picture out of your TV.

I have a 20 inch Sony Wega with the speakers on each side and it is perfect. Looks and sounds great. I also have it hooked up to an extra 300 watts of Kenwood sound. Amazing!

NATURE BOY

I had a Sony 27" XBR had a great picture when it wasnt in the shop. I have three Panasonic TV's now all Super Flat series they have all been great...I have my Neo hooked up to a 27" Super Flat with Jeff's S-Video mod and love it!

A local store had a Samsung LCD widescreen here and it looked terrible. They had to put it in a special (dark)room to keep it from looking washed out, and it still looked terrible. The blacks were VERY gray.

Brent

Originally posted by yuckydog:
Why not get the Samsung LCD TV? It's got a 16:9 aspect ratio as well as 40" of screen. All for only $1800 and it weights 65 lbs.

James

Click to expand...

Yuckydog, aside from the above comment.LCDs are absolutely terrible for games, plasma tvs are even worse than that.And not only is it a lcd but its 16:9!!!your telling me forcing 4:3 on a 16:9 tv will make it look good?ARE YOU INSANE!!even if you make it cut the sides into 4:3 it will still look like dirt, im not even going to get into detail about the 16:9 thing you said.do you even know what your talking about?i guess not.

Peter

Best TV to play Neogeo on is any one with RGB/SCART connection on the back, that is any decent European TV

hehehehehe

Pure RGB, yeah, ahem, yeah, good.
YEAH. :P

2) The 16:9 enhance mode really works. If you want to watch any DVD's at all on your set, then this is essential. What the feature essentially does is this: When you set your DVD to display at 16:9, discs that are enhanced for widescreen put out more lines of resolution to fill up the entire screen.

Click to expand...

I have the same Wega model as you do, and yes, the 16:9 enhance mode is a fantastic feature! The resolution boost it gives makes ALL the difference when it comes to quality DVD viewing. What is this "video essentials you mentioned in your post? Is it a diagnostics DVD? Where can I get it? I've never seen it anywhere.

Yuckydog, aside from the above comment.LCDs are absolutely terrible for games, plasma tvs are even worse than that.

Click to expand...

LCD's really aren't the greatest for gaming. LCD monitors are superb at displaying crisp text, making them excellent for office applications in a desktop environment. But, when it comes to gaming, LCDs just don't pass muster. The inherent "fixed resolution" fuckedness of LCDs, combined with their low refresh rate, makes for a very inflexible gaming display.
My LCD monitor, for example, has a fixed resolution of 1024*768. As a result of this, ALL the games I play must run in 1024Z*768, less I be forced to run them in a lower resolution that will result in nasty looking interpolation. Games that support higher resolutions (Quake 3, etc) look great on my LCD, but stuff like Diablo 2 and Starcraft, both of which are 648*480 only titles, look horrid on a 1024*768 LCD. The only reason I ever went with an LCD monitor over a CRT is because I'm cramped for space in this tiny dorm room... I'll be getting a big, fat Sony CRT monitor once I graduate.

------------------

DolphinLord: Plaguing the online Neo-Geo scene since 1997.

Visit #SNK on EFnet IRC for SNK/Neo-Geo chat!

[This message has been edited by DolphinLord (edited January 25, 2001).]

My Viewsonic 18" LCD monitor plays games wonderfully. I play Tribes, Red Alert 2 and StarCraft (yes, still) and they look better than on my buddy's Sony Trinitron monitor with no refresh problems, poor color tones or eye strain. If your LCD monitor is that bad, maybe you bought a bad one or your video card is at fault. (Especially if you can't change your resolution, that sounds like a video card problem.)

As for the Samsung TV, the older models did have problems with black tones and brightness but all the reviews I've seen of their newest model shows that it's as bright as direct view TVs. The LCD has a resolution of over 750k pixels (which is better than some plasma TVs which have 600k pixels).

James

I have a Guillemont Geforce 2 Ultra running on nvidia reference drivers, so my video card is certanly not the limiting factor in this equation. My LCD isn't some cheap piece of shit either. It's a Viewsonic, with a fixed resolution of 1024*768. ALL LCDs have a fixed native resolution. If you need to run something at a resolution lower than your LCD's fixed/native resolution, distortion problems rear their ugly head. This article does a fantastic job of describing such problems: http://www6.tomshardware.com/display/99q2/990624/tft1-06.html

The lower resolution/scaling problem is one inherent to all LCDs, and it's why most gamers would prefer a CRT. I too play Red Alert 2, but fortunately, it supports 1024*768 resolution. If any given game supports my display's native resolution, it looks great. But, games that don't support my fixed resolution look like shit (in my opinion). Maybe I'm just being an obstinate, picky bastard, but that's the way I feel about the LCD situation.

------------------

DolphinLord: Plaguing the online Neo-Geo scene since 1997.

Visit #SNK on EFnet IRC for SNK/Neo-Geo chat!

I have to play Tribes in 800x600 as my V5 5500 can't handle more than that. (Well it could but it gets a little jerky and then how would I snipe?) But at 800x600, it looks fantastic so I don't see how your monitor could make it look worse at the lower res. Which Viewsonic do you have? The VP series is a lot crisper and sharper than the VG series.

By the way, do you like RA2 as much as RA? I think I like the first one better...

James

Dolphin Lord - Yes Video Essentials is out on DVD and it's specifically made to calibrate and test your TV and Home theater speaker system. It should be available at most online DVD stores. There are actually a few other ones that have come out now, but I haven't tried any of them.

Here's a url to get the best deal on it:
http://www.bargainflix.com/search/ShowTitle.asp?id=0001083617-0002

The picture may look darker at first, but you'll soon notice that the picture is much richer and the details look more natural when you have properly calibrated a set.

Yuckydog, all lcds have fixed resoltions..thats a fact..if the lcd goes out of that resolution than the picture is terrible...now think about it..if you bought that samsung wouldnt that mean the screens resolution is 640*480(NTSC res)or lower?..that would defeat the whole purpose of the monitor...a tv and computer set..
Nobody will buy that samsung for tv..it was designed for doing biz presentations on..i dont think they had neo-geo in mind

Peter

I'd opt for an R.G.B monitor if you weren't looking to watch T.V. when you're not playing your games.

------------------

NeoLord
Neo-News and much more!
neonews.cjb.net

[This message has been edited by NeoLord (edited January 25, 2001).]

I had a quick question..this is probably pretty obvious to alot of you but i do not know the answer to.

I have heard tons and tons about RGB output and it being the best output(even better than svideo) and you dont even need a mod, i have also seen cables being sold for the neo.but my question is what tvs have input for this?i have never seen a tv with rgb inputs

Peter