Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi. I hope this is in the correct forum and if not then my apologies. Also, this is most specific to console gaming so it may be a stretch to request help here. Please let me know if this site is the incorrect venue for my issue.

I used to console game on an average 4:3, 27in T.V. Nothing fancy but it worked great. My aim was spot on and turning/perspective changing felt..linear in the FPS's and 3rd-Person Action shooters I loved. I purchased a 32in 16:9 LCD HDTV this summer and all of this went to hell.

Issue: Aiming/Turning in games now has a spongy, ramped/acceleration to it. A slower turn-speed for a small joystick change quickly speeds up if the controls are held static in that position.
Games Affect(that I've noticed): Battlefield 3, COD: MW, MW2, MW3, Black Ops, Gears of War 3, Dead Space 2

Things I've checked/done: Console Display Settings for Xbox 360, TV System Settings, Individual Game Forums, TV forum, Xbox Forum, Game/Controller Sensitivities

Has anyone else noticed anything like this with console gaming? I game on my PC with a 16:10, 22in Acer and nothing similar ever occurred while gaming on it. This issue has literally destroyed my love of online competitive gaming because I can no longer precision aim. Also, I don't think this is just my particular TV. Prior to my own HDTV purchase I had carried my 360 to other places (for very short duration), attached to widescreen TV's, and noticed something seemed 'off.' Feelin' kind of desperate like I'm going to have to purchase a Xim3 to see any improvement.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

:welcome

I have 2 ideas which I am going to put out here....

1) increased resolution requires more system horsepower so the system is not running at as higher FPS as it might on the smaller 4:3 screen.
Im not entirely sure this is the issue... An easy test is to set the display as 4:3 mode and try use the console with a stretched image, does this respond the same as the 16:9 aspect ratio mode?

2) the TV is ssuffering from is known in the industry as input lag caused by longer response times.
CRT tv screens have minimal next to nothing in response time delays.
TN tft pannels often have a 5ms or somtimes less response times.
Larger panels used in TV screens are often of the *VA panel technology type and have a response time of around 8ms.

You can test this if you have a PC with 2 video outputs, connect one to your pc monitor or if you can the 4:3 screen you had and one to the 32" tv... then run a stop watch timmer that can display 1/1000 of a second (plenty of them online), run the timmer on both displays and take a digital camera to snap them both at once, you will likely see a difference in the timmer values displayed.

The TV should be behind the other displays by X many miliseconds.

Here are some exmaples of this issue...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF7BPwvUY5g
http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229335064
http://www.pcworld.com/article/183928/find_and_fix_input_lag_in_your_hdtv_or_monitor.html

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1) increased resolution requires more system horsepower so the system is not running at as higher FPS as it might on the smaller 4:3 screen.

I'm more familiar with the 360 here than the PS3.

Games that run in 4:3 aren't rendered at a lower resolution 95% of the time. They are almost always rendered at 720p and downscaled to 480p with black bars added. There is no overhead in the downscaling. Performance will be the same. There are a few games that will actually render in 4:3, but they still use a higher resolution.

2) the TV is ssuffering from is known in the industry as input lag caused by longer response times.
CRT tv screens have minimal next to nothing in response time delays.
TN tft pannels often have a 5ms or somtimes less response times.
Larger panels used in TV screens are often of the *VA panel technology type and have a response time of around 8ms.

Response time and input lag are two different things that do not relate to each other. Response time is how long it takes for one pixel to change from one shade of grey to another. They almost always cheat and use a grey-to-grey rating. Changing from one complete color to another takes longer than this rating.

Input lag is how long it takes for the image to be output from the device, fed into the LCD, and then processed and displayed. Input lag is generally around 10-25 ms depending on the panel. If your LCD has options for automatic contrast adjustment, that will drastically increase input lag.


If I were to take a stab at the issue at hand, I would blame input lag, especially if switching from a CRT to a LCD. You will feel a difference. Give it some time and you'll get used to it and not even realize it's there.

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Thank you for the helpful, informational responses. I will perform some of the suggested tests to see if I can better my situation with my existing equipment, and use the rest of the information to decide what to buy in the future that will best accommodate my gaming goals. Again, thanks for the help.

Televisions generally have more input lag than a monitor. If the control issue is really hindering your enjoyment of the games then I would consider connecting your Xbox (I assume you're talking about Xbox 360 since you mentioned Gears of War) to your monitor instead of your TV. If you can, do it via the VGA HD cable since HDMI will also increase the lag. I do all of my gaming (PC and console) on my monitor because the lag on my TV is about 40-50 ms longer.