Widescreen Gaming Forum

I know you guys are a fan of Th2G but let's not be bias and :P

what do u guys think is more immersive and provides a better gaming experience?

let's leave cost, and hassle of setting up games to run properly in th2g. out of the equation

42" 1080p HDTV or a Th2g setup.

I'm a PC fps player
I have a 42" HDTV that I been gaming on for the past year and I'm pretty happy with it

2 days ago I got my th2g and spent most of today setting up games to run properly with it. I haven't really compare or played any of my games fully on Th2g yet.

my games are:
Brother in arms part 1
COD2
Cod4
Crysis 768p
Crysis warhead 768p
Fear
Halflife ep2
Gears of war
Oblivion
Painkiller
pure
quake4
sins of solar empire
Stalker
Stranglehold
Supreme commander
UT3 768p
UT2004
* unless stated all the games I can run in 3840x1024

what are you guys's opinion on the Th2G vs a largescreen HDTV?

I have my PC set up to run either my 3 24" Dells or the 42" Sony Bravia (for the Blu ray).
Just IMO: the Bravia is total rubbish compared to the TH2Go. The immersion with TH2Go, esp the 3xWS, is so much better than a WS LCD TV. This is most relevant for FPS/3rdPS because for things such as RTS the lack of 'height' in the TH2Go is a bit of a bother. But for FPS or 3rd person games, like your list, the TH is in a different league. IMO a 30" monitor is better than a LCD TV, even though smaller, the res improvement makes it a much better gaming experience. However it is a lot cheaper to have a big TV in the long run. The graphics horsepower (and therefore expensive card) to run the massive amount of pixels on TH or 30"LCD with the latest games at higher settings means you want the best/most expensive cards out there. With 1080p (about a measly 2MP compared to about 3MP for 30"/TH2Go or over 5MP for WS TH2Go) you don't need the absolute greatest GPU to run those games at highest settings.

However if you have both just try it! Or do you have the TH but not the screens?

_________________
Dipping bags at Mach1.9

With 1080p (about a measly 2MP compared to about 3MP for 30"/TH2Go or over 5MP for WS TH2Go) you don't need the absolute greatest GPU to run those games at highest settings.

It's slightly worse than you say, 30" is more like 4MP. Incidentally 3x1280x1024 is also ~4MP.

Mach1.9pants has nailed it on the immersion...racing games have always felt slightly off before, but being able to see (or at least trace the line of) the apex as you pass it and seeing cars alongside you makes all the difference. Likewise for FPS games, it feels more like you're in an open space and less like you're running around in a post-box.

Let me make an off-topic comment first.

TH2Go does not necessarily go against large screen HDTV. "vs" is not the only option. The two can go along well with each other. In other words, you can have the best of both worlds if you use three large screen HDTVs with a TH2Go device. :D

As to your case, if it is purely for gaming, I will choose 3 x 24". But if you want to watch Blu-ray movies occasionally, I'd choose the 42".

Let me make an off-topic comment first.

TH2Go does not necessarily go against large screen HDTV. "vs" is not the only option. The two can go along well with each other. In other words, you can have the best of both worlds if you use three large screen HDTVs with a TH2Go device. :D

As to your case, if it is purely for gaming, I will choose 3 x 24". But if you want to watch Blu-ray movies occasionally, I'd choose the 42".

I have both anyway. and can switch with ease

(Th2g on DVI 1 and HDTV on DVI 2 of my video card)

I think it's more Th2Go vs HDTV. sure u can have 3 HDTV on a TH2G but that's not an option unless you're really rich and have alot of space in the house.
the huge bezel around hdtv would be a pain to deal with too.


with triple 20" monitor it's a good productivity tool. but with 3x 42" HDTV it's pretty much overkill and I see no use for it other than gaming. and its not cheap.



btw: this weekend I put in about 7 hours playing UT2004, ut3, Call of duty 4 and doom3. the situation and environment awareness with the TH2G is awesome.

Well, I have a particularly good Philips 37" 1080p HDTV that would probably outclass my triplehead setup if they weren't Eizo screens. The HDTV is useful for Crysis, which is a slide show on anything but medium in triplehead for me. Also, some games just don't have proper TH2GO support, so then the HDTV gets yet more use. In a perfect world I would have tri-sli water cooled 280GTX overclocked cards, and running games at 3840x1024 would be easy. Of course it is nice to have the HDTV for movies (played through my PC of course).

Really they come close to each other, TH2G adds FOV but you get bezels and lower PPI and DPI. Of course now there are the widescreen modes for the D version. BUT games will run faster without a TH2G.

TH2G ... extra peripheral view thus more immersion.
42" ... no extra peripheral view thus no more immersion.

TH2G ... extra peripheral view thus more immersion.
42" ... no extra peripheral view thus no more immersion.

I think it depends on how one defines what immersion is.

I think, having a larger screen size does increase the immersion factor of gaming because there is a larger image area sitting in front of the gamer. Eg, a 19" WS monitor and a 30" WS monitor show the same amount of peripheral view but the latter definitely has a higher immersion factor.