Gamers And Sports Fans Should Think Long And Hard Before Buying An HDTV

Halo and football. What more could you want?

I don’t know, maybe the New York Times‘ readers aren’t “hip” to technology. That would explain why the paper published an article that holds its readers’ hands, demystifying HDTV terms like “refresh rate” and “ghosting.” The crux of the article is that not all HDTV sets are created equal—specifically, if you’re a sports fan or gamer (all of us, right?)—you may want to dig around before settling on an HDTV.

As you know, sports and video games tend to have periods of motion, fast motion if you’re lucky. The best type of HDTV set for that is the increasingly hard to find cathode ray tube-based ones. Problem is, these guys are stupid heavy (a 30-inch set described in the article weighs 200 pounds) and, likewise, you can’t hang them on your wall or anything like that. But manufacturers, armed with the fruits of engineering and marketing speak, are trying to address gamers and sports fans alike.

Apparently, 1080p was the buzz word last year; 120Hz refresh rate is this year’s.

All the top manufacturers from Toshiba to Sony to Samsung are have released or are coming out with HDTV sets with 120Hz refresh rates and faster response times (like 6ms fast). That should do the trick for most of us, I gather.

The article says gamers and sports fans would do well to take a look at the 46-inch Samsung LCD, the LN-T4665F. I’d concur: I have last year’s Samsung monitor, though only 26 inches, and it plays Xbox 360 like a champ.

Not All HDTVs Can Keep Up With the Action [New York Times]