http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/ Engadget HD Comments for HDTV gaming looked at by 3 analysts http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/Oct 9th 2006 3:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
I have an Xbox 360, a very good quality 32 inch 480p CRT and a friend with a cheap 37 inch LCD HD thingy from Panasonic.

I love how my 360 looks on my 'old fashioned' SD TV, and a quite dislike how it looks on his. Fair enough, his has more pixels, thus more detail, but I have two problems with his setup: 1) it's a bottom of the range HDTV and it simply doesn't look that good, and 2) something happens when a game goes HD that I almost can't describe. It kinda gets flimsy.

Take my favourite game of the moment: PGR3. It looks awesome at 480p. The cars look like they mean business, strong and solid. But in HD they suddenly look thin, papery, more like model cars than the real thing, and the game loses a sense of power and weighting. In still shots the HD version is simply stunning, but on the move I just don't like it as much.

Having said that, N3 in HD is something spectacular to behold, and knocks spots off the low res version.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that more detail doesn't necessarily mean more immersion. I feel like the additional detail can actually detract from a game, perhaps by making its flaws more apparent, or simply by losing some of the punch in the 'blurry' version.

Further to this, I suspect that the quality of the HDTV also plays quite a major part. My local PC world has a 360 hooked up to a Sony Bravia KDL 40v2000u and it looks absolutely amazing. (And yes, I did also wonder at the audacity of them hooking up a Microsoft console to a Sony TV.)

And to backtrack once more: extra pixels is all well and good, but its only a first impression. Last week I spent all my gaming time playing Doom, downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. In my collection I have PDZ and Ghost Recon AW, but it was Doom that got all my loving recently.

Pixels, shmixels? What do you lot think?]]>Oct 9th 2006 3:15PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
I have a Panasonic TH-50PX600U and I couldn't imagine going back to SDTV again. It's SO much better. You're right, N3 looks absolutely stunning in HD, but so does PGR3 compared to my old TV (an old 60" read projection TV). There's no comparison.

I expect 2nd generation XBox 360 titles will start delivering "true" HD experiences. Thus far we've just been teased. Thankfully I didn't buy my TV just for games...sports programming in HD is out of this world.]]>Oct 9th 2006 10:20PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/Oct 11th 2006 2:33PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/Oct 9th 2006 3:27PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/Oct 9th 2006 3:49PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
In terms of impressing "normal" people, the gaming has gone way beyond the TV broadcasts. I have people over to watch TV and they're just like, "yeah, nice, HD" - pretty much everyone has seen HDTV before at one time or another. But I've had people walk by when I'm playing a 360 game, who have no interest in gaming at all, stop in their tracks to say, "holy shit, that's a GAME?!"

So, yeah, different strokes and all that, but I think in terms of straight-up impressing folks HD gaming is the way to go as it is the "newer" tech, but in terms of driving the market gaming is a smaller niche anyway. It just so happens that gamers also tend to be on the early adopter curve, so I have a feeling there is a higher percentage of gamers with HDTVs than the average household.

Just my uninformed BS at face value.]]>Oct 9th 2006 4:52PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
I love HD Gaming on the console and haven't bought a PC game since, figure I have probably saved money seeing as the 360 costs about the same as a decent gaming card.

]]>Oct 10th 2006 3:05AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
BTW, higher-definition (than NTSC or VGA) in gaming has been going on for years. Nice someone finally took noticed that wasn't already gaming in higher resolutions. Honestly, this website should try to be more than a spin agent.]]>Oct 10th 2006 5:29AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
Also i imagine that most people will be playing any HD films/TV content they get, whichever format, using either the xbox 360 or the PS3 if it ever comes out :P Both of which are gaming consoles.

Plus the abilty of most pcs to play HD film/tv content has only really come about due to the demands games put upon pcs and as 1 person said before gamers are early adopters in new tech, so perhaps, without them HD would take far longer to get a foothold in the market these experts say it will be driven by.

All in all i think games are of substatial importance to HD's sucess :)
]]>Oct 10th 2006 6:25AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
HD gaming is great. I can never go back to SD anymore. ]]>Oct 10th 2006 11:04AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/
Also, I have three other friends who have HDTVs. One of them never plays games (wife won't let him), one has a 360, and the other has an original Xbox.

One further note... I was never an Xbox fan until the 360 came out. I followed the games I wanted to play and the HD. My two previous consoles were GameCube and Dreamcast.]]>Oct 10th 2006 12:13PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/10/09/hdtv-gaming-looked-at-by-3-analysts/Oct 10th 2006 12:17PM