Question about my 37 inch Panasonic Viera LED

[ACSeraph]

I just bought this, primarily to play games on but I've got to say, I think it really looks like shit compared to my 32 inch Sharp Aquos. Even though the Viera is running 1080p while the Auqos is running 720p the picture on the Viera looks very soft and undetailed compared to the extremely sharp and crisp picture I get from Sharp's model.

It looks sort of like its running a bilinear filter or something. It's not a problem with the TV it's clearly designed to look this way. The Aquos actually looks the same on factory defaults but with a little tuning of the settings the picture looks godly. I'm not having as much luck with the Viera. Does anyone know if the Viera is running some kind of soft filter and if there is a way to turn it off hidden in the menus? I'd really appreciate it. Also looking for a "game" setting which I have yet to find.

Furthermore it lacks an S-video port and as a result all my old stuff like my Saturn and DC looks like a fucking joke next to the old Aquos. I was playing Darius II earlier and it just looks absolutely disgusting. I always wondered why everyone thought old games looked so shit on HDTVs because my experience was always good, but god damn do I ever understand now.

Another question about that: If I buy an S-video -> HDMI converter, will the resulting signal actually look like a decent S-video signal? I can't deal with this AV shit.

[ApolloBoy]

Have you considered going the Framemeister route? That's what I would do if I were to use an LCD for gaming.

[alamone]

I think it depends on the specific model you get. I think the more recent ones took a dive in quality.
I got a 37" Panasonic with the Alpha-IPS and 1080P and it looks great with very low lag (8ms with Bodnar tester).

[Xyga]

^ this.

Can you tell the model name/number ?

If it's got forced image processing on all inputs, bad low-res upscaling and no game mode there isn't much you can do, an external processor might help but don't expect brilliant results if you stick to s-video and composite, most of those require RGB to show their best performance.

[Daigohji]

I have a Panasonic L37G20, which is a model from about 2009/10, so I don't know if the menus will be the same, but there are a couple of things you can try. Bumping up the sharpness in the picture settings is the obvious one. If you're inputting a standard def signal, also try Setup > Other Settings > Resolution Enhancer.

[alamone]

Panasonic VIERA TC-L37E3 37-Inch 1080p LED.

I have to stress, this specific model, they outsourced the electronics in later boards, introducing buffering and input lag.

[Xyga]

Thanks and oops sorry, I was actually asking ACSeraph what his TV's model number is. ^^

Yours seem to have all the basic stuff required for gaming, like a Game mode, configurable inputs, even an RGB vga input.

Those are the most inportant things to look at, game mode is essential as it is supposed to turn off all (or most) image processing crap.
The input labels can be very determining as well, since some manufacturers have processing forced for some uses, for instance an input labeled as 'PC' may not handle video signal the same as when it is on 'GAME'.
Swithching modes input-by-input and see how the TV behaves is a must-try.

Finally using the VGA RGB input as the main for gaming is often the best solution, 360 will require its proprietary vga cable, same for the DC, the PS3 requires a HDfury, and for most older-gen consoles: an external processor, and we all know where to look at for a choice.

[ACSeraph]

Sorry for the late reply here, I'll have to check out the model number later. It's a Japanese TV with no English mode so it's been a pain in the ass, but I managed to find a setting that makes it not look like shit. I dont actually know what the setting in question is because it's all kanji, but I assume it's the resolution enhancer Daigohji mentioned. There's definitely no game mode but I'm not having any issues with lag at the moment. I was testing some music games and it went pretty well. Anyhow I'm pretty satisfied with it at the moment after finding that setting.

The only other issue is the lack of an S-Video port, and I'm just wondering if S via HDMI converter will look better than the standard AV. If it looks comparable to the standard S picture I'd be satisfied. Does anyone have any experience with those kinds of converters?

[Daigohji]

Sorry for the late reply here, I'll have to check out the model number later. It's a Japanese TV with no English mode so it's been a pain in the ass, but I managed to find a setting that makes it not look like shit. I dont actually know what the setting in question is because it's all kanji, but I assume it's the resolution enhancer Daigohji mentioned. There's definitely no game mode but I'm not having any issues with lag at the moment. I was testing some music games and it went pretty well. Anyhow I'm pretty satisfied with it at the moment after finding that setting.

The only other issue is the lack of an S-Video port, and I'm just wondering if S via HDMI converter will look better than the standard AV. If it looks comparable to the standard S picture I'd be satisfied. Does anyone have any experience with those kinds of converters?

If your system menus are ordered the same as mine, you reach the resolution enhancer by pressing menu on the remote, going to the third option down (has a wrench symbol), selecting the only option that's on the second page of the following menu, and then the enhancer is the top option on the following menu, which has settings for off, mid, and high. If your menu does have that layout, you'll find the fifth option down on that same menu useful, as it toggles overscan on and off in 16:9 mode. That's handy if you want to use the TV as a PC monitor, or want 1:1 pixel mapping for blu-rays.

As for s-video, it looks terrible on flatscreen Panasonics. Back when I used my PS2 as my primary DVD player, I had it hooked up to my Panasonic Quintrix CRT and it looked great. Then I switched to an LCD, and s-video looked almost as bad as composite.