TV Buying Guide

There's no such thing as "the best TV for gaming." The reality is that good picture quality for regular HDTV and Blu-ray sources translates to good picture quality for HD gaming. Here we outline what gamers should look for, and what to ignore, beyond that kind of picture quality, and throw in some tips for those who want to use their TVs as big computer monitors.

Gaming

Get enough inputs. New game consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 usually occupy an HDMI input each, so be sure you have extra ports.
Check out Game mode. Most TVs have a picture preset designed to deliver a punchy picture that looks better with video game graphics. Easy or automatic access to that mode, as well as the capability to tweak it for each input, can be a nice addition. Some game modes also remove any video processing to eliminate lag, or delays between the game controller and the onscreen action.
Don't worry about blur. As with normal TV sources, you'll have to be especially sensitive to motion blur to see any benefit to 120Hz and higher refresh-rate LCD TVs. In fact, the dejudder video-processing modes required to engage the antiblurring on many of those TVs can actually cause lag.
Be realistic about burn-in. Plasma TVs, but not LCD or LED-based models, can evince burn-in or "temporary image retention" if you leave the game paused for a long time, say, a half-hour or more. In almost all cases, this retention is indeed temporary and disappears after you watch moving material again. However, if your TV is apt to be left on a paused game screen for hours at a time, and your game console doesn't employ a screen saver--Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii all have one--then you might want to avoid a plasma TV for gaming.
Consider power use. Heavy gaming can rack up hundreds of additional hours of TV time per year, so in some cases it can pay--literally, in money saved in electricity bills--to game on a more-efficient TV. The more you game, especially with a brighter picture setting on a bigger screen, the more power you'll use.
What about Wii? The Nintendo Wii is a standard-definition-only game console, making it one of the few modern sources to benefit from good standard-definition video processing inside the TV. If you want to get the best out of your Wii, get a TV that does standard-definition well; see our reviews for details.

Computers

You'll want an extra HDMI input in the front. Many laptops have HDMI outputs for connection to TVs, and having a front- or side-panel HDMI port for temporary PC hookups is a nice thing. For a more permanent connection, you'll want an extra rear HDMI port.
Get VGA for older PCs. Analog VGA inputs on TVs almost always provide worse picture quality than HDMI, but if your PC lacks a digital output, you'll need one on your TV. If you're going to use it a lot, make sure the VGA input supports the native resolution of the TV (1,920x1,080 pixels for a 1080p TV, for example) to get the best picture quality.
Avoid non-1080p TVs. The benefit of 1080p resolution is much more apparent with PC sources than video, so if you're planning to use the TV a lot as a big monitor, get a 1080p set.
LCDs work best for heavy PC use. We've usually experienced the best PC picture quality when using LCD TVs as opposed to plasmas, so we recommend that people who use a PC heavily as a source, especially for text, still graphics, Web browsing, and other nonvideo content, go with LCD.

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