As we move ever closer to the "HD-era", a major problem has popped up that's barely ever mentioned but has the potential to seriously effect videogame players everywhere. The problem of HD-lag is very real and can wreak havok on your game playing, rendering a large part of your games unplayable.

In short, when your TV has to convert a signal (Standard-Def to High-Def), there's a tiny lag while the TV does the work. All HDTV's have the issue, some more than others. There's a good chance you won't even notice it. But it's nice to be informed. Take a look here for an entire forum dedicated to the topic. All CRT's (current TV's regardless of quality) are the same because the resolution is always the same.

Recently I upgraded to an HDTV, and ran into this problem full force. After a vast amount of research, I feel prepared to try and help out any of you out there thinking about buying an HDTV. At the very least give you the basics and alert you to the potential pitfalls. I've seperated this article into a few sections, so you can skip down to what you're interested in. I tried to be as layman as possible, there are some uber-technical resources out there which can be pretty intimidating.

HDTV primer

First, a short explanation of TV. A regular old TV has a resolution of 480 scanlines. They display at a rate of 30 frames a second (it's actually 29.97 frames a second, but that's a discussion for another time and doesn't effect us here). Now each frame is broken up into 2 fields which flash one after the other, odd fields then even for every frame. The picture to the right shows 1 field of video. The frames flash so closely together your eyes merge them together (This was needed as a way to deliver the signal with the bandwidth available back in the golden age of TV). This is known as interlaced video, which explains the "i" you see after the numbers sometimes.

Progressive scan merges the fields together to create one frame, technicially represented as 480p. So that's what those progressive scan DVD players are doing, essentially doubling the resolution of the video. With me so far?

Hi-Def on the other hand has 3 different resolutions, but they are all based on the explanations above. They are 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The numbers are the lines of resolution and the letter denotes interlaced of progressive. HDTV stations broadcast in 720p or 1080i because there is no standard for 1080p over the airwaves as of right now.

The HD gaming problem

Any TV you buy has a native resolution, which is the resolution the TV can display on screen. This means that sometimes, the HDTV must "scale" the resolution you input in order to display it. So when you bring home that swanky new HDTV, all the devices feeding into it have to have their signals converted into whatever the TV's resolution is. So if you bought a 720p LCD TV for instance, your DVD player and Xbox 360 have to have their signals converted to 720p. Luckily, the XBOX 360 already outputs a signal of 720p, so there's no conversion there. The DVD player on the other hand is a different matter. When the DVD players signal reaches the TV, the television will "up-convert" the signal to 720p. It doesn't make it High-Def, just processes the video (stretching and line doubling) to make it work. Same goes for a 1080p set. All signals must be converted into the native resolution of the set you bought.

Here's where the problem comes in. It takes a split second for the TV to do the conversion. You know how there's a 7-second delay on live television? It's kind of like that, except much much shorter, less than 1/3rd of a second. What you're seeing is just a few beats behind the source. It's like seeing the flash of the fireworks then the bang. Starting to see where the problems crop up?

When you're sitting back and watching a movie or a TV show, it's no big deal if the picture you see is a few frames behind real-time. But if you're playing Guitar Hero, and the TV is lagging a bit behind, your button presses won't match what's on the television. Games with meters also prove problematic, like punting in Madden or swinging a golf club in Hot Shots. You can get a sense of the problem if you have your DVD player hooked up to a stereo and to your TV. If you turn up the stereo and your TV speakers, you should have the same audio playing, but there will be a tiny bit of an echo, because the TV is a fraction of a second behind the stereo. Some intrepid person hooked up his laptop to various HDTV's to display the difference. (The pic at the head of the piece is one of his examples)

Someone set up a test to show the difference. Running timecode on a laptop and exporting that signal to the TV. (The picture at the head of this article is one of these tests) The differences are there.The delay varies amoung brands and types (LCD, DLP, Plasma), but it's always there when you have to convert a signal. The most time consuming conversion is going from 480i to 480p, so the delay will change from game to game. For games that run in 480p the problem won't be as bad, if at all. For a list of what games run in what resolution, check out HDTVArcade.com.

Here's a simple breakdown:

• Pre-PS2 game systems: 240p/480i
• Playstation 2: 480i (most games), 480p (a few games)
• Gamecube : 480i (a few games), 480p (most games)
• X-Box: 480p (most games), 480i (a few games), 720p (a few games)
• X-Box 360: choice of 480p, 1080i, 720p or 1080p. (updated 12/2/06)
• PS3: 720p, 1080i and 1080p
• Wii: 480p (updated 12/2/06)

But there are ways to fix it or at least help it.

The fix

Wait it out

It won't solve all of your problems with lag, but it's the cheapest and least involved way to go. When the PS3 launches it'll take care of any lag you get with PS2 games, since the system itself will be outputting in HD. Xbox 360 also has their end covered. So you'll still have issues playing your classic systems, but honestly the best solution there is to have a seperate TV for that old NES.

Game Mode

Very Recently, HDTV's have begun shipping with something they're calling "Game Mode". To put it very simply this game mode results in slightly less quality but faster processing time. I've read that some sets work better than others, but I can speak about the Samsung DLP's. It's the set I just bought so I've had some hands-on time and I can tell you first hand that without the mode off, games like Guitar Hero are unplayable. But with the game mode enabled, the problem is fixed. There's no lag as far as I can tell.

Before buying I just took my PS2 to the store and asked to hook it up and play. I figured if I'm buying a TV that costs a few thousand dollars I need to get over my shyness and try it out in person. My advice is to do the same. The guys at the store were actually very cool about it. Just bring a game that's very time sensitive, like Tiger Woods or a fighting game.

Let your current system fix the issue

As I said earlier, the most time consuming upconvert it going from 480i to 480p, so if the game your playing outputs at 480p, you should be fine. Newer PS2 games like Shadow of the Colossus and God of War take advantage of the PS2's progressive output, and you may be able to play these games without any noticeable lag. Once again, HDTVArcade.com can tell you which games output at what resolution. Don't go on that info alone, before buying a set you really should take your system to the store and try it first hand.

Upconverters

Now if you own an older HDTV set obviously this game mode won't help you. At that point you're best bet is to either hook up an HD system (Xbox 360 or PS3), since they output at 720p or 1080i/p there won't be any upconvert, so no lag. But in the meantime the best solution I've found online is to hook up a VGA upconverter and go into the TV via VGA instead of component or HDMI. There are special upconverters made expecially for games, problem is they're all Japanese.

VGA is the same everywhere in the world, so you can import one of these and it'll work fine. Problem is they're not cheap. Looks like between 200 and 300 dollars. The one I keep hearing about is Micromsoft's XRGB-2+. Sadly it's now retired to make way for the newly released (and I suppose better)XRBG-3. At $289 it's not cheap, but if you have no other options it's a damn good solution.

As a side note, the Dreamcast can natively output in VGA, you just need the cable. And the game needs to support VGA. For a listing, check out HDgames.net.

In Conclusion

In the end, the only way to know for sure what works for you is to try it out in person. All this info is just that, info. If you dont want to do it in the store, buy one and try it at home. But be prepared and if it's not good enough, return it. Not all games will really be affected. The lag isn't long at all, and you may be fine living with it, depending on the games you play. Personally my set will be used mostly for games and movies, so it was important to me that the games worked well.

Hopefully you learned something here. I fear my rambling probably did more harm than good, but hopefully it's a start. If nothing else it's alerted you to the problem. This is new territory for me, since I've only recently been in the market for a HDTV. I never heard about this problem before I started digging, and just want to try and spread the word around so people know what they're getting into.

If there's anything wrong with the info above, please send me an email using the "contact us" link on the sidebar. And if you have any experience with this, leave a comment.

[Thanks to HDgames.net, HDTVArcade.com, HDTVlag and the AVS Forums]

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