To start off here are my preferred Specs:
720P
Widescreen
PC compatible(not required)
8ms responce time or less
20+ inches
Wide viewing angle
P.I.P. (not required)
Lighwieght

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What I have:
$700+/- a few extra
Discounts at: Ultimate Electronics(%varied), Circuit City(%Varied), Target(%10)
Tax here is .065

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What Ive found:
Syntax Olevia 26inch LCD @Compusa for $550
Samsung 23inch LCD @ Circuit City for $611

reviews on each of those TVs are very favorable,

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I will be using this mostly with my Xbox360 and as a PC moniter. Modify my specs all you want if there' s better out there.

VX has that Samsung, -- it' s also Microsoft' s choice of model for 360 display units (although every one i' ve seen was set up incorrectly).

Saying that, i know jack about HDTV' s. I do know that 720P gaming is awesome though, i play with a monitOr and have been very happy with the results!

After I posted that I ended just biting the bullet and went and got the Syntax (cheaper larger and just about equal specs as the samsung one)...I back at work and awaiting to see how it looks.
I did preview it by looking at the dashboard. I freaked out thinking the TV was crap at first then I realized in needed to changed the console settings to 720p...my eyes have never felt better...the dashboard alone looked so smooth and oooo so lovly. Just a few more hours of work and I get to expeirence my very first HD game...

Later on Im gonna go pick up these :headphones. and be in top notch budget gaming heaven :)

GRAW in 720p is glorious!

The native resolution is 1366 x 768, and 360 has a setting for exactly that. It' s probably the best setting the console supports too! Welcome to the fold brother!

those headhpones look sweet. It really sucks trying to use regular headphones and a headset at the same time. Let us know how they are.

The native resolution is 1366 x 768, and that' s " true" 720P

No it isn' t. True 720p is 1280x720. That' s 768p which is not any kind of HDTV standard at all. It' s a PC resolution. Weirdly most LCD HDTVs have oddball resolutions like 1366x768 for some odd reason, probably due to the LCD manufacturers themselves. This is their native resolutions and everything without exception is either up or downscaled to that mode.

Ok, but aren' t 1366 x 768 and 1360 x 768 WXGA and used in widescreen LCD HDTV' s to achieve a 720p in 16:9?!

The samsung screens are really great, in both HD gaming and watching TV on them, i have the 40 inch model of the one you wrote about!


I havent heard about Syntax, but you decide to return it, get the samsung!

Ok, but aren' t 1366 x 768 and 1360 x 768 WXGA and used in widescreen LCD HDTV' s to achieve a 720p in 16:9?!

Real 720p is scaled to those resolutions, so you don' t get a 1:1 pixel resolution and therefore not as sharp as real 720p could be. Set your Xbox360 for those weird-ass resolutions if it lets you and hook it up with a VGA connection if it lets you. Or else do not buy an LCD TV. Wait until real HDTV LCD TVs come out.

Ah!

See, this is why i said to ask you...

EDIT: Actually Joe, i have a 5:4 CRT with a native resolution of 1280 x 1024, i guess selecting that resolution from 360' s display menu (as i have done) is the correct thing to do. But, -- does it scale down to, 720p?!

For that kind of budget and screen size the best option would be CRT TV - you won' t encounter lag issues when playing Wii :)

I think they make them in 768 as native resolution to make them look more HD than 720p - people think that higher resolutions can support everything below but it' s not true - like Joe said it would hurt the image.At the same time scaling up or down causes lag.

Look for native 720p TV for 360.And be sure to set the right resolution in your 360 (to match the native res of your TV)

Also be sure to check it at your local shop with some games you know - even the smallest lag can ruin gameplay.


The best way to plug your 360 to a native 1366x768 is through VGA cable cause it' s a PC resolution.

CRTs don' t need to scale. They put out multiple resolutions, it isn' t really a native resolution, it is the maximum resolution. And 1280x1024 would be upscaling not downscaling from 1280x720 (720p).

And I don' t know what kinda crap equipment you use gangsta but I' ve never used any that " lags" when scaling the resolution.

And lag is supposed to be used for network connections only, if you use it any other way you are a nub and my respect for you goes down to 0.

All monitors have a native resolution. My monitor' s native resolution is 1280 x 1024, but i can set it to 1920 x 1200 if i want/need.

My question was; if i set it to the native resolution of my monitor, would it scale to 720p or to something else?! loco, you' re saying it scales it down to 720p?!

At the same time scaling up or down causes lag.

You' re talking about slight framerate issues when playing in 1080i?!

I don' t know your monitor' s specs. If it is a computer monitor and CRT, then it is likely multiscan, which means it does not have a native resolution... just a maximum and a minimum (usually 640x480) resolution. If the monitor can display a certain resolution, you won' t see an image. No scaling up or down is going on (and thus no lag whatsoever). It displays what you input to it.

EDIT: Lag is the term used to describe the time between when you press a button on your controller and when the consequential action happens onscreen. LCDs and the like must process the image up or down to their native resolution and this takes time. Try plugging an NES into an LCD HDTV and playing Megaman 2. Now try jumping across the falling platforms near the beginning of Bubbleman' s stage. VERY difficult to do because of the lag. This can even affect CRT HDTVs. I tried playing Megaman 2 via an emulator on my Dreamcast which was hooked up via S-video. My Sony HDTV has three native resolutions: 1080i, 960i and 480p. My Dreamcast was running in 480i so even though it looked like an interlaced screen, it was actually doing some processing (actually upscaling to 960i), causing my jumps to be difficult. I then hooked my DC up via component and it runs in 480p. No more lag issues at all, jumps work great! This lag will be even worse on LCDs.

Never had any " lag" using my DC in 640x480 with VGA or S-video, or an xbox 1 with component 480p and 480i or 360 using 720p on my roomates LCD TV.

But 360 games are formatted for 480p, 720p and 1080i. You' re saying that because i selected 1280 x 1024 from the menu because my monitor supports it, that the games are displaying in that resolution?!

I figured the machine just scaled it.

Oh! I often have to manually re-size vertically. So even if it' s putting out 1024, when i correct the vertical stretching it ends up being something like 720p anyway?

1366 x 768 or higher is what you want, there is no 1240X720 HD tv. Whatever you do don' t try and save money by getting those fucking cheap ED TVs, which is basically standard TV in Widescreen. Actually screw LCDs entirely, I hate LCDs, they' re full of bullshit and in my opinion besides being in HD are a severe downgrade from even CRTs, a HD crt is king, with a HD crt you' ll never have dead pixels, ghosting or bad black levels. The only problem is that they can weigh almost 300 pounds. A healthy alternative to both although I would still choose a good HD CRT even if I have to bring it in my room upstairs, is DLP. DLP is somewhere in between LCD and CRT, they are halfway between LCDS and CRT in terms of weight and size. They have no dead pixels, no ghosting on newer models (even on the cheap). The only thing with DLP is that they have a unique problem called the rainbow effect, basically the colours bleed. Although the newer models don' t even have this problem. A new DLP is close to CRT in terms of visual quality.



Incase you don' t want to read what I' ve written, HD CRT>DLP>LCD. I would look into DLP since you want something light. Price wise they' re comparable to LCDs. Just do your research to make sure it doesn' t have the " rainbow effect" , DLPs have a " color wheel" and the newer ones spin faster to prevent the rainbow effect.

Ok Ive ran my TV thru a gauntlet of things. First off thanks for the help and please continue the discussion as I may find a reason to take back the TV I now have.

Now to chat up the TV (Syntax Olevia 26 HVX). First I turned it on which was quick and painless. Then I proceeded to probing the living hell out of it with various wires and what not. Throw the laptop here, plug that there insert the 360 elsewhere. I setup the laptop first as then i coudl look for oddities by throwing up immobile objects. That stuff was easy. Took a bit to get the right settings for my small laptop screen to display properly on the widescreen.

I looked at a few things picked out a new background and did various pointless things. Looks nice so far I cant spot a single deformity in the screen. Realizing Im wasting my cheap TVs potential I imediatly switched the source for the one my 360 was on and turned the console on as well.

The very first reaction to my first steps into HD gaming were..." WHERE THE FUCK IS THE PICTURE?!" Panic ensued i flipped the tv off then on tried different sources when it finally struck me. FLip the lil switch from TV to HDTV..duh I turned the 360 off flipped the switch and promptly turned the 360 back on.

Reaction numero 2: " That fucking repulsive!" for the image was stretched out and resolution look none a bit better then my old Sony Trinitron 19 inch flatscreen peice of shit. But again a moment of realization. I jumped to the console settings section and adjusted everything accordenly. HDTV, 720p, so on and so forth and viola! My eyes melted at the sight (insert joke about my avatar here). Everything was so clear and smooth and oo god ya ooooo oo sweet jesus give me more! So me that legible text o fuck ya give me some easy to distinguish icons fuck ya!!!

I didnt wanna kill over so i started off slowly by throwing in a few DVDs checking out the once black bar zone is no longer. A few moments later and I was ready to throw in my first game...but now a hard choice insued...which one first?

Elder Scrolls Oblivion? PGR3? Fight Night R3? GRAW? CoD2?!?!? Which o which should it be...

I ended up closing my eyes and throwing my hand out at random. Hitman Blood Money was to go in first. Not the best visually but a good start to things to come. A few missions later and it was time to bump it up a notch to COD2. Much better visuals then came elder scrolls then graw and finally Fight Night. OMG FN looked fuckn amazing. I new there was gonna be some differences between TVS but for fuck sake I honestly wasnt expecting nothing liek this. SO many missed details no o so clear....

fuck ill have to continue this later as my girlfriends calling...

1366 x 768 or higher is what you want, there is no 1240X720 HD tv

But if 1240 x 720 IS 720p, then what does that make 1366 x 768?!

the time between when you press a button on your controller and when the consequential action happens onscreen

...isn' t that specifically referred to as " latency" ???