Plasma HDTV Xbox Lag - Xpost from MP

[MyNameIsSamSnead]

Just bought a 42 inch Hitachi Plasma. I noticed there is a slight lag in the gameplay on my Xbox. I read up about it and it seems like there are some things I can buy out there to fix it.

Has anyone experienced this problem? What's the best thing to buy to fix it?

[capone0]

Regular Xbox? I think avsforum.com is going to be a better resource for a specific TV and problem.

[MyNameIsSamSnead]

Its not a TV specific problem. I think its the fact that its an HD and it can't process the information as fast as the "regular" Xbox spits it out.

[capone0]

I don't have a plasma or a regular X-box. I think that site is probally a much better resource for TV problems.

Is it just a sound lag issue. Then you can get a time lag device that slows down the sound to fit the screen. Or is it a TV processing issue, ie, you make a move but doesn't show up on the screen until later.

My TV, Samsung 6187 DLP doesn't have either problem, older DLPs had the first problem with some systems.

[MyNameIsSamSnead]

Yeah, its a processing issue....not sound. I'll push a button, or move the stick on the controller and it wont show up on the screen until a bit later. It's not much of a lag....half a second or so...but it makes a big difference.

[KyleC]

Do you have an xbox or a xbox 360? If you have a 360 do you have the HD cables? If you don't I believe that might be your problem..sorry only thing I can think of at the moment.

[baumer]

This is a problem that usually only happens with TVs that only display one resolution.

DLPs are the most common as they always have to convert video signals to their native resolution. I haven't heard of other HDTV types working this way but you might want to check out exactly how your TV handles certain resolutions.

It could be that the TV is set to upconvert any signal to 720p or 1080i or whatever, so when your Xbox display sends at 480i or 480p the processing causes the lag. If your TV lets you change this resolution setting try setting it to the same as the Xbox signal.

New consoles won't have this problem as they are all 720p (maybe not Wii, not sure) but Xbox and PS2 were horrible on older DLPs.

Guitar Hero II (PS2 game) addresses this issue with an in-game video lag compensator. I wish the PlayStation 2 and Xbox would get a firmware upgrade or something to support this from the operating system.

[MyNameIsSamSnead]

Its just a regular Xbox. I know there are HD cables for the regular Xbox too....I just wanted to make sure that would fix the problem before I go out and buy them. They don't have them at the bestbuy near my house so I'll prolly just order them online.

[cbloom]

baumer is right.

Your Xbox is outputting a non-HD signal usually (very few Xbox games actually support HD). Your TV is converting that to 720p or whatever it's native format is by buffering several frames.

On some TV's you can disable that and force it to just display the raw input.

Often you're just SOL.

Make sure your Xbox is set to HD/480p in the Dashboard video settings. Some games will auto-detect so the cable will actually fix it.

You can also buy a converter box that will fix it but they're expensive.

[Hattifnatt]

I have an Xbox 360 and a 43' Pionner Plasma and the only time I have experienced any lag have been when playing over Xbox Live vs someone with a slow connection (not sure that was the reason though).