What is Input lag?Input lag is a delay from the moment your output device (PC, Game console, DVD, etc.) sends an image to your TV to when it is finally displayed on your screen to see.more info can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag It is generally accepted that ALL display devices that are digitally based, LCD, Plasma, DLP, LCD projectors, anything thats not CRT based Have input lag, not to be confused with pixel lag which manufactures often advertise.ONLY CRT displays due to their purely analog nature are Lag free analog signal goes in analog signal is displayed.Digital Displays must convert any NON-digital signal (everything except HDMI and DVI are analog) into a digital signal to be processed and displayed, ALL LCD's even PC LCD's suffer from this delay. PC LCD's that are manufactured for gaming and general use primarily tend to be the fastest, offering near CRT speed of Display. many however can lag just as much if not even more than some HDTV LCD's. This is why using a CRT for these test is so important to insure that your baseline display is truly lag free. Using another LCD even a fast one can make a TV's input lag results appear to be LOWER (faster response) than it Really is. how much lower will depend on the LCD monitors lag (the fastest LCD's have been tested at 2-8 milliseconds with the average LCD monitor around 16ms witch is a whole frame delay, many LCD monitors can have lag in excess of 30ms (2+ frames delayed)that being said, most LCD PC monitor have low input lag because they are cheap and cheap means they are TN based (Twisted Nematic) most TN monitors do not use RTC or Overdrive and if they do they are not a good display to use as a control for these tests unless you can disable this feature in its menus (most newer PC monitors will allow this so check for it if your monitor has Overdrive mode)Input lag matters to many HDTV users, Mainly Gamers that like to play fast twitch FPS games, Fighting games (street fighter style), Music games (guitar hero/rock band) any game where timing is important. It can also effect Normal TV users that never play games and watch a lot of movies on their TV, depending on your setup. If you route all sound into your TV and do not have a surround receiver you are unlikely to see lip sync problems however, if you do use a Surround Receiver and it does not have HDMI or you are not using HDMI into the Receiver you may notice that the lip sync on your BD/DVD's is every so slightly off due to the sound output from your DVD player being plugged directly into the Receiver and is being played back when it is supposed to be played back. If you do see that happen in this type of situation it is likely you HDTV is DELAYING the video signal so much that you can notice it visually even in a movieGenerally most People cannot see or feel a difference of less than 30ms roughly 2 frames, some say they can but they are the rare few and likely younger people3 frames delayed seems to be a Grey area where some people can notice it and others cannot, if you can notice this much delay you can often adapt to it and become used to it but it can very much still impact your gaming performance in games played online most notably FPS games due to the need for leading moving targets in the game etc.4+ frames delayed is too much delay and should be readily noticeable to just about anyone if they took the time to notice it and is very detrimental to game playFor a visual example of how this effects your game play in FPS games here is a video of a guy playing counterstrike on a Sony EX5 (EX500 in the US)First you need a PC with a video card that has dual outputshook up the TV and CRT monitor to your PC's outputsSet your video card to output in "Clone mode" so the same image is displayed on both screens at the same timeGet a Digital camera with a high ISO setting (ISO 800 is often the best setting) If it has a shutter delay option set it to 1/60 so they CRT and LCD will both be clear to see in every picture, if this is not set the CRT will have a rolling Horizontal Dark line as you can see in many pictures I've messed up for you belowif your testing with both displays being LCD you can rasie the shutter speed as high as your camera will allow to get clearer and more consitant resultslast step is to go to the webpage in the link below in Rule #1 and scroll down till you find the Input lag timer and once you got everything setup the way you want it and camera ready to go, hit start and start snapping photospost the pictures here with a summery of results if you have time to figure that out (frame delay is more important than figuring MS differences)#1you must post Pictures of your results using the input lag timer here are a few free onesI also have a more accurate timer called SMTT, i had to pay for it but they allow you to freely distribute it to people just not on a website soif you wish to Purchase a copy of a different version of SMTT you can do so at their website, if you do buy another version of SMTT please contact me if you wish to give me a copy so i can distribute it to future people who wish to test their displays and are not running Vista/Win7 x64, the cost of the program is 5 Euro'sSMTT will provide you will much more accurate results because it uses DirectX and unlocks the V-Sync of your graphics card's outputs, allthough the timer's down the side of the screen appear to not be in sync they in fact are. all displays scan from top to bottom and as the update happens on your display the timer keeps on advancing and that is the reason for the added accuracy of SMTT provided that your PC has enough CPU power to exceed 1000 FPS for the given resolution your at (my Core 2 Duo E4500 that is oc'd to 3.4ghz clocks around 2000 fps at 1920 x 1080)when using this program you always want to take the highest visible number on both displays to use to draw your input lag result and if you do this you will end up with very consistent results. its extremely accurate#2tell us what model TV(s) involved in the test and what their relevant settings are for each test (game mode, PC mode etc..)#3it is preferred that you have a CRT display as your baseline for the comparison but if you do not a fast PC LCD is ok or another TV that has been tested before by someone vs a CRT is ok BUT, please state that you did not use a CRT and what the average lag is of the display is that you used from another source tested vs CRT if possible, if not thats ok, but results should be taken as the difference between the 2 LCD's that have been tested in your photos and not as an accurate reading of the input lag of either display obviously#4Make sure you also test your video cards outputs for delay by switching the display connections (ex, TV connected to #1 input Monitor on #2, take a handful of shots, then switch the monitor to #1 and the TV to #2 ) The reason for this is so far at least one user using a Geforce 260 has discovered that there is consistently a 1 frame delay from his primary connector to his secondary connector on his video card, all others so far have not experienced this including other Nvidia cards and ATI cards but it should always be checked so we can insure more accurate results#5 to obtain the best possible results you need to have a control display that is capable of displaying your test subject's (TV) native resolution, for 1080p LCD TV's this is 1920 x 1080. CRT monitor rarely are able to display this resolution but many of them can if you force the resolution on them but you may/can damage your monitor if you do this so be aware. 1920 x 1080 native TN LCD monitors are ideal for these tests and many of them exist these days, if your monitor is lower resolution like 1680 x 1050 (very common for 22" TN monitors) this can work fairly good still at least with Nvidia card's because what happens is when you set clone mode for 1680 x 1050 Nvidia's by default recognize that your TV will not accept that resolution and automatically upscale it to 1920 x 1080. this does result in some inaccuracy of results but in my own tests the Nvidia scalier in my GF 8800 GT is very fast and only adds around 5ms of lag by doing this (i also have a CRT that will display 1920 x 1080 when its forced to do it)IPS = low input lag 0-16 ms(IPS-Pro made by IPS-Alpha (panasonics) S-IPS (made by LG LCD display)xVA = 30+ ms input lag often in the 45-60ms range in game modes for most TV's that use this panel type(S-PVA, MVA type panels found in sony, samsung and many major brand TV's sold today. they are manufactured for the most part by S-LCD (sony/samsung owned company) AU Optronics and Chi MeiTN = low input lag but not found in 95% of LCD TV's due to poor picture quality and not made in large sizes etc.the reason for VA's wide usage is simple. its cheaper to manufacture in large sizes and offers better static contrast ratios over IPS panels making for the best picture in LCD's. The problem is VA LCD panel type by its nature has a very poor pixel response speed in excess of 16ms natively with many G2G transitions so in order to fix this major flaw these panels must employ RTC short for Response Time Compensation or Pixel Overdrive as it was called by many LCD monitor manufactures when it first came out. The problem for gamers with RTC is in order for it to work the panel's TCON must buffer a few frames to analyze them for changes then tell the pixels to change state faster via over voltage the control transistors for the pixels by a certian amount depending on how much the change wasThat being said there are VA displays that can produce good lag numbers at or under 30ms, samsung A series and toshiba 40xv645u are examples of this as well as sharp TV's with Vyper Drive (these sharp TV's use ASV panels and are a variation of VA tech) from what i've seen though these displays achieve low input lag by reducing how much RTC is used in the signal processing and it can create more pixel blur than is normal esp with dark images like moving a dark gray box over a black background will result in visible smear and ghosting yet more common transitions are still fast. this is a trade off us gamers will have to live with if we want TV's that perform good for gaming but can also produce great TV/movie picture qualityIPS panels naturally have a good response time and do not require the use of RTC to bring their response time down to the level that a person cannot see pixel smearing but they cannot even begin to compare to VA panels with black levels without resorting to backlight dimming tricks (panasonic calls it A.I. Picture) that being said it is not to be assumed that an IPS does not use RTC and is lag free, only Panasonic's with IPS-Pro panels (many of their 32/37 720/1080p panel's in the past few years have had these panels) have next to no input lag consistently, LG IPS TV's can vary from fast to ok or worse possibly and the 120hz+ models will likely be laggy unless they have a special mode that defeats the 120hz modehere is some sample photos from LG Display comparing pixel response time of IPS and VAother factors can be involved in input lag though like the speed of a certian TV's internal scalier when its given a non-native resolution as well as video processing circuitry like noise reduction and most of all 120hz/motion enhancers though all of these things can be overcome by disabling them in most all TV's so this is often not the real problem for most gamers unless you plan on using older consoles/Wii's with your TV (720p scaling can be a concern for PS3 owners as well)An easy method to see if an LCD is VA is to press on the screen when a black/dark image is on screen see photo below also from LG Displayhere i will divide the tested TV's into 3 sections as followshave no more than 2 frames delayed when in a certain mode that reduces lagwill be in the middle section, what i call the gray area, the TV's that end up in between 2 and 3 frames delayed and casual gamers will have no issues with most of these TV'sare for TV's with more than 3 frames delayed, some of the faster ones maybe ok to some gamers but overall these TV's will have very noticeable input lag to the majority of gamers out there today unless they only play games that are not sensitive to input lag but even then they just don't realize its there, ignorance is bliss as they say(results from 650 gamers lag thread ) S-PVA panel is likely for A series Samsungs, these are the only VA's that have achieved low input lag due to a special PC mode that hurts Picture Quality dramatically by owners accounts (it may very well be turning off RTC and is much of the cause of the PQ hit)Average lag: 0-1 frame delayAverage lag: 0-1 frame delayAverage lag: 0-1 frame delayAverage lag: 1-2 frame delayAverage lag: 3-4 frame delayAverage Lag: 3-4 frame delayAverage Lag: 4-6 frame delayAverage lag: 1-2 frame delayIPS-Pro panel0-1 frame delay0-1 frame delay1-2 frame delay (closer to 1 than 2 but definitely a bit more lag than 1080p)IPS-Pro panel0-1 frame delay in game mode or out does not matterIPS-Pro panel0-1 frame delay just like its little brother1 frame delay (13ms) very good result for a non native resolutionIPS-Pro panel0 input lagHere's a youtube video of his testslikely to be a VA panel just like my Toshiba but is unknown1-2 Frame Delay3-4 Frame DelaySharp's ASV Panel a variation of VA tech only found in Sharp TV'sAV Mode: GameFine Motion Enhanced: OnActive Contrast: OnLag: 2 framesAV Mode: GameFine Motion Enhanced: OnActive Contrast: OnLag: less than 1 frame2 frames delayed1 frame delay3 frames delayed2 frames delayed2 frames delayed (25ms roughly)3 frames delayed (48ms)Lag numbers are listed in Standard mode then Game modeRemember 1 frame= 16.6ms and they performed these tests on a laptop with an inaccurate timer program so +10ms input lag should be added for a more realistic number on these results2-1/2 frames delayed (42ms)2 frames delayed9 frames delayed 156ms input lag!2 frames delayed! (31ms)S-LCD made S-PVA panel confirmed by myself (its my TV!) i took the back cover off to check it2-3 frames delay2-3 frames delay2-3 frames delay2-3 frames delay2-3 frames delay2-3 frames delayVA panel of some sort it could be a S-PVA or a MVA due to samsungs use of 2 different brand panels in their TV's2-3 frame delay2-3 frame delay2-3 frame delay2-3 frame delaytook the back cover off my set to see what panel it had it is made by samsung (not S-LCD) and is made in china definitely a VA panelAverage lag 1-2 frames delayed (27ms averaged over 11 pictures 34/20 HIGH/LOW results) see notes for reason why its not in the green section2-3 frames delayed (30-50ms lag)here is proof of this from forum member Odysseus18Lag numbers are listed in Standard mode then Game modeRemember 1 frame= 16.6ms and they performed these tests on a laptop with an inaccurate timer program so +10ms input lag should be added for a more realistic number on these results- min 54ms (3.25 frames), average 69ms (4 frames).all advanced image processing options OFF - min 61ms (3.5-ish frames), average 67ms (4 frames).all advanced image processing options ON and maxed out - min 59ms (3.5 frames), average 65ms (4 frames).- I didn't test this with SMTT but using the Wii in this mode was almost unplayable. Horrible input lag. Avoid at all costs (use the component cable instead).- As soon as I switched the Wii to use a component cable and ran in 480p it felt just like the XBox 360 in 1080p (i.e. about 3-4 frames of input lag).VA panel of some sort it could be a S-PVA or a MVA due to samsungs use of 2 different brand panels in their TV's3-4 frame delay6 frames delayed3-4 frame delay5 frames delayed5 frames delayedhere's his youtube video of the test, he used a high speed capable camera for the testCMO Panel3-4 frames delayed (50-60ms lag)5.5 frames delayed, 94ms input laghere's a youtube video showing how bad the input lag is on this TVwho cares what panel it had it was terribleAvoid at all costs, I owned this TV briefly before i Knew about input lag and how to test it but I can tell you that when i had it connected via VGA at 720P (its native res) it looked ok picture wise but input lag in windows with mouse movements were EXTREMELY apparent. If i had to guess it lags at least in the 80-100 MS range maybe even higher it was very bad !! not fit for gaming everIt should pretty much go without saying that you should never buy a cheapo brand TV if you want a TV with low input lag, major players like sony and samsung cannot even get good lag numbers so its pretty unlikely that any cheap off brand or best buy house brand model TV is going to perform good input lag wise, Vizio may be the only exception to this rule but i've heard very mixed results on how they perform input lag wise ranging from good to terribleLag numbers are listed in Standard mode then Game modeRemember 1 frame= 16.6ms and they performed these tests on a laptop with an inaccurate timer program so +10ms input lag should be added for a more realistic number on these results