3 ms·
TL;DR: Apparently, Duck Hunt (NES Zapper) only works on CRTs because they don't have input lag.
by listic 11y ago
TL;DR: Apparently, Duck Hunt (NES Zapper) only works on CRTs because they don't have input lag.
- FussyZeus 11y agoAnyone feel like putting up an explanation for why CRTs are faster than LCDs? Something I've always been curious about.
- anon4 11y agoLCDs do smart processing. In the past reaction time of the crystals was also kind of slow, but that isn't a factor nowadays. It's just the various filters that are applied on top of the image to make it "pop" more. Edit: some high-hz TVs can have 2 or even 3 frames of lag, due to having frame interpolation algorithms that take a 23.97/24/25/30/etc signal and interpolate it to the native 144hz. The frame interpolation algorithm needs to know 2 or 3 frames in advance, so it buffers up those.
- neckro23 11y agoAn LCD has to buffer the entire frame, then process it, then display it, and there's also a small delay for the crystals to transition to the new frame. Meanwhile, a CRT shows the frame as it's still being transmitted, while the source computer is streaming each line out from the video buffer, with only a negligible delay (analog electron beams are fast!). This means a maximum of a 1/60-second delay even if the source is composing the whole frame beforehand (double buffering). If the source is doing computation between the scan lines (very common and even necessary on old systems, like the Atari VCS) that delay can be shrunk even further.
- FussyZeus 11y agoSo then how does the TV's with things like "game mode" or whatever handle this? I assume some delay is inevitable based on your explanation (and it still feels slow) but I guess it just dumps the filtering and processing to what's bare minimum required?
- jerf 11y agoIn a nutshell, yes. I think there is some variance in what precisely they do, but that's the essence. If you don't like the postprocessing the TV does, which I often don't, "game" mode is often a good solution.