Video Games: My Setup- Playing on a Monitor instead of TV

Maybe it's because I grew up playing PC video games, but I have always preferred playing console video games on a monitor instead of big TV screen that's 10 feet away.  I find that when the screen is just 2 feet away, my eyes tend to see all the small little details everywhere on the screen, whereas my eyes tend to just focus on the middle when it's a big screen that's 10-15 feet away.  Think about it: when you're on your PC, you're used to reading small text and looking for links or other information anywhere on the screen.  When you're watching TV, we're trained to focus on the center of the screen, because that's how movie makers shoot and edit the movies.  When's the last time that the important stuff happening in a movie was in the corner of the screen?  But if you're playing a console game, there is a lot of very critical information in small detail in the corners of the screen (like your radar showing where your opponents are).

Playing on monitors at a LAN party I hosted (click to zoom)

Also, it's worth noting that all the professional gamers at gaming tournaments are playing on screens that are 2-3 feet in front of them, but perhaps that's also because it's not practical to wheel in dozens of 55 inch TVs to those events.

There are some who think the monitor is superior to a TV for playing games because they believe HDTVs introduce significant amount of latency (or delay in the video) due to the heavy video processing done by the semiconductor chips in TVs (doing things like 120 Hz smooth motion, noise reduction, 1080p upscaling, etc).  These types of video enhancements require the chip to capture several frames of video and analyze them, before reconstructing the video frame that it displays.  This means the video you see can be delayed by as much as 1/10th of a second.  However, in reality, this is not really an issue for 2 reasons:

1. Most HDTVs have a "game" mode where it bypasses these video processing functions to eliminate the frame buffering delay
2. Consoles like the XBox 360 or PS3 can output the video at the TV's native resolution (720p or 1080p), which further reduces the amount of buffering the TV has to do.  More details on this are written up in a FAQ on the very technical AVS forums. 

If you're curious, here's a list of the hardware I use when I'm gaming, and few more pictures of my setup can be seen on my XIM3 review blog:

• Console: I play on the XBox 360 because that's what most of my friends have.  We play a lot of Halo and Call of Duty Black Ops, and the former is only available on the XBox.
• Monitor: 28 inch Hanns-G, which doubles as my monitor for my desktop PC.  Bigger IS better!  This monitor has a resolution slightly higher than 1080p at 1920x1200.  It does not have the greatest color fidelity if you're a serious photo editor, nor does it have the widest viewing angle, but it has a fast response time, is big, and relatively low cost.  It will be hard to go back to using smaller monitors for a PC after I got this.  I would not get anything smaller than 24 inches going forward.  If I had to do it again, I would try to find a 26-28 inch LED backlit monitor from one of the more respectable brands like LG, Samsung, HP, or Asus for better color fidelity.
• XIM3: This is a keyboard/mouse adapter for the XBox, and I wrote my review about it here.
• Logitech G13 as the keyboard.  I prefer this to a standard keyboard because the keys are nice and close.  The G13 is also very popular with the XIM3 players because you can use the thumb stick for movement instead of the typical "WASD" keys that PC gamers are used to.  I'm personally totally wired to use WASD keys for movement and don't want to bother trying to retrain my muscle memory for something else.
• Logitech G500 mouse, also the most popular mouse for XIM3 players.  If you're left handed, get a Razer or SteelSeries, because most Logitech mice are shaped for right handed users.  Besides having a nice ergonomic shape that fits right in my hand, the G500 also has a super high 5700 dpi resolution (which the XIM3 can take advantage of for better precision and smoother movements), and the G500 stores the button and DPI settings in its own onboard memory, something that most mice can only configure with the PC's driver software running.  This is important to allow the mouse to be completely configurable with the XIM3.  You can literally have every single button and click on the G500 to be assigned to a specific button normally used on the XBox controller.
• Astro Mixamp: Since I play mostly at night after the kids are asleep, I have to use headphones.  This device is the gold standard for pro gamers using headphones.  It takes in the Dolby Digital audio signal from the console, then applies the nifty Dolby Headphone processing that makes the stereo signal going to your headphones have a simulated surrond sound to it.  Surprisingly effective. In addition, it lets you control the blend between the voice chat and game audio sound levels, meaning you can make the voice chat louder or quieter relative to the game sound.
• Sennheiser PC360 Headset: I bought mine from a highly rated seller that's an authorized Sennheiser dealer on EBay called RazerDogDeals2008 for $190, much less than MSRP.  The reason I chose these cans instead of the well respected Astro A40 headphones is that the Sennheiser PC360 is an open enclosure design, meaning it does not seal your ears out from outside sounds.  Instead, you can hear anything through the acoustically transparent grills in the ear pieces.  This is a new trend in headphones with the theory that the sound is able to bounce around in the headphone in way that creates a bigger, more open soundstage.  Hey, sounds good to me, but the real reason I wanted this design was because sometimes my wife likes to make late night trips to Target or Safeway, and I need to be able to hear the kids if they are calling out for their parents.  That's it!  The bonus is that when I'm playing with my friends at a LAN party, we can forgo using the mics and hear ourselves calling out to each other live and in real time.

One other comment I'll make is that I avoid using wireless technology whenever possible.  For networking, wired ethernet is technically faster with less latency (i.e. lower ping time), and rock solid in reliability (it has never dropped on me).  For the headset, I have had playing sessions with my buddies who have wireless headset where they had to stop and take a time out to either change a battery, or troubleshoot noise or echo problems they were experiencing.  Having your equipment crap out on you in the middle of a game is about the worst thing that can happen for your team.  The day we see pro gamers at MLG tournaments using wireless headsets or wi-fi on the console is the day that I'll consider losing the wires.