Calling Rhythm Gamers! Your experience with the VG room's TVs is needed!
Hiya. I'm Troy McClure... actually, I'm PhoenicIan, the fellow who was in charge of the DDR tournament the last couple of years.
Yeah, those TVs looked awesome, and I certainly appreciate the new equipment -- but, they made it a terrible pain on the DDR players. Some might recall me being nearly driven to the fetal position with complaints about timing, to the point where I covered the screen with towels and laughed maniacally by the end of Sunday. (Offhand, any word you might hear of threats of violence with screwdrivers is a complete falsehood *cough*)
So yeah, if there's any way that plasma or classic CRTs can be obtained, that would make things worlds easier on us rhythm gamers.
Admittedly, it's considerably easier to deal with on games like Rock Band, where the method for adjusting the timing is much easier and more open, and obviously meant to deal with such issues; however, on DDR, the mechanic is a lot older, clunkier, and well, more useless.
Having played in the DDR tournament and a bit of DDR outside of that I can confirm the sync issues. If I can verify my own TV would work without those issues I'd bring it in myself for next year.
Any old-style TV would work perfectly, in all honesty; it's a matter of (A) a screen large enough to be comfortably and easily visible, (B) transporting said equipment, (C) if such equipment will be allowed under Anthrocon's rules.
That said, something like that would make the DDR tournament considerably easier, most likely. Just ahve that one TV dedicated to rhythm gaming and whatnot.
Wanted to comment about some things related to DDR and other bemani:
1) Every time I see somebody be this "super expert in bemani so I'm going to OMG supply everything" I see the SAME MISTAKES MADE. For christ's sake if you're going to host DDR and bring a memory card PLEASE TURN OFF DANCE PLAY SETTINGS BEFOREHAND. It's VERY annoying to have the corner buttons active and accidentally bumped by one's feet and throw off the game.
Related to this: if you're going to bring DDR Extreme US, the game does not have an option in the menus for turning this off. However, the ability to set this is in the memory data. So whoever is supplying all games next year should try to look into the "hacked" memory save that turns off dance play settings but has all songs (including "Memories")
2) When DDR was first being played, after fixing the dance play settings, the timing was clearly off. I adjusted it and after a while had it REALLY timed well. AAA-able well. However I heard later that the timing was thrown off. I was told that external speakers were plugged in. Please don't do that unless it's COMPLETELY necessary (e.g. speakers that are on the TV are whisper quiet or simply broken). More devices means more headaches. The audio was fine. I'm not sure why external speakers were added.
3) If available, I've heard that decent quality Panasonic TVs have a REALLY nice "game mode" available that has been praised by many bemanifreaks as practically lag free. The downside being... well... cost. I am not sure about the cost of these TVs and do not expect one to run out and buy them. But trying to find TVs that have a decent "game mode" is what one should be aiming for.
I may not be the best at DDR but I know enough to know when game play is not being consistent enough. I may go ahead and stock up on newer fully unlocked saves for DDR and load them back onto my memory card and let you guys make use of it (or just copy the saves).
Jouva:
You weren't really in the gaming room this year (2010) that much at all, from what I remember. I brought most of the equipment, except for the TVs. They sure as hell weren't Panasonics, that's for sure. Anyways, I know damn well about Dance Play settings, and I know damn well about fixing timing -- the system for it in older DDR games sucks terribly. Also, no external speakers were used this year -- I learned after seeing it happen last year.
So, yeah. Good advice, if a year late. >_>
Oh I know YOU know about the dance play settings. But I'll be damned if every time somebody else comes by and brings the bemani games and has it on. When I was there for the initial open play, it was not your games or memory card or PS2. As for the TV I was suggesting the use of Panasonic. Probably out of budget for one to get. But if it's available through somebody's connections, it might be a good idea. Or any similar quality TV.
I'm confused about why somebody told me that the sync was way off after it got fixed though and also said there were external speakers being added. From the way it sounded, it was after it was adjusted. *shrug*
Hopefully though, the older TV will be available, or some decent TV with a nice game mode will be, cause no amount of lag adjustment ever really feels right compared to a lag free TV.
But yeah these are just comments for next year.
We will definitely be bringing back the one remaining CRT for the DDR station next year. If we can get some very generous fur to donate the use of a newer AND less laggy TV, that would be thoroughly awesome. ^_^ If I remember correctly, the loan of external speakers were offered before the con, but was politely declined for lag reasons. I thought the TV speakers did just fine.
This might be somewhat early to think about, PhoenicIan, but would you rather have the DDR tournament in the middle station next year for some added space?
So it sounds like the Rock Band folks were able to toy with the synchronization enough that it wasn't as much of a problem, but the DDR station should not have one of the new flat screens next year. As Kage has noted, one of the old CRTs is still in AC storage; we will make sure that TV makes it to the game room next year.
Another option that is always open (in fact, we rely fairly heavily on it) is a loan from the community. Two of the TVs at 2010 belonged to a local fur who was kind enough to haul them to the convention and allow us to use them. (the two that were devoted to Street Fighter/BlazBlue if anyone's wondering) If anyone in the area has a TV that wouldn't cause too many headaches in the DDR sync department, and wouldn't mind sweaty furs dancing in front of it all weekend, we would appreciate borrowing it. But we'll worry more about that closer to the con.
'Kiric
So folks are kept informed, the worst that would most likely happen is the fact that the volume would be somewhat high for an extended period of time, and perhaps someone might lean on it for a moment so the screen might get fingerprinty. Not like some windex won't fix that. So yeah, the biggest issue really is transporting a big-enough TV to and from the convention.
Many thanks, by the way, for being so helpful with the tournament and all the equipment; the gaming room staff at AC sure put up with a lot of stuff, and did a fantastic job of keeping things in order this year,
One other note re: tournaments; I was rather suprised that the other games were allowed to keep their volume as high as they were while there were tournaments going on. During the Pokemon Puzzle League tournaments, we often heard people playing the fighting games screaming over knockouts/big combos...and I believe the same was going on during DDR. Shouldn't the entire focus of the room where a tournament is going on be on the tournament itself?
Most TVs have a "video game mode" that turns off all the extra processing that adds latency. Check for one on these new TVs.
Going through the menus and turning off any image processing you can find will also help.
I'll be happy to drop in on Thursday next year and look into it if no one's been able to figure it out by then, but I know you're a smart bunch of guys so I doubt I'll be needed. Good luck. 
I highly doubt we'll be able to figure anything out before Thursday pre-con next year. ^_^ The TVs in question are in Pittsburg under careful lock and key and we're all the way over here by Philly.
Playing with menus is now on the list of things-to-do for Thursday's setup time. You're welcome to stop by and give it a try!
Also, re: non-tournament noise during tournament time, that one completely slipped our radar. For 2011, we'll look into either stopping open gaming during tournaments or significantly reducing volume levels depending on how many stations are being used during the tournament.
'Kiric
I have to ask since i have installed a few TV's my self. What type of TV is it I know there are some problems with some types of TV's. A non plasma HD TV will have no problem but when you have a Plasma HD TV which I should note. Are not recommended for game play for a few experiences where the logo of the game burned into the screen and also lag issues. I don't know but sometimes a plasma TV does not want to refresh as much as the game requires too many moving parts you see. That is why it is not so wise to just buy a TV and think that because it is flat screen HD it will look awesome. Most of the time you have to look at the specs of the TV before you buy it because after you buy it and it does not work then you might have thrown about 1200 at a piece of crap.
(Edited)
I'm sure everyone who stopped by the VG room noticed the brand-spanking new flat TVs that Kage generously bought for us last year.
A few gamers discretely (ie. tearfully) mentioned to us that they had some sync issues with the rhythm games, especially DDR and Rock Band. We might be able to bring back 1-2 of the older, heavier TVs to help combat this issue next year, but we'd like to know how many of you actually noticed before giving Kage the horrible news that he'll have to lug those huge monstrosities from the AC storage locker next year. ^_^
Thanks all!
'Kiric and turtyl
vg-gaming@anthrocon.org