There has been many a discussion from users experiencing input lag on the joystick while playing games.
I.e., there is a noticeable delay between moving the joystick and seeing the character move on the screen, perhaps about 100ms? While it seems a small amount, it can be infuriating when playing many games of this era, which require pixel-perfect, well-timed movement.
Some people have put this down to modern TVs doing a lot of processing on video signals prior to displaying them on your TV, some of which can be avoided if you switch your TV to game mode.
Some have reported that they feel the input lag comes from the provided game controller, and they find it reduces when they use another 3rd party game controller.
Others have felt that it relates to the TV (particularly larger 4K tvs) needing to upscaling the 720p output of the hardware to 1080p or higher.
Plugging the device into a computer monitor tends to fare better. If you have a modern monitor that accepts HDMI input and perhaps has internal speakers (or an audio out/headphone out socket), then you're in luck.
If your monitor only has a DVI connection, then you'll need a HDMI-to-DVI cable, although this will not carry audio. Some people have opted to use devices that can split the HDMI signal into an audio cable + DVI cable for the monitor.
Perhaps we can compile reports of which TV models are experiencing lag and which aren't?
| NO LAG | LAGS |
|---|---|
I've compiled the 8-bit guy's “delaytest.asm” into a .d64 file here:
http://gurce.net/c64mini_files/delaytest.d64
Just in case you want to try it and make your own measurements of your tv's lag.
It was re-assuring to read that c64 mini owners aren't the only ones experiencing lag on their TVs. Some Nintendo Classic mini owners have also reported lag problems:
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/in-my-opinion-lag-on-the-nes-classic-makes-games-unplayable.1328547/