I want an HDTV ... now what?

[travismp]

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I want to get an HDTV, but do not know where to start. I know there is alot to read, but wow... I thought I would talk to people who have something currently. What looks good, what does not work, what to stay away from, any extra cables... anything worth mentioning. What brands suck, what brands are nice... LCD vs. Plasma? Where should I buy from?

This will be for my family room in the basement. Not a lot of natural light, mostly dark, about 12 feet from the couch to the wall where the TV will be. I also will get a tivo, and surround sound package at the same time. I am wanting to spend $3500 - $4500 not too much more than that total. Mostly watching TV shows, a few movies and a few sporting events, but mostly used for television. I might hook a media center PC up as well if possible.

Thanks all.

 

[Ron_dK]

Take a look at the low priced stuff in this thread :

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=117409

 

[Matt Greatorex]

For what it's worth, I've got one of these mounted on the wall and I can't fault it.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/PlasmaTV/SPR4232XXAA.asp?page=size_contents

The picture's excellent and, even without additional surround-sound speakers (next on my list), position your chair right and it really does sound like you're in the middle of the action.

 

[Ron_dK]

For what it's worth, I've got one of these mounted on the wall and I can't fault it.

What programs are you watching Matt. I mean, I am not going to invest hugh amounts of euro's for the usuall crab that is broadcasted over here, unless one is watching DVD's, but for that you don't need HD TV to have a perfect display and sound

 

[Rich]

What programs are you watching Matt. I mean, I am not going to invest hugh amounts of euro's for the usuall crab that is broadcasted over here, unless one is watching DVD's, but for that you don't need HD TV to have a perfect display and sound

Have you seen HD tv ?

 

[Vassago]

The main things to consider are the pros and cons of each type of set. I would steer away from Plasma because of burn-in issues and price. I like LCD, LCOS, and DLP. They are cheapter and do not have the burn in issues, which are pretty common from what I have experienced. I have a 61" DLP Samsung and I personally LOVE it. In my opinion it had the best picture out of every TV I looked at, and I looked at dozens of them.

LCD tvs are nice, but I don't like the screen door effect you get from them. I also don't like the ghost effect you can sometimes see in areas of bright white surrounded by blackness. It makes people have a halo of sorts around them.

LCOS are nice, but they can get pixellated in areas of fast movement.

DLP is my favorite. Some people can see rainbows on older models during areas of fast movement, but newer models have more advanced color wheels, so it's becoming more difficult to see them. I saw them on the first generation DLPs, but not on any since then, including mine.

Be aware that most HD tvs take longer to process the image, varying by milliseconds between the different types of displays, so if you plan on using surround sound, you must make sure that your sound system has some sort of sound delay feature or that you can output the sound from the tv to the sound system in 5.1 passthrough. My Samsung unfortunately does not output 5.1, only 2.0, so I hvae to rely on the sound delay on my reciever, which is fine, but needs to be adjusted every now and then based on what I am watching.

The other issue is gaming. If you plan on using the tv for gaming, you must make sure it has a gaming mode of sorts that eases up on the video processing, or you may experience video lag where the video is going to slow for you to press buttons at the appropriate time.

Finally, make sure you READ READ READ. My favorite forum for electronics is AVSForum.com. They have detailed ifnormation on every major TV released with reviews, opinions, problems, etc for you to research. If it wasn't for that forum, I wouldn't have known what to do. They helped me nail down my selection. They also get nice discounts sometimes from certain companies for their forum members only. (I got my tv through an affiliate of theirs with free shipping and about 15% off retail price.)

Happy Hunting!

 

[Rich]

I haven't had any burn in problem and I've had a plasma for three years

 

[Vassago]

I haven't had any burn in problem and I've had a plasma for three years

You've been lucky. Of course, it also depends on how much you watch it. Seeing as how you're ALWAYS here, we know you don't watch much tv, if any at all.

I've also found that burn-in is more noticable on larger displays than smaller displays. It'll also only happen if there is a constant on the screen, such as a tv station logo or if you're using it for gaming.

 

[Rich]

Yes I know but doesn't burn in still happen on conventional cathode ray tubes?

 

[Ron_dK]

Have you seen HD tv ?

Certainly.
A guy I know well was working at Philips in NL and showed me some of the early developments in HD TV back in 1992 ( prototype). At that stage I was flabbergasted by the high quality of the screen. Unfortunately, Philips stopped with the exercise in 1993 and it was only until somewhere in 2004 that this thing came back alive.

Today's broadcasting in HD is rarely and predominantly focussed on football matches. ( I don't like football ).

The technology in HD TV is mainly two types : progressive or interlined ( if that's the correct english word for it) . Progressive is for fast moving "pictures" , whereas interlined is more suitable for slower ones.
The same guy, I refered to above, invited me for a demo of the various types and systems in HD TV. Again I was stunned by the screen quality level, but as with so many of these new inventions, I think you'll have to give it time to evolve to a further level. And if one waits a couple of years, prices will probably drop to some € 1000, which makes it affordable.

And as I stated earlier the level of programs they broadcast over here is
getting worse, lots of pulp, for which I don't need HD TV to watch .

 

[Rich]

Yes no matter how good the display, content still plays the most important part. You could download some of the WMHDV clips
As for prices dropping, how long do you wait? My plasma is now about half the price I paid three years ago

 

[Ron_dK]

You could download some of the WMHDV clips

Thanks for the tip Rich.
Will get to downlaod some from http://hd-videos.wmhdv.com/hd-videos.php when I 'll get home in the afternoon.

 

[Rich]

Yes they are stunning quality, I can't fault Microsoft for it's enthusiasm in this area, the only fault I can find is that their DVD's are not available here

 

[Vassago]

The technology in HD TV is mainly two types : progressive or interlined ( if that's the correct english word for it) . Progressive is for fast moving "pictures" , whereas interlined is more suitable for slower ones.

Not true. Progressive is ALWAYS better than Interlined video. Basically, internlined video has half the lines displayed per frame, and the other half displayed the next frame. Progressive shows the entire picture every frame.

HD signals are predominately 720p or 1080i. 720p means there are 720 lines displayed of pure pixels on one frame horizonally and progressively.. 1080i means there are 540 lines displayed of pure pixels on one frame, alternating the skipped lines every frame, interlined. 1080p singals are too high in bandwidth, so are not currently sent via broadband or satellite signals. You can however easily obtain 1080p from a direct connection, such as a computer or hi def upconverting dvd player, as long as the tv accepts it (anything before 2005 is not going to).

Most HDTVs show everything in Progressive mode, passing progressive sources directly and converting interlined video to progressive by combining frames and showing every new frame twice. This is supposed to give a better picture, but at 1080i and 720p, you really can't tell much of a difference (at least I can't). 1080p from my computer on the other hand, I can see clearly how much better the quality is. Can't wait for it to be standard.

Also remember that the hdtv will not be able to improve the quality of analog or even some standard digital signals by much, so you will see much more of the gobbledegook that comes with those types of signals. You get used to it fairly quickly.

Rich - It does indeed happen on conventional tube tvs, but not nearly as easily. It takes relatively a much longer preird of time. I'm no no way discarding plasma tvs, but it is becoming a rather dead technology now that lcd is flat panel too.

 

[Rich]

I've seen both plasma and lcd Vas, I don't agree that the picture quality is as good on an lcd as the plasma. The lcd might be better for gaming, but then who in their right mind would spend that amount of money just to play silly games?

 

[Ron_dK]

Not true. Progressive is ALWAYS better than Interlined video. Basically, internlined video has half the lines displayed per frame, and the other half displayed the next frame. Progressive shows the entire picture every frame.

Most HDTVs show everything in Progressive mode, passing progressive sources directly and converting interlined video to progressive by combining frames and showing every new frame twice. This is supposed to give a better picture, but at 1080i and 720p, you really can't tell much of a difference (at least I can't). 1080p from my computer on the other hand, I can see clearly how much better the quality is. Can't wait for it to be standard.

Thanks for pointing that out Vassago, but I understood that some of the programs broadcasted are in interlined ( actually I found the appropriare word > interlaced) , whereas others are progressive, i.e. Dutch TV channel 1 broadcasted p (progr.) and Discovery channel broadcasted i ( interlaced).
Understood also that the ( HD) TV set is able to recieve both processes.
But since I do not have HD TV, I can't substantiate that.

 

[Matt Greatorex]

What programs are you watching Matt. I mean, I am not going to invest hugh amounts of euro's for the usuall crab that is broadcasted over here, unless one is watching DVD's, but for that you don't need HD TV to have a perfect display and sound

Mainly HD programmes and the difference is definitely noticeable. Canadian TV is closer in content to US than British (we get both US and Canadian where I'm living), so I watch less than I did back home.

Can't pretend to understand the various technical aspects, as explained by other posters . All I can say is that I personally noticed a big difference when we switched.

 

[Ron_dK]

..we get both US and Canadian where I'm living...

That reminds me of something back in 1979 when I stayed close to Buffalo (NY) for some weeks and watched some US and Canadian programs.
Most of the US programs were hardly viewable due to the endless advertisement stops. When watching a live popconcert for approx. 1.5 hours, the program was interrupted by annoying lenghty advertisments, which made watching the show almost impossible.

Unfortunately, nowadays the Dutch programs have inflated to almost the same level, let alone the inflation of todays shows ( pulp like big brother and stuff).

 

[Matt Greatorex]

That reminds me of something back in 1979 when I stayed close to Buffalo (NY) for some weeks and watched some US and Canadian programs.
Most of the US programs were hardly viewable due to the endless advertisement stops. When watching a live popconcert for approx. 1.5 hours, the program was interrupted by annoying lenghty advertisments, which made watching the show almost impossible.

It's a combination of that and the way in which serialized programmes are broadcast. Back home, a series starts with episode 1 and continues to the final episode, say 10. The only 'gap' weeks tend to be for exceptional events such as the Olympics, World Cup, Newsflashes, etc.

Here, everything seems tied into 'sweeps week', so you might get episodes in the order 1, 2, gap week, gap week, 1 again, gap week, 3, 4, gap week, 1 again, etc. That way they spread 10 episodes out over twice as many weeks.

There are plenty of good things about this place, but if I went back to the UK I'd never complain about the TV again.

 

[Ron_dK]

There are plenty of good things about this place

Fully agree Matt. I have been many times in Canada especially around Quebec , Montreal and occasionally around a place called Sault St Marie and
always liked the pleasant atmosphere over there. If I ever had to emigrate, my first choice would be Canada.