HDTV?

[Bike Effects]

My dad has an HDTV and on his set you can't tell the difference between regular TV channel on his HDTV from a regular TV channel on a regular TV, they look the same. But, when he turns it to an HD channel on his HDTV, holy cow does it look great!
I am in the market for my first HD set up, yet, I have no current HD reception. I'm looking at a 1080p projector though, and that's going to cost me some bucks, so I'm doing all my research to make sure I get a good product. But, in the end, I'll have a 10' x 5' viewing screen, or 134" screen. I'm also evaluating the price difference between DirecTV and Comcast HD packages, but leaning towards DirecTV.

Besides the cost of projection, you need a very dark room to see it at all its glory. I have windows, and therefore have a plamsa. 2 of them actually, one Pioneer and one Panasonic.

 

[Bayou Boy]

I can under stand the P instead if the I, with 1080P being the best currently. I'm not shooting for anything larget than 26 inch since it's for a bedroom and anything larger would be to much.

If you are looking at 26" sets don't worry about the 1080i/p thing. You won't be able to tell the difference. You won't be able to tell the difference in 1080p and 720p at that screen size.

My suggestion, find a closeout 720p set with a built in HD tuner and save big bucks and be happy as a clam.

1080 lines of resolution is just not needed until you get to at least 42" and in some cases (depending on seating distance) 50" screen size.

 

[Bayou Boy]

Not to mention that nothing is currently available in 1080p and with how much coin that the movie and broadcast companies just dropped on 1080i cameras, etc. it's not coming any time soon.

 

[wfooshee]

One more thing. I negotiated with the salesman at Best Buy, and got him to knock off almost $200 from the displayed $1,800 price on a 42" Hitachi. It surprised the **** outta me that he came down on the price. It can't hurt to ask.

Having worked at a TV/Stereo place some-odd years ago, I can tell you that they have a catalog of price levels on everything. The salesman's commission is affected by the drop he allows, and to discourage drops, the commission rate falls faster than the margin he's paid from. Nevertheless, I always felt that small commission was better than no commission if it was a deal-breaker. Also, some brands pay a "spiff" in addition to the commission; in my time notably JVC and Pioneer.

ALWAYS ask for a better price.

 

[BrunDog]

There ending the analog signals (for roof mount antennas) in 2009. They will switch over to digital signals. As for the old analog only TV's, they will sell an adapter unit to convert the digital signal to analog. All of the TV's sold the last few years are digital compatable. They had a big bit on this on KGO radio recently.
I'm thinkin Possiblility

I don't want to go to big, this is a bedroom, and not a home theater B)

been on HD for about 5 years now. they broadcast HD signal over antenna and it's better than some cable HD since there's no compression at all (as opposed to "less" compression for HD than standard on cable bandwidth). DirevtTV recently added something like 20 or 30 new channels with a total of something around 150 right around the corner.

Rear projection is still one of the least expensive (but bulky options).

DLP is lighter and more compact, but the bulbs last about like a conference room projector and are costly to replace. A friend had one burn out in under 3 months, the replacement was under warranty but no TV (during game season) for a week while awaiting the bulb. no one locally carried them, but he found a source on the internet to get an emergency spare... $300 please. Also, DLP's many tiny mirrors may lend itself to artifacts (large areas -- like the cheek of someone in extreme closeup -- that show sparkles or grids). DLP gets its pixel locations by bouncing off mirrors on a chip. The better ones, use 3 chips (one for each base color). It gets its color by passing through a color wheel like people used to use with the silver aluminum xmas trees. The better units have multiple slices of RG and B so the wheel doesn't have to spin all the way back around to get to a color. The more instances of a color, the less rotation is needed to get back to the color you need. But some people still see the artifacts even with a 3-chip/12 color wheel unit. You have to look at these in person to see if you are one of those bothered by the effect.

Plasma is longer lived but when it burns out, it may be kaput for good. they generate heat (current gen less than earlier), they are heavy though flat and wall-mountable if you have a place to use large lag bolts to hold the weight. they can have some latency in fast moving images and may not be the best in high-light environments. but, when looking as side-by-sided with LCD, even the best LCDs can look as if they have a haze over them next to a plasma model.

LCDs are rear projection through a screen like a laptop's monitor. again a projection bulb with a high replacement cost and image quality can vary widely. Since the light passes through a medium, you lose some brightness where rear projection and DLP are reflected light.

If you want to know what they look like side-by-side without price being an issue (so you know what's possible) find a high-end A/V store and check out the Pioneer Elite series of plasma screens like seen here: https://www.marvinelectronics.com/2007/fullpg7.htm You know when it says "call for pricing" that it ain't gonna be painless.

Also look for 1080p instead of 1080i (interlaced).

I have the 53", 1080i rear projector that i'll keep until it croaks.

My daughter and SiL have a ~42" plasma.

A good friend has ~50" DLP.

When the time comes, I'll be looking for something in a plasma unless LCD has really improved. DLP still have the (reduced) hump back of a rear projection design, so doesn't lend itself well to wall mounting. LCDs still have the "haze" (for now).

All HD signals are compressed.

-BD

 

[Silent]

I bit the bullet and I wound up buying the 26" Sony Brevia 720p. So far, so good, it looks nice, crisp and clean. Now I have to convert to HD satelite so I cn see what all the hubub is about :blink:

Thanks for all the advice and input folks B)

 

[BrunDog]

Just make sure it will display (cant imagine it cannot) 1080 signals. Wont be P, but unless you are using a HD-DVD or Blue-Ray, it doesn't matter, cause the broadcasted content is interlaced.

-BD

 

[Bounce]

Don't let me catch you using anything less than S-Video connections.

Audio to go with the video - lets your receiver handle all the sound, mute the "TV", and manage all your inputs through the A/V receiver.

if you're buying new, then check for plenty of optical audio jacks (Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks use this). One thing I preferred with my kids' plasma was the HDMI connections (over the Svideo I use). Also, while shopping audio to do with your video, I like to have DTS as I prefer its output to Dolby Digital. That means a home theater receiver that has multiple fiber optics in (for feeding DVD, DVR, and other sources into the receiver) as well as multiple HDMI in and outputs to your monitor of choice for HDMI as well as composite (booo hisss), S-Video, and composit (if you can).

When I upgraded my receiver last time, DTS was there, so the inputs are there, but HDMI wasn't out yet. Home theater efforts are always a component leap-frog affair with some units getting new features that you can't use until the upstread items get their next upgrade (unless you flush enough to do a complete system upgrade all at once). My kids found that, of all the different outputs, HDMI out to the monitor was the only the consistently synched the audio with the video regardless of source and if it was standard or HD material.

My personal list for next time:

HDMI in (3 or more)

HDMI out (1 to monitor)

S-Video out (1)

Composite out (1 to capture to old things like camcorders or vhs tapes)

Component out (1 just in case you need it)

Fiber in (3 or more) for digital audio

Dobly Digital and DTS decoders

...

BTW: BD is right about broadcast signals being compressed. it's easy to overstate things when looking at a strong source signal from local airwaves compared to a less-prestigious HD cable/satellite channel that gets the bum's rush to make room for yet another shopping channel. but over-the-air local HD signals are (usually) MUCH less compressed than cable to "typical" satellite ones. With the right equipment it'll be obvious which are which. (popular, big money) Sports tend to have very strong uplink signals with higher quality source gear and you can tell it when looking at something like the Superbowl next to an HD broadcast of the nihgly news (or something farther down the food chain HD channel). Even the most compressed HD channel on satellite is tons better than the "inexpensive" or "basic cable" channels for satellite or cable (Starz or SciFi). A night time scene of fog will show the fog with tons of artifacts because the compression algorythms can't keep up with all the movement.

 

[ponyfool]

I spent several hundred dollars running cable for my projector. It is a 33' run through the walls from where my components will be and where my projector is on the ceiling. I ran one each of the following:

HDMI

S-Video

Component Video

Composite Video

SVGA Cable

I'm about a week or two away from having everything complete. I can't wait!