High Definition TV, and Home Theatre

I don't have a HD TV and I am not planning to get one anytime soon. I do have a vcr & dvd player. I also have outside speakers that they are all hooked up to along with a stereo system.

We have ( i think..) a ,

well..


Ya know, Im not sure now.

we decided to get a flat screen when we moved into this tiny apt because there is just NO space, and we could get it on payment plans through Conns. I think it is a high def.. But, now I am honestly not sure.

Anyway, that is the extent of our " theater system" and if you count the combination vcr/dvd player we are good to go.

Since everyone we know that has a big HD TV has either
1a home entertainment center or else the TV sits out in the room like a grand piano, or

2Equally unattractive, theyve spent a huge amt of money building a "media room" which is like a small theater, and will, in another generation, probably be considered as quaint as "carports" or taifins.

We havent jumped on the big wagon yet. We do have a small (19") tv on a pivot in our bedroom. We are looking at a SHarp 37" LCD and we want to mount it inside a Pa Dutch Blanket chest that I can build and make look like an antique (Im a third degree master of the hand cut dovetail).

We will have actuators to lift the tv out of the cabinet . Push a button, tv out, push button again, tv drops back into the chest. Just like a garage door.
This way we dont have to stare at it.I could fit a 42" into a chest but would have to have a two step process to tilt the tv back before dropping back into the box.

Wewill have this in a room with a huge fireplace and the whole thing will look like a normal "keeping room" with a couch and two lazyboys.

We have a Bose lifestyle system that we use for music in this room. Its unobtrusive and quite acceptable sound (Its not as good a s the old component Luxman system with giant JBL's but nothing is analog anymore)

Wonder what I could get for a set of old JBL Aquarius spekers?. The woofers have about a 25 pound magnet each)

I asked at Blockbuster .whose format is winning the HD Cd market"? The kid looked at me as if I had roaches coming out of my ears. He had no clue. Im gonna write to Blockbuster to find out

which format has the most movies and
2 whish is being rented most.

I too will not get into a format war until the armistice is settled. The mafrs ought to realize that this "dueling format" approach just delays buyers.

farmerman- Some time ago, Blockbuster Online offered both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Apparently they have stopped stocking the HD-DVDs for their customers. Think that they are telling us something?

I'll "raise you" on the JBLs. When we lived up north we had the JBL 375s with the huge horns. Someone, somewhere, somebody is using them to build up his biceps.

The chest sounds cooool!

We have a plain maybe 19" Sony Trinitron that we bought more than a decade ago and is still going strong. (It's on top of a quartersawn oak Arts & Crafts style cabinet from Michael's that farmerman might like.)

The VCR is another decade or so older than the TV.

Thassit.

I have a 34" CRT based HDTV in my living room and a 22" LCD HDTV in the bedroom (which also doubles that the TV in the RV when I take one).

I have a DVD player, VCR and DVR all connected through a complete home theater system.

I haven't seen any reason to jump on the HiDef DVD (either BluRay or HD-DVD) bandwagon yet. Maybe in the coming year.

On a 34" screen, I wouldn't even consider Blu-Ray yet. The upscaler players which effectively nearly double the pixels of 420p DVD's look really good. On nearly any film, there's isn't the fidelity of detail to even see any improvement of 720p or 1080p. But the smoothing out of the picture will even look good on a 72" flat screen. With Plasma, it's always been the pixel ID that turned a lot of people off. DLP's are actually better if you don't want to hang it on the wall. They are down to 12" in depth, so if you're replacing a set that was sitting on a rack, console or credenza which also holds and can hide all the other equipment, that's the way to go. I have seen the new Samsung LED DLP sets and they have a few minor picture problems that are being improved on, and the advantage there is the LED light engine is rated at 60,000 hours, comparable to LCD and Plasma and the cost of operation is much lower. You'd think that LED's would last nearly forever, but bear in mind that these are the high intensity white LED's and do not have the life of conventional LED's.
Mitsubishi now has a six segment color wheel and a longer life lamp in their DLP's. Stay away from Panasonic's DLP's, and also their rear projection LCD's, even though they are rated highest for Plasma sets.
The SONY top models in their 3 LCD rear projection is as good if not better than any DLP and both are priced a lot less than their flat screen counterparts. This hanging on the wall fetish is not what it is cracked up to be except a lot of money in the installer's pocked. It still sticks out from the wall about 5" and if one wants it recessed in the wall, that's really costly and it still won't install completely flat. I sell a product that has a black melamine box that fits back into the wall with either a manual or motorized remote control which hides the screen and then lifts up at a 90 deg. angle and also cuts most of the ambient light coming from the ceiling.

Upscaler players are now being produced under $ 100.00.

We just bought an LG 42" and I went and built a poplar blanket chest to hold it. It looks just like an antique except that it dosnt have the glovebox(till) on the side, It allows a full 42" and I didnt need to have a 2 way lift mechanism. The Bose sound system and the DVD will sit on a small shelf next to it along with some pottery to keep the antique look.
The picture is a "progressive" that goes to 1080. SInce theyre not HDing at max resolution, I was told that progressive was the way to go and stay away from Plasma.

The view from the sides is very good, not at all like the old LC flat panel computer screens or the projection TVs. So far weve got it on a table , and , as soon as Ive got the blanket chest grain painted or smoke decorated, well put em together.
We had the TV place come and set it up and they tuned the color and all. We payed a little more but got the service and rep of a dealer who knows his product. (We stopped in a Target to see some sale TVs and we were turned off by the complete ignorance of the sales staff, Walmart was the same way) SO we bought it from a Mom/Pop TV and satellite dish dealer out in the sticks. It cost us about 400$ more but Im happy with a neck to squeeze.

Did they calibrate the LG to ICC standards? Very important and something you can't get from a discount store -- if it's done by the independent installers they use, it can be another $250.00. Usually, a specialized audio/video retailer will do it without questions and not charge extra.

I have seen the LG 1080P's at the Consumer Electronic Shows and they were good. Panasonic's 42" 1080p blows everything out of the water for contrast, deep blacks, definition in dark areas, et al. There are upscalers available which will process an antenna, satellite or cable signal out of their boxes to 1080p. I've not tried looping a DVD player/recorder which is 420p but upscales any signal to 720p or 1080p but besides BluRay discs, there is no programming that is better than 720p or 1080i. Your LG is likely upscaling any lower resolution signal to 1080p -- you won't see more detail but the picture appears smoother. On a 42", however, you'd have to be a few feet away to see the difference.

I'm curious why a sales person steers people away from Plasma, DLP and rear-projection LED in favor of LCD. LCD still has a way to go to deliver true deep rich blacks. The contrast ratio's that are quoted is on the "Vivid" setting which is good if you have a lot ambient light in the room. The Vivid setting is way too bright for a dimly lit or dark room.

As far as energy use, the Plasma still consumes the most energy but most manufacturers will give one an energy saving setting which is basically just turning the light source down.

Price wise, if someone has the depth in their cabinet, I'd still go to a top rated DLP or rear projection LCD (SONY really has a corner on the quality of this technology).