High Definition TV

I LIKE the way those look Phoenix!!
I can certainly understand your interest.
I had NO IDEA that a TV could be anything
but an ugly black box that was needed to
receive intelligent (???) messages from
other intelligent (???)beings on the planet.
The flatness is so appealing, it takes up
virtually no space, it could be hung like a
painting, which would suit me just fine.
But I bet that right now they are MEGA
expensive, so I must (as with computers)
wait until the "price is right" :wink:

There are 50" Plasma at under $5,000. (yesterday, I saw a 42 in. at Sam's Club, Toshiba I think, at around $4.000) and 60" is still out of many people's reach at still over $8,000. I'd certainly say that's a good sign for distribution when the sets start appearing at warehouse stores. You're right, Babs -- the flat hang-on-the-wall or sit on top of a credenza feature is very attractive. DVD's with artor landscape photography to display or the acquarium DVDs would be great, displaying it between the times the set is being used for programming! Same old story -- new technology, high price. Mass production will bring low prices. I don't think anybody would not be attracted to getting rid of the box -- especially the huge rear projection cabinets. Plasma works better in high ambient light as well.

Wow! 2006 has come and gone, and Hi-def still is not the standard, although it IS increasing in popularity, and has come way down in price since I wrote the thread.

In the last few months, I finally bit the bullet and bought two hi-def sets, one a 32" for my computer room, and a 52" for the living room, both LCD.
I absolutely LOVE them. I find that watching regular DVDs on the hi-def sets makes them look much much better than on regulae TVs.

Have any of you gotten hi-def sets? Recently, or have you had them for awhile? What do you think of them?

I got a Sony HD Projection TV (with the wide aspect ratio) back in 2003 when HD channels were rare. I remember discovering that I could receive more HD channels on a common rooftop antenna than I could on cable, and for a while there I was adjusting rabbit ears like in the 1950's.

I still have the same set. The HD channels are stilll just as spectacular as before but there are a lot more of them now and they're all on cable. I find the wide aspect ratio almost as much of an improvement as the HD quality itself.

Has anyone seen HD TV programs & videos. They rock!!!

I have HD ready Laptop and downloaded The Terminator 2 HD edition.

To my suprise found Arnold Schwarzenegger has pimples on his robot face.

It surely makes job of makeup artists difficult

This thread really dates us!

The first plasmas were actually progressive scan at around 800 by 800 pixels. In 2004 I declined at that enormous price and the annoying "screen door" effect when viewed from a normal distance. Purchased a Mitsubishi 42" CRT rear projection at 1080i, or 1080 pixels horizontal x about 760 - 780 vertical pixels. Still quite satisfied, especially the blacks and detail in darker areas -- something LCD isn't even close to and plasma is close enough but has a problem with the very large screens.

Now you can purchase a Panasonic 42" plasma 1080i monitor (no tuner, but you don't need a tuner with cable or satellite -- you have to use an antenna) for under $ 1500. It doesn't have built-in speakers, but, to tell you the truth, the speakers they install in these flatscreens are barely better quality than a portable radio. Even an moderately expensive boom box has better sound.

I really like the new DLP's and they are beginning to use LCD's and laser's as the light source instead of a color wheel, making them even better. Sony's SXRD's is an LCD rear projection technology to keep an eye on -- although you can't hang these sets on the wall. They are getting slimmer, however. In a 72", the price is considerably less than a plasma or LCD.

The technical battle got complicated with the introduction of 1080p which is actually full hi-def, 1080 x 1080 pixels. The only way to get that, however, is with a new Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. The movies are often older films that have not been restruck in 70mm to digitally reproduce the best image. The ridiculous part is that movies are not high definition in the first place. Only IMAX used hi-def cameras and the only late films that were shot simultaneously were the last two Star Wars. :wink:

BTW, the FCC mandate in 2008 is not that all TV will be hi-def but that all TV will be digital.

LW- We have a Sony XBR3 LCD TV. What I have noticed, is that often an old black and white film looks excellent, if not truly hi-def, on that set, much better than on our old non-hi-def set. Do you have any idea why?

The SONY processer in the XBR's is worth the extra cost as 420p on a digital channel that isn't hi-def will upscale to 1080i or even 1080p on a newer display (although they are just now available and only a very large screen will show more "smoothness" to the picture but no added detail). SONY also installs the best built in speakers in their LCD's, but the bass is weak. You can actually add a subwoofer to the built-in speakers!

TCM letterboxes their wide screen movies, so if you Zoom the picture, it fills the screen and is as good as a regular DVD, if your cable or satellite is sending a digital picture. On hi-def channels like HD Net Movies, it will even look better as they strick new 70mm prints and rephotograph them to a digital image. "Judgement at Nuremberg" in black-and-white (no, they didn't colorize it, thank gawd) on this month HD Net Movies looks great!

I love my HD, Even the most mundane things are spectacular on HD. Discovery has a show called sunrise earth where they show different locations as the sun is coming up, just a still camera filming whatever happens by. The clarity and locations are so perfect it keeps you watching in awe.

Sunrise Earth

My Blu-Ray player isn't too bad either, its just tough to decide what movies I want to upgrade or are worth buying at the larger price tag.

That's because they used the latest high definition cameras, as well as on "Planet Earth" and nearly all their programming (some of it is recycled IMAX or documentaries).

I noticed they stopped showing Planet Earth on Discovery HD and are trying to sell the DVD's, I think they may be on to those of us that are keeping the episodes stored on our DVRs.

You can purchase "Planet Earth" pretty cheap direct or at online vendors. There is also a Blu-Ray set but don't think it might be worth the high price on the set. Have to wait a couple of years when the new players with 1080p come down in price. The Blu-Ray and HD DVD players that are 1080i (obsolete models) are now online at good prices. All new players are 1080p.
Talk about planned obsolescence! Ridiculous -- the players only came out in November of 2006,

BTW, they haven't stopped the "Planet Earth" repeats -- check your Discovery programming on your cable or satellite guide or go to Discovery.com.

Thanks, I set up my DVR to record them but it stopped after three episodes, then I started seeing ads for the box set. Time to reprogram.

Program it for repeats at any time and just delete the duplicates. It can eat up the cable or satellite DVR's time available pretty fast.

I did that initially but was inundated with public tv broadcasts of the show and was trying to keep it all HD. Now that I have the schedule it shouldn't be a problem.

Is the difference between 1080i and 1080p that great? I was under the assumption that it only affected the interlacing of pixels on the edge of the screen as a shot panned.

We are not ready to choose either a Blu-Ray or HDTV player. We don't know what the standard will be, and from what I have seen, the good films that are out on HD are not that numerous to justify the expense.
What we did was buy a player that upsamples non-HD discs:

Link

We are happy with it. The unit can be used to play all sorts of things, and is a good compromise until we decide to go all HD.

The upscaler players are quite good enough for an existing DVD collection.
Again, it doesn't add any more detail but refines the 420p capability of a standard DVD. It looks to me like Blu-Ray will win over HD-DVD because of the storage capacity. It's possible to store a four hour film with full PCM 9 channel sound on a Blu-Ray. No on an HD-DVD. Or you could put the entire "Lord of the Rings" on one disc with Blu-Ray. No on an HD-DVD. More studios and manufacturers are supporting Blu-Ray. Universal is the only studio pushing HD-DVD.

The difference between 1080i and 1080p really only shows up on a larger image of a display, say 50" and above, depending on how close you are sitting. Progressive scan does improve the motion across the screen but is it worth it? If you absolutely need a new set, there wouldn't be a choice in Sharp LCD's because that's all they are now producing. There are still some 1080i models out there. Panasonic is reluctant to jump on the bandwagon with plasmas so there is still a choice. The Panasonic monitors are the highest rated. The 65" is their 1080p entry into the market and it's pricey.

Re: High Definition TV

Your poll voting options assumes that none of us
has an HDTV. I am happy with mine; it gives good picture.
David