HD tvs

[Bill Verburg]

Ok, what do you guys know?

[Saintly]

They look nice but $$$$$$$$$$$

[Purrybonker]

Don't buy nothin' that sends or receives a video signal (eg. TV, DVD, Home theatre system) that does not facilitate DVI connections. Composite, "s" video, etc. are now officially passe'.

DVI is not necessarily easy to find in a lot of hardware yet, but will be the connection of choice very soon.

HD TV is the only way to go if you're in the market for a new box.

[nut11]

Walmart on the Wash. Ave. Extension has a 32 inch SANYO HDTV for $699. It appears that prices have gone down. Didn't knock me off my feet in terms of resolution, though. Good luck in your search. BTW, would you have a recommendation for a porsche technician in the Albany area? Thx!

85 Carrera Coupe

[TerryBPP]

I think its the next Tornado. Some people feel it in the seat of there pants and it's all in there head.

[Bill Verburg]

Hitachi 50vs810? vs Toshiba 52hmx94 vs Sony kdf-50we655? opinions? comments? Am I nuts?

[Halm]

I was in a Best Buy a few weeks ago and spent some time looking at plasma HDTV's. Simply unbelieveable. . . Just like the price tags. But I am in the market too.

There is new series of TV's out now too call EDTV, or "enhanced". Kind of like the belted tire during the transition from bias to radial tires. Better than standard analog but a short term solution, IMO.

So, who knows of good web sites for info and for buying?

[RickM]

Any particular technology of interest? Plasma, LCD, Rear projection, DLP......

The best picture I've seen so far is from the Pioneer Elite Plasma series. Not cheap though.

[Bill Verburg]

I'm not hanging it on the wall so, probably LCD projection as listed above.

[rammstein]

Watch an LCD or plasma tv for AWHILE. Look at what happens when there is fast motion or the camera pans quickly (such as during a sports telecast). While the resolution of HD is incredible, the plasma and LCD units have insufficient refresh rates which results in blurring. HD in tube is the best by a longshot in my opinion.

[DannoXYZ]

I've been checking out the plasma TV, specifically with HD in mind once we get more programming. The Sony plasma TVs are way, way better than anything else out there in terms of resolution and picture detail. It's really obvious when they're fed a DVD or HDTV signal.

Although I'm leaning towards projectors now. The Sony Qualia-004 looks like the ticket. It's got native 1920x1080 resolution and is the only one out there that can truly display a 1080p HD signal without any kind of interpolation gimmicks.

[}{arlequin]

Originally posted by TerryBPP
I think its the next Tornado. Some people feel it in the seat of there pants and it's all in there head.

I disagree. There is a night and day difference between HD and "regular" tv broadcast.

For the most part, there are 3 types of HD tv's. Traditional (crt), LCD, and Plasma. CRT's will be the biggest, but they still provide the best bang. If you're in for certain size, they mostly top out at 34". Sony's top of the line is universally recognized as the standard for North America. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-TPzGeku8x5K/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=158KD34XBR&g=154450
There is a Panasonic that's probably even better than the Sony, but the North American market only got the 32" model, vs rest of the world's 34"

Either way, by some standards, 34" is considered quite small today. If you want bigger it will cost more, although the quality may be close, but probably will not improve over the crt image.

LCD tvs are bigger, almost any size that you need, but do your research since some had problems. Sony's LCD tvs had bulb problems, relating to the power source for the bulb. Plenty of warranty fixes, but you probably don't want to deal with that w/in 6mos of purchasing anything that expensive. LCD's are thicker than Plasma tv's and generally they can't hang on the wall, if you're into that. They provide about 96% picture quality of a pure plasma HD tv, at half the price.

Plasmas are the thin sets, that have great performance (it still varies model-to-model, compare to see what type of picture you like more) but the price is really up there. It's tough to go for it unless you really have plenty to spend, b/c in a year or two those sets will be for 1/2 price.

Here's a brief description of the issues w/ some tv's. It's a bit like cars where you can't totally trust a first model of anything to be quite perfect. That's where the extended warranty/option plan will save your butt if you buy from one of the big chains etc. Sure, the manufacturer has its own warranty, but good luck packing the behemoth and shipping it after bringing it to the post office, UPS etc. http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/15673.html

Whatever model you go for, I'd do a search on it on the "ecoustics bbs" site. They really alert you to any problems that may arise.

I agree w/ the comment above about types of connections. Most of the new sets will probably have them anyway, but you want to look for the scart, dvi etc types of (video) connections.

There are many choices, some very expensive, but the picture is remarkable.

[Halm]

Originally posted by DannoXYZ
Although I'm leaning towards projectors now. The Sony Qualia-004 looks like the ticket. It's got native 1920x1080 resolution and is the only one out there that can truly display a 1080p HD signal without any kind of interpolation gimmicks.

I just Googled that model. Am I right in seeing that it goes for $27,000?

[}{arlequin]

Bill, I believe the sony that you listed is the second generation of that model, which would indicate that it has those prior problems addressed.

Since Hitachi is a brand new model, it's hard to say. It may end up not having any problems, just as well. I haven't seen that one so I can't comment on the picture.

As far as Toshiba, I think Sony's picture is crisper when in HD mode.

[UconnTim97]

We have a Sony Wega 34" widescreen. I can't imagine watching TV without it (especially sports) Paid way too much for it when they first came out, but a lot more channels are in HDTV compared to a few years ago.

[Bill Verburg]

I'm leaning toward the Hitachi, because the picture quality is, in my eye, much nicer. And I have 2 other older crt type Hitachi's that always get remarks about picture quality.

[island911]

DLP! (some nice rear-projections out there)

A native resolution for 720p is a plus. ( a lot of plasmas have 768 lines vertical --leads to interpolation --fuszzy)

lots of inputs is a plus. (cmptr surfing w/ PiP is cool)

Are you looking for OTA (over the air) reception? ..cable ...satellite?

[island911]

Originally posted by DannoXYZ
.. .resolution and is the only one out there that can truly display a 1080p HD signal without any kind of interpolation gimmicks.

Is ANY broadcaster even thinking about putting out 1080p ?

The last that I heard, 1080i was the max their cameras/equipment could do.

I've been pretty happy with 720p. (p=progressive scan . . much better for motion shots . ..for those who didn't know)

[911S Targa]

Ive heard rumors that the LCD, or the Plazma screens dont have a life over 6 years, is this true ?

[RickM]

I've heard 6-9 years for Plasma. LCDs drop pixels, sometimes while being manufactured.