42" Plasma + DVI cable = Amazing!

[red-beard]

Sams Club has a 720p Plasma by Akai for $850. We bit the bullet and bought it. I hooked it up with the composite cables we had for our other HDTVs. It looked good, but there were some issues, especially with dark areas.

I picked up a DVI to HDMI cable (Cable Box is DVI, and the TV is HDMI) from Radio Shack. WOW! Even the 480P "regular" cable channels are fanstastic. I am amazed. We have been extremely happy with our HDTV sets before, but this is truely amazing.

Anyone else have a HD epiphany?

[89911]

I bought a 50 Sony 1080p a few months ago and ordered a Comcast box with an HDMI output. So now its just one cable from the box into the back of the set. So simple and so clear. I'm actually looking at picking up a 62" one for our basement. My kids are playing the Wii gamesystem on the big one and I don't have the heart to tell them to go and play on the 27" square set downstairs. It does spoil you, especially when you go over to friends and watch their "non HD" sets.

[ikarcuaso]

Originally posted by red-beard
Anyone else have a HD epiphany?

Some news anchors have a lot more craters and pock marks than before.

[island911]

1080p native res, with HD-DVD is it.



(don't look or you'll have pixel envy)

[Drew001]

HD-DVD does look great, but you picked the wrong horse in this race.

Blu-ray FTW.

[nostatic]

ever seen Super HiDef? Sick...

[red-beard]

Sams has a 37in 1080p LCD for $1050. I've never liked the look of the LCD TVs picture in person.

[TerryH]

Probably misspoke, but if you are really using composite cables that would explain why the bad HD picture. Component (YPbPr) would be used for HD.

[red-beard]

Nope, using Component (YPbPr) cables. However, the picture is much better with the DVI/HDMI cable. 2 of our HD sets do not have DVI or HDMI inputs. 1 has a DVI input, but it is not compatible with the DVI-D coming out of the cable box.

The main thing I notice is there are less artifacts generated. I have not seen 1 on the new set with the DVI cable. With the Component cables, you would see them sometime, especially in dark scenes.

[jriera]

Got a 42" Dell Plasma, a 72" Panasonic DLp and a 110" DLP projector, all capable of 1080p for over a year now.

Got Blue Ray and HD-DVD plus a couple of upconverters

Cable boxes will do up to 1080i max (in fact there is no TV programming at 1080p, not even over the air), same with satellite tv. HDMI and DVI-D offer the same capabilities (minus the sound in the DVI case), usually HDMI implementations are a little bit of a nightmare to make them 'work' properly due to different standards. Component is the same as HDMI and DVI but in the analog domain.

Very little to none differences between the 3 types of cabling. I setup everything for DVI cabling

[island911]

Originally posted by Drew001
HD-DVD does look great, but you picked the wrong horse in this race.

Blu-ray FTW.

Now, what's this about Betamax?

[lendaddy]

HD-DVD will win as they are already the porn standard. As I understand it Sony won't sell them(the pron industry) Blu-Ray rights.

Game over.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Originally posted by red-beard
Sams has a 37in 1080p LCD for $1050. I've never likes the look of the LCD TVs picture in person.

The picture on my 46" Mitsubishi 1080p LCD is stunning. Do not base picture quality on the feed the stores send to the sets, absolutley miserable. I baffles me that stores try to sell high def TV's using the crappy feeds split 200 times. Pick a high quality set, take it home and hook up a UHF antenna to it. OTA HD broadcast is near perfect when they film the shows with the latest and greatest cameras.

[austin552]

I hear Blu-ray is dropping its price to try to stay competitive. Day late, dollar short?

[red-beard]

The newer store feeds are HD. I have compared the Plasma and the LCD side by side and LCD just didn't seem as nice. Our home sets have been CRT HDTVs ( two 30 in 16x9 and a 32 in 4:3) for the past 2 1/2 years. They are all 1080i. The Plasma is a 42" 16x9 720p. It blows the CRTs away. The CRTs looked great when we first bought them. And they still look great. But this plasma is wonderful.