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Originally Posted by SLO-BOB
All great questions and I kind of figured that stuff factors. I can easily control the lighting - cans and dimmers. Limited off-axis viewing. Games for an hour at a time (house rule). I believe HD is available for Dish, but it's an upcharge. As I understand it, it's all going HD soon. I was looking at upscaling DVD players - again, clueless. Sounded kind of goofy, but figured I would look into it and Blu-Ray.
My middle name is Slippery Slope.
Seems I can't buy a toothbrush without getting drawn into some high dollar extra.
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If you have a titanium toothbrush then there is no help available...
If you don't watch much tv, then don't both with HD Dish. I am still on regular old DirecTV and it doesn't bother me at all. The reason I got my system was that I wanted to watch movies and really pay attention to the cinematography, sound design, etc. Since most films aren't available on HD (at least older ones), then an upscaling DVD player along with a 1080p display is the way to go. Getting 1080p gives you some amount of future-proofing (I'm already shooting 1080i content), and most upscalers target 1080p as their output.
Imho if you sit down with a decent player and a movie with really good cinematography and switch between plasma and lcd, you will see a difference. With typical broadcast tv (even HD), less so. As has been said by others, black is your friend, and sadly is a challenge for displays...more so for lcd than plasma.
That isn't to say that there aren't great LCD displays and that you can't get a good experience using one. But to my eyes, plasma has a bit more of a "film" look to it.
Controlling light isn't so much about dimmers as it is about windows and stray light. An open/airy room is great for sitting and chatting, poor for viewing a movie. Also consider your sitting position/distance. You need to be a fair bit away from a 52" screen. I don't have a deep enough room so I stuck with 42" but that was also a cost/weight consideration.