OT - I need a new Big Screen TV

You're pretty safe going with any of the video formats (Plasma, LCD, DLP). Go into a showroom and see what you like. Plasmas run hot, are heavier, and use more power than LCD or DLP. Burn-in is supposedly no longer an issue with the plasma screens, but they do have guidelines for the first 50 hours of operations that I'd follow. Also stay away from EDTV and high definition sets that boast 720 lines of resolution... true HD is 1080. Also, the displays in the stores have their colors cranked up to the maximum settings which I've been told shortens the life of the set. I've been doing some research myself and hoping that my 7 year old 32" Panasonic will suddenly stop working when I turn it on everyday after work, but so far no luck.

I'm holding off on HDTV for a while, DirecTV requires a 2 year contract and there aren't that many channels on HDTV to justify it for me... I think DirecTV just (or was supposed to) launched another satellite this month which is supposed to quadruple the number of HD channels they can carry. On their current sattellite they've compressed the signals down to the point of average cable quality.

Lee

Rather than listen to your own kids' long spiel, just let him choose your next TV. But add this caveat: "If this doesn't work out to 'my' liking, you are never going to hear the end of it"... That should motivate him to get you the TV of your dreams... without the hassle. Jeff ( Big screen/surround sound/DVD/VCR/satellite wiring burnout) Rice

"Bigbob62" wrote...

Dish Network will give you 26 HDTV/80 regular channels for $29.95 month.

Lee Aanderud wrote:

Is Dish compressing their HD signals? DirecTV is and you can see a huge difference by pulling the local HD signals in with just an old fashioned roof antenna (most mount it inside the attic) with 0% compression.

Lee

They use the same compression standards as the cable guys, but side by side, the Dish picture is better. I can't get off the air HDTV here with out a roof top antenna.

Lee Aanderud wrote:

John, you've been in the electronics biz - there are still 4 large screen formats that I can think of - projection, DLP, Plasma and LCD. I've watched DLP and LCD, both have noisy cooling fans. Haven't watched a Plasma unit. I have a 52" RCA projection unit but want HDTV sometime. What's your opinion on these various technologies?

Brooksie

Rear projection is the only format that can deliver the full HDTV standard. LCD's don't do black or fast motion well and both plasma and LCD don't do as well in off axis brightness. I figure by the time by new rear projection unit wears out, there will be something better.

Brooksie wrote:

We now have two HDTV's, one is a 37 ' HUGE HEAVY Sony Trinitron, and the other one is "labeled" Westinghouse, but is really a Samsung unit. The picture difference is in the way your provider supplies you with the signal. The Sony is connected to a digital HDTV box, and the other one is connected to a normal cable box. I am partial to the CRT unit over the flatscreen.

The CRT, while HD, has a greater or wider color gamut than an HD flat screen. HDTV on a flat screen looks like the output of a highend Nikon D-200/D2X image, very sharp, vivid colors, but not natural in it's color reproduction. Blue skies are much deeper, reds are very vibrant, but on a CRT HD the colors are natural looking.

Switching the boxes, really changes the look of the image. Optimum On Line, our provider, gives up the raw HD signal from the networks with a standard cable box, using their digital cable box the picture is enhanced, and actually there is an audio and video delay of about 1 second if you have two sets on at the same time and tuned to the same channel. Also in the NY area, if you want DHDTV, you need to add 700 to any station's number in your locality, CBS which is 2 here, you select 702, NBC 4 is 704 etc.

What ever you do decide on, you need to look at the refresh rate, more than how many lines. Some units refresh at 9ms and high end units refresh at below 5ms. The faster the refresh rate the less blur, or ghosting will be seen. It shows up in sports programs, and in motion pictures where there is a lot of action shots. At slow refresh rates, the action can get blurred.

One thing that most folks don't see with HDTV is that the images throw a tremedous amount of information at you visually, and once you get past a certain screen size, it becomes more like watching a movie in a theater sitting up close, you start to move not only your eyes, but also your head.

If you want to get a really good HDTV unit, look at Tiger Products. They have a link from Microsofts' Flight simulator, You can get as many as 6 30inch screens from a laptop with a tuner and their "sidecar" box.

BG

Thanks John... on cable there really aren't enough HD channels to make it a "must have" to move up to an HD set. I'm really sick of paying horrendous monthly charges for 200 channels and finding nothing to watch! I wonder if satellite would offer more? I must confess to a fondness for old movies but very few of the new network programs. I think I'll look into a Dish or DirecTV setup next time I go to work in the USA. That way I can buy a dish and subscribe, bring it back home and quietly tell the CRTC to go to hell on what they think they can tell me I have to watch.

Brooksie (the redneck Albertan)

here's the top 180 channel package: ($49.95)

045&sortby=1 $69.95 gets you 240 channels, plus 24 more in HD.

Brooksie wrote:

The sad thing is look at the channels you get in HD... Kung Fu HD; Monsters HD; Food Network. The only one that looks worth having would be National Geographic HD.

The most important feature in DirecTV is the customized menu where you can delete all of the channels you don't want to see when scrolling through channels or in the guide. I've got 200 channels but maybe actually watch

10... don't really have any use for 3 24-Hour Infomercial channels or the dozen home shopping network channels.

Lee

045&sortby=1>

Thanks John! I plan to get an "in motion" satellite dish and then set it up here at home too. I wonder if that will get me local programming too. Must check that out.

Brooksie

045&sortby=1>

Be aware of sets that say HD ready they MAY need the HD decoder. I usually stick with anything made by Sony. Make sure what you get is all inclusive you should be able to plug your Direct box into it and go and whether you get plasma or LCD check it out by trying to see the picture from the sides this is usually where you loose definition. Depending on the vintage of your TIVO you may not need a new unit.

Mark

Be aware of sets that say HD ready they MAY need the HD decoder. I usually stick with anything made by Sony. Make sure what you get is all inclusive you should be able to plug your Direct box into it and go and whether you get plasma or LCD check it out by trying to see the picture from the sides this is usually where you loose definition. Depending on the vintage of your TIVO you may not need a new unit.

Mark

I've got a 60" version. Best picture I've seen yet.

In my experience the more money you spend, the better the picture. I would have a $5000 Pioneer Elite rear projection set up in my store next to the $3500 standard Pioneer fed from the same source. The better picture on the Elite would sell it every time even though the regular Pioneer was still miles ahead of a cheap $2000 RCA.

snipped-for-privacy@earthl> Somewhat off topic, but do / can dealers rig the display sets to get a

Must be an UL, at least at Circuit City. I went and looked at the 50" units on display, all in one group...and found the Visio 50" plasma ($1799) to be as good or better than the more expensive Panasonic $2899, LG ($2999) and Samsung $3499).

I ended up buying the Visio unit (with a DirecTV HD TiVO for $99.99 and a $100 rebate, so it was essentially FREE). They really try to stick you for wall mount units...the articulating unit for a screen that size was $650 and the cheapest flat tilt-mount was $250, so my new plasma tv is sitting on two oak end tables and it's the perfect height, but the end tables stick out further than the 4" thick TV!

I'll be heading to Conn's and find a decent shelf unit for it, since my son told me his Father-in-law bought a really nice one thee for less than $250. Trish didn't like any of the shelf units they had at Circuit City...and the ones at Best But were $600-900 for a damned chrome/glass shelf-type table!! Good GAWD!! It's only a couple pieces of glass and a metal frame!

DirecTV is scheduled to come out and install a new HD antennae on Friday of next week...so I guess they're staying busy with all the promtions and expansion they've had lately.

BTW, the Circuit City extended warranty has got to be the best in the business...it was $250 for 3 years on the Visio (compared to $450 for the other brands) and it includes in-home repair within 24 hours, a loaner if they can't fix it within 48 hours...and a free replacement is it EVER needs repair a third time.

Even without HD connection yet, the plasma display is still leaps and bounds better than the standard tv I was watching. The 50" is a pretty good sized display...and the $1799 wa MUCH better than the $3999 for the 54" or $4500 for the 58" Panasonic!

Bob

snipped-for-privacy@earthl> Somewhat off topic, but do / can dealers rig the display sets to get a