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• Dear Confused... - Harmonia 00:14:22 07/25/02 (2)
  In Reply to: HDTV - truth or fiction? posted by newtoHT on July 23, 2002 at 21:34:37:

  I think the salesman you talked with is the most confused of all.

  Monitor is just another word for a set without a tuner, though almost all direct view and RP HD sets have built-in NTSC tuners (two for dual PIP). In real world terms, there ain't much, if any, difference between "monitor", "HD ready", and "HD compatible" when your talking about consumer TVs. You'll need an HD (ATSC) tuner for any of 'em.

  There *are* HD sets with built-in tuners: RCA, Sony 34XBR2 or 34XBR800 and several others. Currently, the 2 main sources of HD programming are over the air (OTA) local broadcasts and satellite services like Direct TV. A very few cable companies (may) offer it as well. HD is in an awkward transition stage. If the set you buy is a "monitor" or "HD ready", you can get the set top HD receiver at a later date for the type of HD source you will be using . A set you buy today should be fine to use with future HD tuners. (Recording in HD from HD sources is another story.)

  Separates are the rule rather than the exception in audio, so I don't have any problem with buying a separate HD tuner and display device (TV). I'd rather have the tuner that suits me best instead of what the manufacturer can make the most profit on. There's very little HD programming in my area anyway - some of it is even down-rezed to save bandwidth! I will probably be going to Direct TV someday. HD programming will get here eventually.

  So why am I fervently pursuing an HD TV (ready, capable, whatever) *now*? The better to enjoy my DVDs. HD TVs can display 480p with progressive DVD players and the resulting picture can be gorgeous! No scan lines! (I don't want to go into interlaced vs progressive here. Just trust me - the image on a good display with decent progressive scan DVD is great.)

  Toshiba, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic all have direct view and RP HD sets available under 2K. That'll leave some money for a nice progressive DVD player like the Panasonic RP62 or RP82 and you're in business.

  I strongly urge you to go to avsforum.com, hometheaterforum.com, hometheaterhifi.com and hometheaterspot.com for comparisons of specific sets (widescreen vs 4:3, direct vs RP) and some basic primers on home theater.
  
  

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  • thanks! (also an oh oh) - newtoHT 11:34:35 07/25/02 (1)
    In Reply to: Dear Confused... posted by Harmonia on July 25, 2002 at 00:14:22:

    Thanks! Yours and Todd's explanation helped clear things up. However, you've raised another concern. You said...

    > > So why am I fervently pursuing an HD TV (ready, capable, whatever) *now*? The better to enjoy my DVDs. HD TVs can display 480p with progressive DVD players < <
    and
    > > the image on a good display with decent progressive scan DVD is great < <

    I purchased a Technics A10 DVD Audio/Video player a few months ago. I don't think it has progressive scan. How important is this feature? Am I defeating the purpose of buying a good TV if the player doesn't cut it?

    
    
    

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    • Are you defeating the purpose . . . - Auricle 07:55:55 08/01/02 (0)
      In Reply to: thanks! (also an oh oh) posted by newtoHT on July 25, 2002 at 11:34:35:

      In a word, yes! Unless you buy an external scaler/deinterlacer (dvdo is fairly reasonable but it might be cheaper to upgrade the player).
      Take the advice of the other contributors and visit the various forums. Oh yeah, to make matters worse, progressive scan is nice, but the vast majority of players that do not have VGA out have a few "bugs" (chroma in particular) so one needs to know and observe. And do not be brand loyal, manufacturers can go from the top of the heap to the bottom from one model line to the next (and vice versa).

      Have fun!
      
      

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• Re: HDTV - truth or fiction? - Lasermeister 17:26:11 07/24/02 (1)
  In Reply to: HDTV - truth or fiction? posted by newtoHT on July 23, 2002 at 21:34:37:

  It sounds like the salesman was ignorant and did not know what he was talking about. The lines of resolution statement is not correct. My old 30" Toshiba analog TV has 700 lines of resolution or some damned thing, but it scans at only 480i, that is, 480 interlaced scan lines every 1/30 second. My new Sony digital TV scans at 1080i and can display an HDTV broadcast with an outboard HDTV decoder (which I do not have). Really, you need to focus on the scan rate rather than the lines of resolution.

  My understanding is that most of these digital TVs do not have the HDTV tuner built in, but I think that some may. You can easily find a digital TV for less than $2000 that will improve the performance of your DVDs. I don't know about digital satellite--to me this is a mediocre quality transmission medium unless it's high definition. My 43" Sony HD-ready TV was less than $2000 including the stand, tax, and delivery. There are direct view digital TVs available for less than $2000 also. All of these would require an outboard HD tuner/decoder to watch HD broadcasts.

  Todd
  
  

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  • Thanks! - newtoHT 11:36:10 07/25/02 (0)
    In Reply to: Re: HDTV - truth or fiction? posted by Lasermeister on July 24, 2002 at 17:26:11:

    Sounds like $2000.00 is the threshold between a TV with an ATSC tuner and one without. My max was $1500.00 on the TV.
    
    

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