Video Asylum

Posted by ICI on May 18, 2003 at 13:39:06

In Reply to: Need advice on a new TV posted by Dan on May 04, 2003 at 19:45:27:

You may want to think about the size of TV to get. Getting a 36" HDTV may just cost you more than a 54". These days, in the digital world, the smaller or medium sized TV's tend to be more expensive than the larger ones. You may want to consider that.
But of course this is not the case if you're not going HDTV. A 36" anaolog set is not going to cost a lot.

It think you should decide first off whether to go digital or analog. At THIS point, most everything you watch is NOT in HD. There is some select programming that IS in HD, but how to receive it is the question. There is HDTV programming through the dish, but it is expensive as you mentioned, and it's limited. There are designated HD channels that basically play looped material. It's exciting your first day watching it... But the majority of the material you probably WOULD watch would be primetime TV. Most of the major networks are broadcasting their primetime TV in HD. But this can be received right through a regular old antenna for free. No dish necessary.

I'm no expert to all of this, but the way I see it at this point, a nice tube analog TV is probably going to provide the best ALL-AROUND picture. A HDTV will provide you with the absolute best, but there is not a lot to watch on them at this time. The good news is that a few years down the line, everything you watch will be this high quality digital. So in the long run, a 1080i (HDTV) TV will be what you'll want. But it's just the time between then and now that's the question.