Video Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on December 09, 2004 at 17:42:33

In Reply to: wide screen TVs posted by Nullone on December 8, 2004 at 09:32:29:

BTW...what's a "mrg"?

If you'll be gaming, watching vintage movies in academy ratio and tons of news programs, seems to me you'd be better off with a DLP, DiLA or LCD screen where there is no chance of burn-in. Plasma and CRT displays can suffer from burn-in unless your willing to use zoom features to even out the wear. If you leave your set on CNN for hours at a time, plasma or CRT aren't the best options without zooming of some sort. You can minimize burn-in by turning down contrast and brightness to medium levels (which you should be doing anyway). WS will eventually take over broadcasting, but there will always be classic films and archived material in 4:3 most of us will want to watch on our HDTVs.

There are only two commonly used ratios for the vast majority of modern movies. Most films are released in 1.85:1 ratio which will nicely fill up your 16:9 widescreen teevee, no bars whatsoever. Epics like LOTR & M&C, which are shot in 2.35:1, will have very narrow, unobtrusive black bars top and bottom on WS displays, because that ratio is obviously wider than 1:85.1. Classic movies, made before the 1950's WS boom, are in the classic 4"3 ratio, the shape of yer old TV.

Aspect ratio is a choice made by the film director and his/her cinematographer based on how they want to compose their frames based on what they are trying to convey. I have no problem with filmmakers using different aspect ratios to tell the story they want to tell, and I have no probelm with those unobtrusive little black bars on my 16:9 TV when playing LOTR or Lawrence of Arabia. Those movies sure as heck look better with little bars than they did on my ancient 23" 4:3 Sony!! I don't find it difficult to deal with 3 different aspect ratios...as long as I can see films in their *original* aspect ratio, or as close to it as possible.

Plasmas are RP??? Uh...I don't think you got a salesperson who knew very much. BB is fine to buy from, and if you can get a discount through a family member, by all means go for it - BB has some very good HDTVs. The cheaper Mits IMO are to be avoided. The Sony CRT RPs are the best bargain/bang-for-the-buck in HDTV I know of now, but you'll have to deal with burn-in. Plasmas have come a long way and are very good looking and very (VERY) sexy, but they too have burn-in issues. As per above, the DLP, DiLA and LCD RPs are light, thin, don't have burn-in issues plus they have appealing images for DVDs and digital content.

*All* of these technologies will look fabulous on HD content, and very good with DVDs. Some look better on standard def broadcasts than others, although there are ways of coping with SD depending on the set. This is a topic in itself- suffice to say that displays optimized for HD will not necessarily be optimized for shitty analog signals... although...most HD sets are lots better with SD than they used to be a few years ago. HDTVs upconvert SD signals, and frankly, garbage in garbage out - and ugly is uglier when its blown up onto a larger screen. This is one reason I chose the Philips HDmodel that I did - it's SD was much better than comparable competing sets at the time.

There is no such thing (yet) as a perfect display. Sorry. There are some darned good looking one though. All these competing technologies each have strengths and weaknesses. There's always a few trade-offs - some very minor, some major. Only you can decide which trade-offs you can live with.

Also keep in mind when you shop, that often the display models are not set up well - they're in torch mode, fed by signals through a gazillion splitters etc. It can make it hard to compare. If you can play a familiar DVD through them, it may tell you much more than the HD loop being run through 50 TVs. Avoid digital animation such as Shrek or Toy Story - all digital animation looks fab on HD sets, they won't tell you a darned thing about PQ with live action material.

I highly recommend avsforum.com - check out the FAQs for the various forums - plasma, RP, etc. This is the best place I know to get TV info.

The thing is, if you're now watching flicks on an old TV, nearly ANY WS HDTV experience is gonna BURY what you're now viewing. If you like movies, think about how much fun you're missing.