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  • From: Scott <catfather AT donpoo.net>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] HDTV
  • Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:28:38 -0500


On Mar 12, 2006, at 9:04 AM, Jim Ray wrote:

well, my NTSC TV just died. we're looking at an upgrade to HDTV and found the Toshiba 30HF85 which is a 30" CRT with HDTV. before plunking down $800, i wanted to find out if anyone else has had experience with that model or if anyone else has another recommendation.

personally, i don't watch TV a whole lot since my kids took over the living room. our entertainment center will go up to 36" yet my wallet will not.

any thoughts? i've been out of the market many moons.

Aside, from not watching much TV, do you enjoy DVDs or are the TV shows you watch generally broadcast in HDTV wide screen formats? If not you may do better purchasing a 4:3 display and in another 5 years or so looking at wide screen then.

You don't say if you're into DVDs. Movies on DVD are 480i on the disc and usually look better on wide screen displays that upscale the move to 720p or 1080i. Make sure you change the settings in the DVD player setup menu to show properly on a 16:9 display and connect to the TV via either the HDMI or the component inputs on the back.

I assume you receive every day TV through a satellite or cable box and that your set top box current does not support HDTV signals. Both DirecTV and TWC offer HD content and HD set top boxes.

If you choose to stick with your current cable box the image will still look great (this TV will automatically upconvert low res 480i images to 1080i according to the specs) but all your content will be in 4:3 aspect ratio. You'll have to decide how to best deal with this according to your tastes. Most people seem to configure their TV to 'stretch' the image so it fills the whole screen while others prefer to show the image in a 4:3 box on the 16:9 screen. The former means slight picture distortion while the later means seeing black or gray bars running down the left and right sides of the image.

For TV shows you enjoy, are they on the local HDTV stations or are they on cable/satellite channels like ESPNHD?

The absolute cheepest way to get local HDTV stations in this area is to purchase an an HDTV antenna. We're lucky to live in an area where we can receive over the air (OTA) signals for just about every local station. As such, many people in the area stick with standard definition cable or satellite services and get local channels in HD OTA. Radio shack is your friend here and Antenna Web (http:// www.antennaweb.org/) will help you figure out exactly which antenna type you need for your location.


--
Scott <catfather AT donpoo.net>
AIM: BlueCame1

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