Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Andrew C. Oliver" <acoliver AT buni.org>]

Note that many TVs upscale 1080i to 1080p.  Blu-ray and HD-DVD have 
standards for 1080p and the Playstation3 and XBox360 both support 1080p 
(the latter after a software upgrade). 

If you're buying an HDTV today and have the cash it is probably a good 
idea to make sure it accepts 1080p INPUT and not just output (meaning 
"pull-down reversal").  Good articles: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080i  
That being said you can probably get a pretty good deal on the previous 
generation of TVs. 

I bought the Sony *KDS-R60XBR1 last year and am very happy with the 
picture quality.  It is a DLP.  I'm unaware of and have never seen this 
"rainbow" problem.  The biggest issue with my DLP that I've seen is:  
size (but with a 60" TV depth isn't the biggest size issue), bulb (the 
bulb will last 3-5 years and cost ~$250-500*) and price. 

There are few XBox360 or Playstation3 games that can take full advantage 
of the 1080p yet (granted they look great via the pulldown), indeed the 
best PS3 game "Resistance" Fall of Man" only does 720p.  (NBA 2007 does 
1080p).  I spent a lot of time in Circuit City and Best Buy deciding how 
to blow my "merger consideration" on something relatively useless (my 
wife blew her share on resurfacing the back yard so it doesn't flood the 
laundry room, home remodeling the counter tops etc that were falling 
apart and other impractical things).  

While the PS3 is not as good at the XBox 360 as a game machine: fewer 
games, nearly no original titles, the online store is fscked (session 
time out before download even at high speed internet) and it doesn't 
compare to XBox Live (although I hardly use that) -- it is a GREAT DVD 
player (I haven't tried a Blu-Ray movie because nothing I'm interested 
in has been out on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD).  I have both.  Before we got the 
PS3 I bought a new Sony DVD player.  The Sony DVD does the upscaling to 
720p.  If you don't have a modern DVD player and don't buy a PS3 or 
XB360, upgrade that too.  (BTW the PS3 is the cheapest blu-ray player 
there is)...  Note the the Nintendo WII doesn't support HD so we don't 
have it.

For some reason only really crappy movies are out on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, 
so you'll have to get digital cable +HD or DirectTV or something.  We 
got the cable because we need it for Internet anyhow.  Time Warner 
supposedly makes it impossible to use anything but their DVR.  The 
problem is that their DVR (Scientific Atlanta) sucks.  The first one 
went bad (I wasn't home when the cable guy told my wife the very 
standard Western Digital PATA hard drive went bad because it was 
"overloaded").  It is at least upgradeable in storage (haven't done it 
yet though) and TWC doesn't disable that according to the settings.

For sound we got the Harmon Kardon stuff and Infinity 1100 
speakers/woofer (because the big floor standing ones that I originally 
bought didn't fit).  It works/sounds great.  I barely know how to use it 
there are so many settings.
I had to order the speakers online, but got a great deal.  Note that 
they are really tiny but looks are deceiving! 

If you have a modern laptop you can even hook it up with an adapter to 
the HDMI port.  However one problem with the Sony is that it has only 2 
HDMI ports.  You can get switches and things to deal with this but they 
aren't cheap and I can only imagine the pain it would cause my wife (who 
never uses the stereo because she doesn't want to deal with all of the 
remotes and mainly watches Discovery Health Channel when I'm not home 
which isn't in HD anyhow -- DHC makes me nauseous).

Anyhow I can recommend both the Sony SXRD DLP TVs (they just look the 
best), the Harmon Kardon receivers, and Infinity speaker set.  If you 
have the option of using something else for HD broadcasts then I can't 
recommend the Scientific Atlanta DVR (it is a piece of crap).  I 
recommend using either the XBox360 or Sony PS3 as your HD-DVD or 
Blue-Ray respectively (we're hoping for Blu-ray).  Both are good 
systems, the XBox360 is probably better for games.  It is likely the 
HD-DVD will win as the Adult Film industry is reportedly behind it 
(according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD).  However note that 
there is a Linux for PS3 ;-)

If you haven't purchased a TV in awhile...Circuit City, for instance, 
will subcontract someone to set it up for you.  Unfortunately, 
scheduling that and Time Warner is a pain because Time Warner will screw 
everything up and be rude to you then insist that you can't have the 
cable go through the surge protector (you can) -- unfortunately you have 
to let them hook it up to program it (their DVR/etc is about as free as 
in freedom as an internment camp).  I cannot remember the name of the 
company CC used -- however having them out to bring you up to speed may 
be worth it (it was for me, my geek bravado was wounded by the massive 
amount/types of cables  -- now I even know the difference between an 
optical cable and HDMI ;-) ). 

The most important thing is to see what looks good to you though.  The 
sound is a harder thing to comparison shop unfortunately.


Tom Caswell wrote:
> Bill gave a good writeup and I'll add a few more things.
>    
>   DLP is another option for HDTVs.  DLP is a projection TV with a short form factor.
>   Pros - Good, bright picture with very accurate color reproduction for a 
> cheap price.  Black is black.
>   Cons - Some people can see a rainbow effect due to the way the colors are 
> separated.
>   I have a Mitsubishi DLP and I've only seen a rainbow once or twice.  Our 
> living room faces the west so from about noon until sunset sunlight is 
> hitting the TV.  No matter how bright an LCD gets it's not bright enough.  
> Plasmas are expensive and since we didn't have a serious rainbow problem we 
> chose DLP.
>    
>   The resolutions follow the same logic as computer resolutions.  The number is the lines of resolution the TV can display.  The "i" and "p" letters denote interlaced and progressive scans.  Interlaced means half the screen gets refreshed during one pass and the other half gets refreshed during the next pass.  Progressive means the whole screen gets refreshed during one pass.  Standard TVs are interlaced but when you get to higher resolutions, progressive is key.  720p looks visibly better than 1080i partly due to the flicker free display.
>    
>   1080p is the newest resolution but not much media supports it.  HDTV signals are still 720p and 1080i.  I'm not sure if the DVD standards are 1080p encoded yet.  Personally I think 720p is good enough for me.  I dunno if I could tell the difference between 720 and 1080 lines of resolution.
>    
>   Multiple inputs are good but I haven't found I'm using more than I did when I had a standard TV.  I didn't put alot of value on inputs.
>    
>   A custom resolution is definitely required.  I used one of the calibration DVDs and it made a huge difference in the picture.  Since the TV displays so much information so fast, room lighting, human differences, etc. really affect the picture.  I highly recommend getting a calibration DVD or just borrowing one.
>    
>   Surround sound is a good investment too.  Lucas said the audio is 50% of a movie (paraphrased) and I strongly agree.
>    
>   I wouldn't suggest getting alot of bells and whistles on the TV like photo displays or built in TiVOs.  I'm a believer in separation of duties so a TV should only do TV well.  I would suggest making sure the HDTV has a built in digital receiver though.  Time Warner digitally encodes the HDTV Over The AiR channels in their cable signal and if you have a digital receiver in your TV you can get the signals without a goofy antenna.
>    
>   Definitely look at the TV before you buy it.  A good place like Tweeter will not stack TVs on top of each other and angle them so when you walk around you'll be looking at them orthogonally - as if you're sitting on the sofa.  I tend to buy high end stuff there because I think the after-the-sale service is better.  They'll price match too.
>    
>   Let me know if you have other questions.  Ping me at derpimpkar AT yahoo.com, I can get into more detail.
>    
>   Tom
>
> Bill Geschwind <geschwin AT email.unc.edu> wrote:
>   Late last year I bought a Sony KDL40-XBR2, which until recently was the
> latest 40" LCD TV from Sony. It was a fair bit more expensive than other 40"
> LCD TVs, but I think I got what I paid for. 
>
> The most important reason for me to pick this one probably won't apply to
> you - since I recently moved to Africa and in two years will likely move to
> some other region in the world I wanted a multi-voltage system, so I could
> plug it in anywhere using only a plug adapter without having to mess with
> step-up and step-down transformers. 
>
> There appears to be an ongoing debate about whether plasma or LCD TVs are
> the way to go. People in the plasma camp say that plasma screens have a
> better picture with better black, saying that black looks washed out on LCDs
> and that LCDs are not good for images with lots of motion, such as sports.
> People in the LCD camp say that LCD TVs use far less energy than plasmas,
> are not as fragile as plasmas, and are not prone to burn-in like plasmas.
>
> While some of those complaints against LCDs may still be true for lower end
> models, I find that the blacks look just fine on my Sony, and that
> high-motion pictures are just fine as well.
>
> Next, with HDTVs you will find a rating of the maximum resolution that the
> TV supports, expressed as 720p, 1080i or 1080p. I don't understand the
> differences and implications that well, so I will let somebody else explain
> these in more details. My Sony supports 1080p, which from what I understand
> is the maximum resolution currently available anywhere, and there is not
> much out there that currently requires such a high resolution, but I figure
> that this way I have "future-proofed" my TV in case more equipment becomes
> available that does support it.
>
> My Sony also has a ridiculous amount of connectors on the back (and the
> side). It has multiple HDMI Ins, as well as multiple Composite, Component
> and S-Video Ins, a VGA In, two Coax Ins and Composite Audio Outs (I may have
> missed a few; doing this from memory since the TV is in the other room).
> Thus I have no shortage of ports to plug stuff in. On lower end models you
> may find yourself not having enough ports to plug all of your stuff in and
> you could start running into problems and compromise what you want to do. I
> believe it's better to have too many than not enough ports.
>
> This TV also has a gazillion pictures adjustments. Regardless of what type
> of TV you end up with, you will want to adjust the picture to best suit the
> room in which you set up the TV. By default it has all of its advanced
> features turned on and the brightness ("vivid") cranked all the way up,
> since that's best suited for the very bright floor in Best Buy (or wherever)
> those things sit to compete for your attention, and a bright showroom floor
> almost certainly is not the same environment in which you will set up the TV
> at home. I found it best to use a "custom" picture and turn all of the
> advanced features off.
>
> I can't speak for the types of HDTV content available via cable or
> satellite, since we don't get any of that stuff here in West-Africa. If you
> have HDTV content available via cable or satellite, I would say go for it.
>
> If you're going to spend a good amount of money on an HDTV and watch DVD
> movies, I think you're cheating yourself by not getting a decent surround
> sound system as well. It does make enough of a difference to be worth it,
> and it's kind of silly to have the latest and greatest picture without the
> latest advances in sound to go along with it.
>
> In summary, even though my Sony was significantly more expensive than other
> models I haven't regretted it and can highly recommend it.
>
> - Bill 
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: internetworkers-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:internetworkers-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Roger Austin
> Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2007 1:21 AM
> To: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> Subject: [internetworkers] Thoughts on HDTV Systems
>
> We are thinking of a new TV for our living room and I haven't
> purchased one in about 20 years. Since many of you are younger
> and wiser about these things, what should we be looking for?
> I figure we will buy HDTV, but what brands do you recommend
> or not recommend? Are there any issues that make the most
> difference? I have explored on-line and Sony seems to have some
> decent looking systems. What experiences have all of you had with
> the fancy new TVs?
>   
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ---
> Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!  
> http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
> To unsubscribe visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers
>   


--
No PST Files Ever Again
Buni Meldware Communication Suite
Email, Calendaring, ease of configuration/administration
http://buni.org