hdtv

[leeniek]

Yesterday we did it.. we bit the bullet and dropped more cash than I care to think about on an hdtv, dvr and of course a stand for the tv. We are the proud owners of a 46 inch lcd (I know plasma is better but we went shopping at the wrong time and all of the good plasmas were sold out so we got the best lcd we could buy... also since the kids play alot of video games, we don't have the risk of burn in from them as we would with the plasma) and I have to say... I love it!! I know the kids wanted a new imac but they will get alot more enjoyment from the tv and I'm already seeing it.
What I am also seeing is the money I had set aside for a trip to Europe in the summer sitting in my livingroom now... :roll:

 

[just jim]

You could always watch National Lampoon's European Vacation :roll:.

LCD's and Plasma are pretty equal these days.
Plasma's life expectancy has caught up to LCD's.
Burn in is no longer a concern either.
The big difference is plasma looks good in low light, lcd looks good in bright light.
That's why lcd's look so good in the store, with all of the bright flourescents.

Congrats on the purchase!

 

[missyjean]

Congratulations on your purchase. I'm sure you won't regret spending the money.

As for plasma, my son has a plasma in his livingroom and a LCD in his bedroom. Personally, he prefers the LCD.

The picture looks a lot better if you use HDM1 cable wires

Enjoy!

 

[leeniek]

We bought the hdm1 cable wires for the cable as well as our ps3 and the picture quality is amazing. The first store we went to had their tvs in both high and low light and honestly we couldn't tell the difference between lcd and plasma at all.

 

[chrose]

Congrats on your tv. Last year we took the plunge and got a fantastic deal on a Panasonic Plasma. Part of the reason was that we went with 720dpi as opposed to 1080 dpi and frankly we can't tell the difference. The life of the plasma will hopefully outdo us. We also got a Blu Ray player for cheap. The quality and picture of both are amazing!

Some tips for the rest of you that haven't taken the plunge:
720 is pretty much as good as 1080.
HDMI cables and very good power surge protection can be had at Newegg.com for a fraction of the price from places like Best Buy.
Also BB at least, offers to calibrate your tv for about $100, you can do it yourself. Most of the tv's have settings for you and the owners manual will tell you how to do it.
Lastly if your service provider offers Hi Def programming, bite the bullet and go for it. AS much as I hate the whole pay for tv things, free tv is a thing of the past and I just have to get used to it! But with a Hi Def tv, the HD programming is worth it. Though my eyes are getting old, better quality viewing is a treat.
When the cable guy was setting it up he said that the installers would use the science channels like Discovery or TLC to test the quality of the pictures since most of those programs are shot in HD. They are amazing! leeniek that money you were saving for Europe, find a program, get some wine and cheese and sit back and enjoy siteseeing without the hassle!

 

[deltadoc]

If I am remembering right, plasma and lcd HDTV's have one other thing in common: They're power hungry.

I have a 720 Mitsubishi 65" Diamond vision CRT HDTV. I agree, the picture is outrageously intense and it doesn't cost a lot to run it. The next best thing I did was get a JVC VHS/DVD recorder that upgrades a VHS tape when recording to DVD and/or when playing a regular DVD, producing something very close to blu ray. The JVC produces a better DVD picture than the Sony DVD player I have that is supposed to upconvert regular DVDs to something much better.

Another cool thing we found out that the county library 1 1/2 blocks from our house rents DVDs for 7 days at no charge at all. They also have brand new releases that cost $0.50 per day to rent.

And to think of all the DVDs we used to rent at $4-5 a pop!

doc

 

[gonefishin]

Congrats on your new Hd Tv! What an exciting toy to have in the house...and that picture :thumb:

Depending on your Tv I would recommend looking into ISF calibration. Some other nice places to tweak your Tv is at the AVS Forums. They've got some good information on many things A/V, including a nice OTA reception forum with a link to most areas. Tweak Tv is also a good one. You can look up settings for your Tv model specifically, they've also got a forum section. For Tv talk that's far into the hobby you can delve into the depths of the Home Theater Spot. Some of the forums aren't as active as they once were. But when you go into the tweaks and mod forums you'll find certified technicians sharing some of their secrets. Some of the tweaks are easy...and some are rebuilding power supplies. If you become a member you get a few other tweak driven forums that aren't available to everyone.


At home we've got a 60" Pioneer pro with only OTA digital service. It's unfortunate that many people do think that over the air broadcast is dead, because it's currently a stronger medium than it's ever been. It's got a superior picture when compared to cable or sat and DD 5.1. For us...we get the major broadcast and a good number of different PBS channels with subchannels. This suits us, especially when you couple the free OTA with the dual tuner HD DVR and guided Tivo HD system. With the Tivo HD we do subscribe to Netflix. For roughly $10.00 a month we get one dvd/blu-ray at a time and unlimited streaming of their instant view movies. Our total monthly fees are the DSL line and Netflix (35.00DSL and 10.00 Netflix). With the current quality of digital broadcast coupled with streaming capabilities it's a shame more people aren't getting rid of cable/sat. If broadcast had the numbers, the current capabilities could easily put the cable/sat companies in a world of hurt. But they won't get the numbers and payTv will secure themselves into this new emerging Tv market. A shame I think.



Congrats!
dan

 

[missyjean]

Ps3? I don't know if I have that. What is it?