HDTV questions

[Jamie Madigan]

So I'm in the market for a HDTV. I've read ten or so old QT3 threads on the topic and maybe half a dozen "Buyer's Guides" type of articles on the Internet so I definitely know more than I did last week. But I still have some questions I was hoping somebody could help out with. First, some context:

-I'll probably be sitting 6 or 7 feet away from the TV to watch it.
-Given the above, I'm thinking of a size somewhere around 50 inches.
-I watch 1 or 2 DVDs a week (woo Netflix!).
-Console gaming, too. Just PS2 and NGC now. I don't own an XB360, but will probably pick up either one of those or the PS3 or Nintendo's new console when they're out.
-I watch maybe an hour of TV per night.
-Hooking up my PC would be neat, but not a selling point.
-I have a 5.1 speaker surround sound home theater system with a separate receiver/amp.
-Budget is up to $3,000 for everything I'd need.

Based on what research I've done, I'm thinking of either a plasma or rear projection DLP. CRTs are too big/heavy and LCDs don't seem to come in the 50-inch+ variety. Plasma looks a little better to me based on an informal eyeball test at the store and I really like how slim they are (wall mounting would be great), but they're a lot more expensive than the DLPs. The latter seems like it may be the way to go for quality/price ratio. Thoughts on this would be good.

Anyway, the specific questions:

1. 720p or 1080i or 1080p?
Actually, I can rule out 1080p on my own. Out of my price range and I hear that there's not much true 1080p content ATM. So which of the remaining two? More data/resolution in the 1080i sounds good, but progressive scan sounds like it would look much better when viewing action movies or video games. I'm leaning towards 720p.

2. What kinds of connectors are important?
This is confusing. I know about S-video and regular red-yellow-white audio/video connectors (forget the term) because that's what my consoles use right now, but I came across a lot of other connectors in my research --RGB, component, etc. What's important? Does the fact that I have a home theater system receiver that I hope to hook up? My DVD player has a fiber optic cable for digital audio. That matter?

3. Do I want an integrated HDTV tuner/receiver? What's this about cable cards?
I still don't think I understand the dilemma around integrated HDTV tuners and cable cards. I know I can get terrestrial HDTV content with an antenna, but I imagine that most HD content will come through my cable provider. Doing without a set top box would be good (less clutter and wires), but I've seen warnings about compatability with cable providers. What's the deal here? Also, I have a separate TiVo right now, and speaking of which...

4. Will I need to save room in my budget to upgrade my TiVo?
Do I really want a HD TiVo or other DVR? Can you record HD content on an old TiVo? I think mine is a Series 2.

5. Similarly, do I need to upgrade my DVD player?
If I want to get the most out of my HDTV while watching DVDs, are there any features that I should check on to see if my current DVD player has them? I've seen hints at this in buyer's guides, but nothing specific.

Thanks for any input!

[Bill Dungsroman]

2. What kinds of connectors are important?
This is confusing. I know about S-video and regular red-yellow-white audio/video connectors (forget the term) because that's what my consoles use right now, but I came across a lot of other connectors in my research --RGB, component, etc. What's important? Does the fact that I have a home theater system receiver that I hope to hook up? My DVD player has a fiber optic cable for digital audio. That matter?

Yeah, all of that matters. The theory is, unless you have a device somewhere that "upconverts" (specifically to some type of output up to another, like S to component), you have to keep the same signal type from source (cable box, TV, DVD, CD) to terminal output (receiver, TV). Like, if you want to watch DVDs, you need to have (for instance) the same audio cable/out type, digital optical or digital coaxial (big heap debate over which is better, I'm preferential to optical for DVD and coax for music, if only because of potentially bogus claims of crisper sounds from optical and warmer sounds from coax, but really it's to save both types of outs and only use one of each) going from DVD to receiver. So, you gots two seperate cables of the same type (I'd try to go same brand, but it ain't necessary). If your DVD/CD player does 5.1 analog and your receiver accepts it, it's pretty groovy to listen to media recorded in "true" 5.1, all you need is all your extra RCA cables, 3 pairs to run from each speaker out to the receiver. I have TCM's Temple of Boom in 5.1, and it excites me in every way imaginable. There are other audio formats, but those are all you need audio-wise for the DVD/CD player.

Video...well, I haven't delved into the HD market yet, so I'm all ears about that tip. HD is GAWD (with DVI in close second) obviously, then RGB/component (tri-cable video) is next, then S, then RCA composite (yellow cable) is last. If you have old or un1337 concoles or an old VCR or whatever, they canget by on older cabling, you just have to bear in mind that same cabling type must eventually make it to the terminal interface (unless you have an upconverting device somewheres).

Somebody through down an awesome link for cheap cabling awhile back. Cabling is a red herring and even on the cheap it will cost some.

[Justin Fletcher]

-I'll probably be sitting 6 or 7 feet away from the TV to watch it.
-Given the above, I'm thinking of a size somewhere around 50 inches.

The recommended viewing distance for that size is 10'+. A 40"-ish set is recommended for 6-7' viewing distance. Still, once you decide on the model you want, see if you can find one in a store and do your own tests.

Plasma looks a little better to me based on an informal eyeball test at the store and I really like how slim they are (wall mounting would be great), but they're a lot more expensive than the DLPs. The latter seems like it may be the way to go for quality/price ratio. Thoughts on this would be good.

Most likely, you'll get recommendations for both, based on folks' subjective tastes. It will come down to what you like and how much you want to pay for that subjective increase in quality. (Not much help, I know.)

1. 720p or 1080i?

Based on your criteria, if you can find/afford a native 720p set (1280x720), I'd go for that. I love the picture quality on my 1080i set, but I wish it could resolve small text from my computer with more crispness. If you're getting a non-native set, it won't matter as much because there will be scaling of the material no matter what resolution is sent. Thus, the quality of the set's scalers because more important.

2. What kinds of connectors are important?

Component (not to be confused with composite) and HDMI 1.1 are the important connections, with the latter becoming the standard. However, it's also important that the set have the same connections as your equipment. If you're using the composite (red-yellow-white) feeds from your consoles, you may need composite jacks, too (unless you feed everything into the TV through a component/HDMI enabled receiver).

3. Do I want an integrated HDTV tuner/receiver? What's this about cable cards?

I've read nothing that claims CableCards are better than set-top boxes in any other way than lack of clutter. I think they also allow you to use features on your TV that can be disabled by using a separate box (PiP, channel guides, etc.). But there have been some compatibility problems, and many of the current generation slots on TVs only allow one-way communication, meaning that on-demand, and Pay-Per-View features would not work. Personally, I don't consider lack of CableCard support a dealbreaker at the present time.

EDIT: However, if you are interested in OTA signals through an antenna, you'll most likely need a set with an integrated QAM tuner.

4. Will I need to save room in my budget to upgrade my TiVo?

Unless you have DirecTV, you cannot currently buy a TiVo that records HD. However, most cable companies offer some sort of HD DVR for rent that will serve as your set-top box and recorder. None of these come close to TiVo, in my opinion, so I was glad to hear that TiVo is planning an HD Series 3 standalone box to be released later this year. Projected MSRP is around $1000 for a 20 hour model (with, I believe, a SATA connection to plug in an external hard drive for more room).

5. Similarly, do I need to upgrade my DVD player?

Again, this is a pretty subjective question. As for me, I would get an upscaling DVD player so that 480i DVDs can be upscaled (and, depending on the resolution of your set, de-interlaced) to HDTV standards. That can get pricey, though, depending on the quality of scaling you want. Some would also argue that it's silly to drop a lot of dough on a DVD player when Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are on their way (I would not be one of them). I would suggest trying your current player with your set. If you don't like it or are curious about upscaling, buy a new player from a vendor with a really good return policy and then do a comparison. If you do buy a new player, I highly recommend looking for one with HDMI output.

[Ben Sones]

-I'll probably be sitting 6 or 7 feet away from the TV to watch it.
-Given the above, I'm thinking of a size somewhere around 50 inches.

That sounds about right. We sit around 6 feet from ours, and have a 46" TV, and it's a good size--not overwhelming for regular viewing, but big enough to make watching movies into a theater-like experience.

-I watch 1 or 2 DVDs a week (woo Netflix!).

You might want to consider adding an upscaling DVD player to your purchase, if you watch DVDs regularly. They aren't that expensive (you can spend a lot on them, but mine was ~$120, on sale), and they really make a noticeable difference in picture quality. I don't know if it's because they can use HDMI (so no digital-> analog-> digital conversion required) or because of the upscaling, but it definitely looks better.

-Budget is up to $3,000 for everything I'd need.

You should be able to get a nice 50" TV in that price range, and can probably spend significantly less if you shop around. I'll give my standard recommendation for the Samsung DLPs, which have great picture quality and are priced reasonably (I prefer them to most plasmas I've seen at any price, and definitely to all comparably-priced plasmas). YMMV, though, and your best bet is to go to some stores and look at the various types of HDTVs in person. Don't rush yourself; spend some time watching them. Make sure they have some actual HD content playing (if they don't, then ask them to put some on), and ask to see the remotes so that you can check the picture settings (4 times out of 5, they'll be totally messed up--contrast turned all the way up, or brightness at some absurdly high or low level). Often when picture quality on a given set looks really bad in a store, that's why.

1. 720p or 1080i or 1080p?
Actually, I can rule out 1080p on my own. Out of my price range and I hear that there's not much true 1080p content ATM. So which of the remaining two? More data/resolution in the 1080i sounds good, but progressive scan sounds like it would look much better when viewing action movies or video games. I'm leaning towards 720p.

I think 1080p is totally not worth the (often considerable) extra cost. It's nice if you are going to be using your TV as a monitor for your PC, or for HD DVDs but it's not part of the HDTV standard, so don't expect broadcast content in 1080p any time soon (probably not during the lifetime of the set).

2. What kinds of connectors are important?
This is confusing. I know about S-video and regular red-yellow-white audio/video connectors (forget the term)

You won't want to use any of those on your new set if you can avoid it, because none of them provide high-def bandwidth. Here's my "by layperson, for layperson" guide to the important types of inputs to look for:

Component: three cables for video (R, G, and B), plus a red and white for audio. Component cables can carry an HD signal, but they are analog, so the signal gets converted to analog and then back to digital by the TV. But they work just fine, and this is how you'll be connecting your current-gen game consoles (so bear that in mind when you are tallying how many inputs you need). You'll have to buy the cables if you want to do that, which you definitely will as soon as you see what a 480i game signal looks like on a 50" high-def set (hint: it looks like ass). Look for third-party cables (like from Madcatz, etc.), because the first-party cables are often overpriced.

HDMI: this is the current digital input standard; it's a single cable that carries both video and audio. Some (well, mine, at least) upconverting DVD players require an HDMI connection to do the upconversion. Fair warning: HDMI cables are absurdly expensive. Like, in the $50-70 range. I think most current TVs only have one HDMI-in, though, so you'll only need to buy one.

DVI: the standard that HDMI is supposed to replace. Essetially the same as HDMI, but no integrated audio (you have to use seperate cables). Many older ("older" being as recent as a year or two old) video components have DVI-outs instead of HDMI.

Does the fact that I have a home theater system receiver that I hope to hook up? My DVD player has a fiber optic cable for digital audio. That matter?

It's good to have all that stuff--even if you don't plan to use it immediately. But pretty much every TV in your price range will have them, so don't sweat it. In general, the more inputs (both quantity and different types), the better. You can never have too many.

3. Do I want an integrated HDTV tuner/receiver?

I'd say not. There is some over the air HD broadcast content out there (how much depends on where you live), but if you have digital cable or satelite, you really don't need the tuner.

What's this about cable cards?

CableCard is a dicey issue. If you don't want to be tied in to using your cable company's set-top box, it's a good thing... in theory. I would love--LOVE--to replace the craptacular Scientific Atlanta DVR that Time Warner gave me with a media PC or one of the new CableCard HD Tivos, when they come out. But the current CableCard standard (1.0) is really limited. It doesn't support multistreaming (display one show while you record another), it doesn't support interactive program menus, and it doesn't support on-demand and pay-per-view interactivity. CableCard 2.0 is supposed to fix these issues, but sets with 2.0 probably won't be available until 2007.

Doing without a set top box would be good (less clutter and wires), but I've seen warnings about compatability with cable providers. What's the deal here?

Actually, I believe that the FCC requires--by law--that all cable providers support the CableCard standard. So there shouldn't be any compatibility issues on their end. (Which doesn't man that there aren't--just that there shouldn't be.)

4. Will I need to save room in my budget to upgrade my TiVo?
Do I really want a HD TiVo or other DVR? Can you record HD content on an old TiVo? I think mine is a Series 2.

The good news is that you don't. The bad news is that if you want to watch HD broadcast content, you'll almost certainly have to replace your Tivo with your cable company's standard DVR. Not only does the standard Tivo not record in HD--it won't even pass an HD signal on to the TV. It downconverts everything to 480i. You cable company's DVR probably comes free (or for a small fee--I pay $4 a month for mine) with your digital cable service, and many of them have great features... on paper. In practice, it's almost guaranteed to be a poor, wan shadow of the user-friendly goodness that is Tivo. But you'll have HD.

I miss my Tivo.

5. Similarly, do I need to upgrade my DVD player?

You don't HAVE to, but I would (and did).

[Menzo]

For DVI/HDMI cables, just go to monoprice.com and buy them for $8 instead of the $80 that Circuit City will charge you. Same cable, no ripoff.

I would recommend a 50" plasma or even LCD for that budget. Pretty much any TV you get these days will have fistfull of inputs, including S-Video, Composite, Component, and HDMI (most will have two HDMI inputs).

Since you have a 5.1 receiver, you'll probably pipe your audio through that, resulting in a pretty confusing mess of remote controls, so I'd suggest investing in a Logitech Harmony remote of some sort. The one designed for the Xbox 360 seems to be the latest fave since it can controle DVRs and is relatively cheap ($100 or less).

[Bill Dungsroman]

For DVI/HDMI cables, just go to monoprice.com and buy them for $8 instead of the $80 that Circuit City will charge you. Same cable, no ripoff.

I would recommend a 50" plasma or even LCD for that budget. Pretty much any TV you get these days will have fistfull of inputs, including S-Video, Composite, Component, and HDMI (most will have two HDMI inputs).

Since you have a 5.1 receiver, you'll probably pipe your audio through that, resulting in a pretty confusing mess of remote controls, so I'd suggest investing in a Logitech Harmony remote of some sort. The one designed for the Xbox 360 seems to be the latest fave since it can controle DVRs and is relatively cheap ($100 or less).

Unless you get/have a receiver that has a fully-programmable remote that allows assignable macros to any button on it, like mine does.

[ARogan]

First, I love the logitech harmony remotes. Just as important my wife loves them too. I have two of them:
http://aroganworld.blogspot.com/2006...60-remote.html
http://aroganworld.blogspot.com/2006...al-remote.html

After looking at several HDTV's I just like direct view technology (lcd, plasma) more than projection. I really do like DLP but it has some pretty bad vertical view angle problems.

I have a cable card and it's useful and convenient but isn't a deal breaker. I think ATSC QAM tuner is more useful. OTA HDTV and cable HDTV look great.

Recording HDTV is a pain right now and you have very limited options. DRM bites you at every turn. Currently about the only way to record cable HDTV is use their provided DVR solution. TWC uses Scientfic Atlanta. I would watch paint dry before you could get me to use a Scientfic Atlanta DVR. MCE records OTA HDTV quite nicely with a fusion card but no cable clear QAM support and no cable card support. I've read cable card support will come with vista but it's sold as a complete media center pc and not something you can DIY. Then there is streaming the mpeg2 transport stream directly out of your STB 1394 firewire port (in my case motorola 6200) to your pc hard drive.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695
Of course that has it's problems too like the 5C copy protection flag. BAM DRM AGAIN. This flag prevents you from recording on non 5C compliant hardware. The dumb thing is this flag is on even broadcast TV shows.

So right now I stick with MCE and OTA hdtv recording. I use my XBOX 360 to stream the content through my home network to my hdtv. It works well enough for now and the quality is great.

As far as DVD player goes any progressive scan player will do. A $3000 TV should have good quality scalers that should be good as any upscaling dvd player. The scaling is going to happen either at the source (DVD player) or at the display (TV). I've already payed for it once in the TV why buy the same tech twice? Oh did I mention the X360 makes a fine progressive scan dvd player. And....wait for it.... you can play OBLIVION!

Just buy one of these:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bt0b3v2...d&i=647LVM42W2
(actually I don't know much about this tv except it's a pretty good price for the size and feature set)
and you still have enough left over for a X360

[Qenan]

The recommended viewing distance for that size is 10'+. A 40"-ish set is recommended for 6-7' viewing distance. Still, once you decide on the model you want, see if you can find one in a store and do your own tests.

There are various theories of what the viewing distance should be. See, for example, http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html
which suggests that at 6 feet, a screen diagonal of 44" meets the "SMPTE minimum viewing angle" and a screen diagonal of about 54" meets the "THX recommended viewing angle".

I think the bottom line is, go look at some TVs from your favored distance and see for yourself. There is no magic calculation that will tell you what the right size is, although it may get you into a ballpark.

So far as TVs go, I'm currently thinking that the KDF-E50A10 offers the best combination of picture and price for gaming. It's a rear projection set, though. And, of course, you have to analyze whether its connectors will suit you.

Samsung DLPs have particularly suffered from lag in gaming, although there are reports that other sets also have this problem. See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5&page=1&pp=30

[Menzo]

So far as TVs go, I'm currently thinking that the KDF-E50A10 offers the best combination of picture and price for gaming. It's a rear projection set, though. And, of course, you have to analyze whether its connectors will suit you.

I have the 42" model in this line and love it. Even standard def programming looks pretty good, and the stretch mode it uses for 4:3 content is very subtle (i.e. it doesn't make everyone look like a fatass).

I don't use the built-in tuner though. I use a MOXI cable box/DVR from Adelphia, which I also really like, except for its limited storage (about 8 hours of HD).

[Jamie Madigan]

Awesome information, guys. Thanks a ton. I really want one of these things now, but unfortunately I won't be buying for another five or six weeks until after my move. I'd rather not buy the thing and then have to cram it on a truck for a cross-country drive.

[skedastic]

Few points:

• There are no microdisplay 1080i sets, and as far as I am aware (most of?) the 1080p sets on the market don't actually accept 1080p signals. So unless you have money to burn it's probably better to stick to 720p.
• Your set will convert any signals it receives to its native resolution, so for example when you watch a DVD it will be upconverted regardless of whether you have an upconverting DVD player. Some people say that conversion done by the DVD player tends to be better than that done by the TV. If you hook up your PC you can have it output very high quality DVD using a DVI connection.
• It's really, really worth it to never, ever use the composite (yellow RCA wire) or s-video connections. The picture quality poor and many sets will take time to convert the crappy signal to 720p, which means that your game is laggy and you get an audio sync problem if you don't use the TV's sound. Use component or a digital connection, and when using a games console if possibly set it to output a "progressive" image.
• Don't use the TV's sound, so don't worry about its audio inputs. Use your 5.1 system. Of course, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether you use coaxial or optical cables.
• As someone else noted, don't spend much on cables. Don't let any slimeball salesman sell you Monster Cable in particular.

[Brad Grenz]

Your set will convert any signals it receives to its native resolution, so for example when you watch a DVD it will be upconverted regardless of whether you have an upconverting DVD player. Some people say that conversion done by the DVD player tends to be better than that done by the TV. If you hook up your PC you can have it output very high quality DVD using a DVI connection.

Generally I think it's a quality gain from keeping the signal digital the whole way. Rather then taking the digital video on the DVD, converting to analog for component, converting back to digital and then scaling for display. At this point, however, if you have a decent progressive DVD player, I wouldn't buy a scaler. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD decks on the way will pretty much all feature scaling for regular DVDs.

[unbongwah]

There are no microdisplay 1080i sets, and as far as I am aware (most of?) the 1080p sets on the market don't actually accept 1080p signals. So unless you have money to burn it's probably better to stick to 720p.

If by "microdisplay" you mean LCD/DLP/LCoS-based rear-projection sets - which, AFAIK, are all fixed-resolution displays - then I believe you are correct, none of them are 1080i. 720p seems to be the standard resolution, though 1080p sets are now coming out too. I have heard that CRT-based "semi-microdisplays" - i.e., conventional CRT RPTVs, but significantly smaller than the current models - are coming out and they would likely be 480p/1080i displays, same as most CRT RPTVs.

Likewise, you are correct that some (most?) 1080p sets don't accept 1080p signals, as bizarre as that sounds: these sets take lower-res signals and scale them up to 1080p. I've also heard some people opine that 1080p is only worth it on really large displays, such as a front projector: your average viewer can't discern the extra level of detail on "smaller" (under 60") sets. But that's most likely a YMMV thing.

Personally, I don't think there's much point in going with 1080p at this point, except for bragging rights; but if you do, definitely find a set which accepts 1080p signals. Sure, there's little or no native 1080p content now, but eventually there will be; what's the point of owning a 1080p set otherwise?

Apart from bragging rights, of course. :-)

Your set will convert any signals it receives to its native resolution, so for example when you watch a DVD it will be upconverted regardless of whether you have an upconverting DVD player. Some people say that conversion done by the DVD player tends to be better than that done by the TV. If you hook up your PC you can have it output very high quality DVD using a DVI connection.

It really depends on the quality of whatever is doing the conversion: some TVs do a really good job, some don't; some DVD players have really good upconverters, some don't. But the general consensus does seem to be that it's best to minimize the number of times your video is reprocessed: so all things being equal, it's better to have, say, your DVD player upconvert to your TV's native resolution; rather than have the DVD player output one resolution (e.g., 480p), then have the TV convert that signal to its native res (e.g., 720p).

Basically, you want the video you send to your TV to be in the TV's native resolution(s) as often as possible, rather than have the TV scale that video signal to its native resolution.

[Marcus]

My 37 inch westinghouse LCD TV accepts 1080p signals. It wasnt that expensive either and it works lovely as a monitor.

It has 2 sets of 1080p inputs one DVI and one VGA ( though the VGA looks like shit at 1080p esp for text ).

[RobotPants]

[*]As someone else noted, don't spend much on cables. Don't let any slimeball salesman sell you Monster Cable in particular. [/list]

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to argue with that. If you have a good TV and good source devices, good cables make a lot of difference. I'm not saying you have to get the most expensive ones, but using shitty ones will most certainly degrade your picture quality. My most recent personal experience with this is using the Xbox 360 component cables. They're pretty thin and apparently completely unshielded and looked not so hot on my HDTV, at least not as good as it should've. I went out and bought the Monster Xbox 360 component pack that also comes with an optical cable and it made a ton of difference. And it was only $50, so I think it was well worth the extra $10 compared to the $40 Microsoft set. Again, you don't have to go all out, but please don't use what comes in the box with your DVD player or HD sat box.

As for the 1080p thing, it doesn't really matter whether or not you're pumping 1080p signals into it. Those TVs upconvert everything to that format and it makes a difference on HD content. It's not a gigantic difference, but text typically looks sharper and less "digitized". Also, if you plan on using it as a computer monitor, the extra resolution is fantastic compared to 720p sets. That said, I don't think 1080p sets are really worth the money right now when you can get a "normal" HDTV for a decent price that will still look great. I recently got a 50" Sony Grand Wega for an insanely low price and I love it.

[Moggraider]

Why are all HDTVs huge? I'm still waiting for a reasonably-sized set that I can use easily, being in a college dorm room and all.

[Jamie Madigan]

Why are all HDTVs huge? I'm still waiting for a reasonably-sized set that I can use easily, being in a college dorm room and all.

I've seen them down to 23 inches or so. Lots in the 29-inch range, too.

[Menzo]

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to argue with that. If you have a good TV and good source devices, good cables make a lot of difference.

I'd dispute this, but whatever. When it comes to HDMI, though, this is an all digital connection, so there's no such thing as a degraded signal. It's either there or it's not. Right now the 3' cord you buy at Best Buy is something like $60, but you can go to monoprice.com (I'm a big fan) and get a 12' cable for like $8.

Perhaps you have some sort of super human ability to discern detail that I simply can't, though.

[skedastic]

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to argue with that. If you have a good TV and good source devices, good cables make a lot of difference. I'm not saying you have to get the most expensive ones, but using shitty ones will most certainly degrade your picture quality.

No, they won't, presuming we're talking about decent cables, which start at around $10. With digital video cabling it most certainly will make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Your cables would've been $10 if they'd been sold by generic manufacturer instead of Monster. Recall that your perceptions may have played tricks on you when you went to compare the image with the new versus your memory of the old cables.

Here's one example of a test: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...77,pg,4,00.asp

Again, you don't have to go all out, but please don't use what comes in the box with your DVD player or HD sat box.

The cables which come with devices are usually composite, and of course you shouldn't use composite. But if you buy a DVI cable from Best Buy for $150: you've been had.

As for the 1080p thing, it doesn't really matter whether or not you're pumping 1080p signals into it.

Of course it does, for the same reason true HD content looks better than, say, a DVD on a HD set.

[RobotPants]

You can argue with me all day that $10 cables are just as good, but you're wrong. I've seen the difference side by side and, no, it's not just my "perceptions" playing tricks on me. I work in an evironment that lets me try out lots of different hardware and cabling and the difference is absolutely there. Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but I'm not just some gullible shmuck who just blindly falls for market hype. I actually try out stuff and decide whether or not it's worth my money. What people don't seem to understand is that cabling is just as much a part of your system as the components are. If you're spending money on good stuff, why would you attach it all with shitty cables?

Also, I'm not sure why people who don't want to spend the money on good cabling look down so much on the people who do as if they're just stupid fucking retards. You can buy whatever you want, but you don't have to have "superhuman" abilities to see the difference. If you can't see the difference, it's actually better for you because you save money. But stop with the shit about how everyone else is stupid for paying for stuff you don't want.

And back to the 1080p thing, maybe you should read my comment in context, skedastic. I'm saying that there's a benefit to having a TV that can do 1080p even if you're not feeding it content in that resolution to counter the argument that people shouldn't get a 1080p set because of the lack of said content.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I knew it. Robotpants works for Best Buy or something.

[skedastic]

Yup, us blind, deaf people don't need expensive cables. Oh, alas, if only I were blessed with your keen senses, Robotpants!

Incidentally, I am going to be building a new PC soon. Which brand of SATA cable do you think will make my MP3s sound warmest?

[Fugitive]

I've seen differences between cables, but only with high-bandwidth analog connections, like VGA. And generally it was just a difference between whether the cables were shielded or not.

A good shielded cable still shouldn't cost very much, and as noted, it doesn't matter for digital.

[RobotPants]

Since we're being condecending, skedastic, you're an idiot.

[ambushbug]

Last I checked the Monster Brand compared very poorly against similiarly priced "high-end" cables.

Just think, for the same price as some medicore over-priced Monster cable you could get something *really* fancy!
--
As for HDTV's am I correct in my understanding that if the TV doesn't have HDCP on it's interface it will not be able to display the new HD-DVD players at their full resolution (even though the TV is capable of 1080i) due to the DRM?

How long has HDCP been standard on HDTV's?
Personally I have a Pioneer 64" rear-projection CRT (SD-643HD5) with component inputs so I'm screwed right?

[Brad Grenz]

As for HDTV's am I correct in my understanding that if the TV doesn't have HDCP on it's interface it will not be able to display the new HD-DVD players at their full resolution (even though the TV is capable of 1080i) due to the DRM?

It depends, disc to disc. Studios have the choice of whether or not to implement that particular bit of protection. I think Sony, Fox and Warner have all announced they won't use it for their Bluray/HD-DVD titles. I think Universal has announced they will.

[Damien Neil]

Why are all HDTVs huge? I'm still waiting for a reasonably-sized set that I can use easily, being in a college dorm room and all.

Get yourself a nice big Dell LCD monitor and call it a TV set.

[Moggraider]

I have a 2005, but playing games on it doesn't look very good due to the upscaling, plus there's a slight input delay =/.

[RickH]

Probably the best set you can get for less than $3k is this one: http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Sony_...arch=sony+sxrd

The picture is absolutely stunning, with no risk of burn-in. I plan to buy the 60" version by the end of the year (unless something better comes out). Bulbs are $250 a pop, so you might want to look into an extended warranty that covers the bulbs, some don't.

Plasmas are still prone to burn-in, no matter what the salesman tells you. Read the warranty, and you see that showing static images more than 15% of the time is regarded as a misuse and they won't cover it. That said, a very nice 50" one is made by Vizio. About $2500 w/ free shipping.

EDIT: fixed absolute statement with a weasel word.

[Balasarius]

Bulbs are $250 a pop, so you might want to look into an extended warranty that covers the bulbs, I know the typical CC and BB ones don't.

I actually just bought an HDTV last night from Bestbuy (JVC HD567BP6, using the JVC version of LCOS, the same tech the Sony you linked uses). The salesman specifically said that the service plan WOULD cover the bulb. And looking at the plan notes online, at least for New Hampshire, it does not say that bulbs are excluded.

(And yes, I bought the plan. My dad's old HD Plasma had to be replaced twice.)