HDTV - the myths and the reality - A giant rip-off

[#juan]

science & technology

Friday, Aug 18, 2006
HDTV - the myths and the reality


High definition television (HDTV) can be as confusing as it is alluring. (PCWorld.ca)
Yardena Arar
PC World Canada

The world of high-definition television can be as confusing as it is alluring. If you're ready to make the leap, PCWorld.ca has the facts you need.

Plasma TV sets start out bright and beautiful, but burn out to an early death. Every single high- definition television program looks equally crisp and gorgeous. The higher resolution of a 1080p high-def set means that your shows and DVDs will always look better than on a more ordinary 720p set.

Are these gospel truths about HDTV? Nope.


http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=technology_home&articleID=2353804&lid=hp2

Fixed yer URL so no side scrolling. C

You are just a nice person!

 

[#juan]

HDTV is great if:

1.Your TV is HD ready

2. Your DVD player is HD ready

3.Your Cable company is providing HD programming at an extra charge of course.

All you have to do is go out and buy a HD ready TV. Then buy a HD ready DVD player. The pay extra to your cable company for HD programming.

If you are like us, and you've just acquired a new TV and a new DVD player, neither of which have the HD feature, you might be a little frustrated like me and say "to hell with it." This is a good idea because HDTV is not that great anyway.

Comments

 

[DurkaDurka]

1. HD is the way the industry is going, CRT's have all but dissapeared form store shelves it seems.


2. The only DVD's players that can display a true HD image are HD-DVD(720p-1080i) & BlueRay, (720p-1080-1080p). You can buy "upconverting dvd players" there is little to no pricture improvement though.

3. You are refering to ExpressVu? :roll:

4. It does suck paying extra for the HD channels.

5. I currently have a 46" DLP & a ExpressVu 9200 HD PVR. The difference between that & my old SD CRT is huge. I have a hard time even watching standard def, if you are watching a show that has been encoded at 720p or 1080i, the picture is phenomenal. Certain stations though, such as CTV & TSN, the majority of their HD programming is just upconverted 480i material, which isn't flattering.

 

[Cosmo]

RE: HDTV - the myths and

Well, that's interesting. I've been whining about not having HDTV and realize that I'm not about to replace all my gadgets and cables. Guess I can quit snivelling now.

I'm hoping they come up with something easier to understand and manage for us fogies in the near future. As it stands, we have VCR, DVD, surround sound, Shaw box and GameCube all vying for our poor TV's attention. When we want to watch TV instead of having one of the other bits hooked up, we have to (wo)manually unhook one thing and hook in the one we want.

It's insane. Don't even have the surround sound hooked up!! Part of the reason is we have an older TV without some of the thingies needed ... got it back in the days when ya just screwed the cable wire in and called it progress. So I've been looking at newer TVs lately to move up to one with a whole bunch of little pluggies in the back. Think the salesmen will see me coming with my vast store of knowledge?

Anyway, this helps. Strike HDTV off the list entirely. Thanks Juan!

Oh ya ... I wandered around that site and found a ton of interesting stuff to read. I forgot how paranoid reading PC World can make one! :lol:

 

[JonB2004]

By 2010, you will probably have to buy a HDTV, a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray DVD Player, and HDTV television service.

1) The price of HDTVs has fallen significantly over the past 18 months and sales are rising.

2) When I was at Wal-Mart the other day, half of the TVs on display were HDTV. That obviously means that they are starting to phase out the old stuff.

3) The CRTC says that all Canadian broadcasters must have HDTV service by 2010. And most American broadcasters already have HDTV service.

4) I wouldn't worry about the price of the DVD players because they will probably fall as did the HDTVs. The same with the HDTV television service.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Re: RE: HDTV - the myths and

Well, that's interesting. I've been whining about not having HDTV and realize that I'm not about to replace all my gadgets and cables. Guess I can quit snivelling now.

I'm hoping they come up with something easier to understand and manage for us fogies in the near future. As it stands, we have VCR, DVD, surround sound, Shaw box and GameCube all vying for our poor TV's attention. When we want to watch TV instead of having one of the other bits hooked up, we have to (wo)manually unhook one thing and hook in the one we want.

It's insane. Don't even have the surround sound hooked up!! Part of the reason is we have an older TV without some of the thingies needed ... got it back in the days when ya just screwed the cable wire in and called it progress. So I've been looking at newer TVs lately to move up to one with a whole bunch of little pluggies in the back. Think the salesmen will see me coming with my vast store of knowledge?

Anyway, this helps. Strike HDTV off the list entirely. Thanks Juan!

Oh ya ... I wandered around that site and found a ton of interesting stuff to read. I forgot how paranoid reading PC World can make one! :lol:

Surround sound isn't dependant on the TV in any way or form unless you are using HDMI interafce, which the average consumer isn't.

If you are hoping to run dolby 5.1, look on the back of the surround sound receiver, there should be a digital audio optical port (input) or a digital audio coaxial port (input). You would then run, either the optical or coaxial cable into the output on the cable box or the dvd player. If everything is setup correctly, you now have ear piercing explosions and whatnot.

 

[hermanntrude]

newsflash!

There has been a technological advancement to the television industry, the like of which the world has never seen before!

The new technology, christened "Slightly Higher Definition TV" or SHDTV, is reputed to be the biggest breakthrough in TV since Mrs Prince down the road discovered that her remote wasnt working because the batteries were dead.

The industry has proved incredibly popular because the consumers were told that it was and they all went out to buy an SHDTV set and an SHDTV-DVD, for the minimal cost of both their eyeballs, plus $50 a minute charge for the extra-high bandwidth the cable companies use to send the subliminal advertising through the cable.

Mr Simpson of park road said "It's amazing to see the difference! When i switched it on for the first time I realised what I had been missing all that time" then he walked off with a wad of cash he'd been given by the advertising companies.

It is expected that by 2010, everyone will have been forced to buy SHDTV because all the reasonably priced products will have been forced into obsolescence by the greedy bastards who sell this shit.

watch out for the next great advancement! It's expected to come soon and will involve a miniscule difference in quality and cost a massive amount to upgrade to!!!!

 

[cdn_bc_ca]

plasma burn out to an early death? WTF? Plasma's are rated for a least 40,000hrs before it achieves HALF brightness.... I said HALF... 50%. So when this happens, jack the brightness up full and you will still get the same picture as it was when new.

In any event, after 40,000hrs of use, there will be bigger and better displays out there and you would be a fool to keep using it. After all, the reason you bought it is to get the biggest and best picture viewing experience... no?

Playing DVD's on a 1080p set vs a 720p set will make no difference. DVD has a max resolution of 480p. The only difference you will see is the difference in the quality of the electronics. That is, how well the 480p signal is upconverted to 1080p or 720p.

I can't believe such crap came from PCWorld. Somebody should sue them for publishing such stupidity.

Somebody please tell me that the original post was just a joke.

 

[hermanntrude]

I can't believe such crap came from PCWorld. Somebody should sue them for publishing such stupidity.

what else do u expect from PCworld? a company which sells cables worth 50p for £14, employs teenagers who run to find the one qualified member of staff as soon as u ask which way the toilets are, and sell rapidly-assembled mass-produced tripe off the shelf which works MOST of the time.

you may have notices PCWorld is not my favourite company