Hi-tech-tv.com: Television technology news & answers

Question about widescreen TVs: I’m going to buy my 1st widescreen, a small 32″ LCD Samsung. I’ve seen quite a few widescreen TVs mostly in public places that seem to have the aspect ratio screwed up. Specifically, people appear way too short and wide. Is there an adjustment on these TV’s to correct for this?

Answer #1: Thats a 4:3 picture : FilmGiant : 3/4/07 12:21 AM
in STRETCH MODE made to fit a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. In other words, the store was not feeding the monitor an HD widescreen signal.
There are generally 3 modes. Wide, Stretch and ZOOM. Wide is normal for an HD signal but SD signals will appear with letterboxing on the left and right of the picture. To fill the screen, some people use the stretch mode. This stretches the SD signal (4:3) to fill the space, making people look short and fat.

The ZOOM mode will actually ZOOM into the 4:3 image, filling the screen but cutting off heads and feet slightly, as well as info crawls at the bottom of the screen.

Sooooo….if you want to watch SD shows on and HD set, you’re either going to have short fat people, people with trimmed heads and feet, or black letterboxing on the right and left of picture.

Answer #2: Stretching depends on your set. A high end Sony which I have does a great job in stretch mode. You really can’t tell the difference most of the time as it looks like a good standard non HD set. HD signals aren’t in stretch mode; the native resolution is 720p,1080i,16×9,and that is in a full screen mode on your HD set.

Some sets only stretch a portion of the screen, usually the portion where the least action occurs on both sides of center. But when an image passes from right to left or vice versa across the entire screen there are always telltale signs in my experience.

Answer #3: I have the 3251D, which is one of the 32″ Samsungs. I love it. If you leave it in 16:9 mode, it detects whether or not the signal is HD/widescreen or not. It will add the “side” letterboxes like the picture shown above when the signal is in 4:3. I haven’t had any channels that I found it automatically stretches. In short, I love mine (have had it since Novemeber) and I have found absolutley nothing bad about it. the 51D has a 4000:1 contrast ratio and has tons of options/other inputs.

Answer #4: I have the 40″ Samsung LCD. It’s a great set. Went with LCD because it’s located right next to a large window and the reflection off a Plasma TV would be terrible. The one thing I don’t like about the Samsung LCD is the delay/distortion on fast moving images. Also if you put the volume fairly high you get distortion out of the speakers.

Answer #5: I have the Sammy 3251d also, with Cablevision’s HD DVR box. The box has a setup wizard where you can select resolutions to output. When you do this, none of the SD channels will have bars on the side, and the images do not appear distorted. When you switch to a HD channel, the box will change resolutions automatically. There will no longer be the need to use the stretch option on your TV.

I need an HDTV for my mother. I’m a tech. junky, so it’s hard to separate what she wants from what I think she needs. my parents already have a standard (non widescreen) HD TV that we got them 2 years ago (a crt). I just came home for the weekend, and noticed they cleared out room in their bedroom, to wallmount a TV. So, a couple questions. Her main requirement is “I don’t want to regret getting this TV in a couple of years”. Should I go for 1080P based on that? I don’t think it’s necessary, but I don’t want her to dislike it after a year. Also, plasma or lcd? I should be up to date on this, but I have a native HD projector, so I don’t deal with TVs anymore.

Answer #1: It’s going to be a long time before dear ole mom will need a 1080p. Get yourself a nice 720p set now, use the money you save for flowers every Mother’s Day for the next 5 years and you’ll be better off. Oh, and if she’s anything like my mom and forgets to turn off the set every now and then, you want LCD – much lower maintenance.

Answer #2: One Q though – does your mom have cable/sat or does she watch broadcast television? If it’s the latter, make sure whatever you get has an ATSC (digital) tuner, because if it doesn’t the set presumably won’t work beyond 2009 (for watching broadcast TV; it would still work with a cable or satellite box).

Answer #3: Regarding LCD or Plasma, LCD does not show reflection of light and plasma does. If there is an overhead light or light from windows that will reflect on the TV consider a LCD…

Answer #4: Go 720p (or 1080P) … as for LCD or plasma, that really should be determined by which one you (or she) finds has the better picture, and which fits into your budget. Any non-HD set is basically obsolete already, imo.

Answer #5: 40″ Samsung LCD, 1080P, $1497 at Fry’s. If you’re a Costco member, $1k for a 42″ LCD or $800 for a 37″ LCD and you can’t go wrong. Both have tuners, and although Costco recently changed their return policy on electronics, you still get a full 90 day warranty and an additional 2 years, in home parts and labor repair warranty at no additional cost. Costco’s 42″ Sceptre is on sale now.

Answer #6: Walmart has a 32 in samsung with tuner built in LCD widescreen for under 900.00 3000-1 contrast you cant go wrong.

Does anyone here have their HDTV’s hanging on the wall? I’m thinking about doing that, but Im trying to figure out where to put the receiver and such. Any idea’s?

Answer #1: Right there with you. I just bought the mount for my Plasma. Running those wires is going to be problematic, too.

Answer #2: My 50″ plasma HDTV is hanging on my brick wall. The receiver will be on a short, wide table/cabinet underneath, but I haven’t been able to find one I like yet.

What is the minimum acceptable Contrast Ratio to consider when purchasing a flat screen TV? Is there a point when there is no longer a benefit to an increase in ratio?
Answer #1: In the LCD vs. Plasma debate, this is where plasma wins out .. most LCD TVs have a contrast ratio of 1000 but plasma can have up to 10,000 – try to get a TV with highest contrast ratio you can.
Answer #2: It’s all about what type of screen you like. The very good plasmas will sport a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, but I just picked up an LCD screen with a 5000:1 ratio, and I actually like the way the screen displays better than the plasmas. LCD’s generally have lower contrast, but more sharpness. I’d stay away with any plasma below 10,000:1, however, mainly b/c it would be a sign to me that the plasma was a cheaper model.
Answer #3: I have a plasma with a 10k:1 contrast ratio and it *rocks*. I’ve got an LCD with a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and that isn’t bad either. I don’t think you can go really wrong with either, although if you’re in a sunny room, you definitely want a higher ratio. I’m still chomping at the bit for an SED set – those suckers are supposed to have a 100k:1 contrast ratio. I can only imagine that they’re going to burn images into our eyes.
Answer #4: According to a manufacturers rep anything over 1000:1 is “fuzzy math”. He basically said if it is above 1000:1 they are using a “different” way of rating the ratios.
Answer #5: I’ve heard the opposite on brightness – instead of the high contrast plasma, I’ve heard the LCD’S are better in a very bright room. But all this is splitting hairs.

I have Directv and want to know what experience anyone has had in getting an LCD or rear projection LCd and using directv. I know I will need to upgrade my directv box. I do have an updated antenna with 3 LNB’s and a local antenna to use if I can’t get the local channels over Directv. Will the wrap around antenna on the dish give me HDTV capability? I know if I had cable I could get a tv with a cable card slot. What else do I need to be aware of to maximize viewing HDTV (I am thinking Sony Wega 42″)? Thanks!

Answer 1: I have a plasma, DirecTV, and HD. I needed only a seperate, off-air antenna to get the local channels in HD. Generally, DirecTV is supposed to be upgrading their HD package. I paid $10.99 for fewer than 10 channels. Other than the Sunday Ticket, and ESPN, the local channels are about all I watch in HD right now.

Answer 2: At the moment I don’t get local HD channels on DTV, although that will change imminently in many markets (within 90 days I believe). If your current setup gets local OTA that’s fine, other than that if you’re in one of DTV’s HD local markets you’ll have a choice. Personally, my OTA HD works wonderfully 50% of the time, but that’s not good enough for me when football is on the line (and it seems to work best at night). That aside, DTV’s HD lineup is a joke. ESPN HD which is actually in HD about 20% of the time, Discovery channel (awesome), and a couple useless channels.

Answer 3: I went with the Panasonic 43″ rear projector LCD and I have DTV with the HD. I get CBS NBC ABC and Fox in HD. I get ESPN and ESPN2, HBO and SHOWTIME, HDNet and HDNet Movies, Discover HD, and so on. I love it. I can’t watch a baseball or football game thats not in HD; it’s ruined me for life.

Please leave your answers or questions in the comments section below.

HDTV Question: 1080P or 720P format?

I plan to buy a 60″ HDTV. Time Warner Cable (of which I am fond) tells me that their broadcast format is 1080i (for interlaced, as opposed to P for progressive scan). I don’t see many 1080i sets being advertised. I’m guessing that I should spend the extra $500 or so, and get a 1080P set. Any information about whether a 1080P set will give me a better picture would be appreciated.

Answer #1: 1080i capable vs 1080i native is not really different. For example when you watch football games, the majority of them will be 720P (progressive scan). Progressive scan is better with motion (football, videogames). 1080P is for HD DVDs and allegedly PS3 will use 1080P. I have an older Sony Grand Wega 50 in widescreen rear projection LCD. It’s native 720P, so it’s great for games. If HD DVDs are important to you, go with 1080P.

Answer #2: It should prepare you for future upgrades to the HD standard. I’m not 100% as up on this as I should be, but HD-DVD will be in 1080p, I believe. The satellite/cable/OTA HD feeds will lag behind this standard for a while. Most of those being 720p, and some being 1080i.

My set’s a couple years old and 1080i. If you’re going to buy now and keep it for 5-10 years (which is likely what an investment in a 60″ HDTV will be), then get the 1080p. The 1080p is the full spec: buy one now and you’re set for years. Also Sony has some 1080p HDTVs and I’d imagine other vendors do as well.
Many SXRD and Bravia sets are native 1080p, that’s why they cost upwards of 10K. Also, Microsoft has already said they’re making 1080p games, and while HDDVD is only 1080i, Blu Ray is 1080p. There are Sony native 1080p sets for sub-$3K at 50″, no less.
 
Answer #3: Microsoft can make all the 1080p games they want to and it wouldn’t mount up to a hill of beans. Besides, MS doesn’t make games only the game platform. IF EA Sports decides to make their games 720p Microsoft can’t do crap but complain. What is going to drive the market is TV programming and major studios movie release and as of now they are not going to. Movie studios don’t want to release 720p much less 1080p, and it ain’t going to happen for a while yet. A true 1080p receiver will cost thousands of dollars. Anything that sells for less than 3 thousand is not a true 1080p TV.

What they do to get 1080p is convert 1080i to 1080p in a process called up-converting. XBox 360 games are already on the shelf in 720p. Blu-Ray DVD’s currently support 1080p right now.

Answer #4: Who knows how long it will take until conventional programming over the satellite dish or via cable will produce true 1080p content, however. If it were up to me, my decision would be based on how far in the future I planned my next home theatre upgrade. I would argue that if someone would want to upgrade in another 5-6 years anyway that you would be better off saving the extra $$ now and wait at least until the second or third generation Blu-ray DVD players come out. That way you’d be closer to a window where conventional programming(not Blu-Ray DVD’s) might be available in 1080p.

Answer #5: You want 1080p: You can already see a difference. Go to a Tweeter store and have them explain to you the up conversion switching. I just bought a Sony 50″ 1080p and it’s the best TV I have ever seen. Circuit City is also a very good place to shop for TV’s right now lots of 10% off coupons out there and 24 months no interest financing. Stay away from Best Buy. 1080p is so awesome that I sold my 1080i 65″ Sony to trade up.

Answer #6: There are absolutely no television programs in production or planned for production for the 1080p format. DVD-HD and Bluray discs are upscaled to 1080p and in the future the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 will have games in 1080p that can be played on those systems. However, as I implied that is a long way off. Currently the broadcasters doing sports in HD – the 4 networks, ESPN, TNT, FOX Regional Sports networks, YES, MSG, etc… have just gotten around to showing games and studio shows in 720p and 1080i, depending on the network. The market penetration of HD sets in these formats is still lagging, therefore 1080p is a long way off. Long enough away to buy a nice 720p or 1080i set and purchase a 1080p set when the format becomes standard.

Networks won’t be spending any money to provide 1080p with the digital deadline breathing down their neck. Also they need all the bandwidth they can get. 1080P is for games and DVD’s. If you don’t do that 720p or 1080i if very good. By the way,720p is supposedly the best for sports due to motion but the 1080i CBS college football telecasts blow away the Fox and ABC 720p. See for yourself.

Answer #7: I got a sony 50″ 1080×1920 lcd rear screen projection tv….both sports and dvd’s are stunningly detailed, it has great picture quality without the harshness of seeing the glass tube pixels you see with plasma. Since the biggest true lcd is still limited to 46″ the 50″ Sony is really a cinematic experience.

I am looking at several HDTVs and so far they either come with DVI or HDMI, but not both. Is one better than the other? Should I buy an HDTV with DVI or HDMI?

Answer #1: DVI is Digital Video Interface, HDMI is High Definition Multimedia Interface. DVI and HDMI are both the same, meaning they both can handle 1080P. They both transmit video in same manner. The difference is HDMI also carry audio while DVI is strictly video. BUT, if you have a high def set up with a surround sound system, then it makes no difference. You wouldn’t be using HDMI for sound anyway.

Answer #2: You can drive yourself nuts but don’t go crazy, they are the same encoding (hence the reason you can connect one to the other via a simple HDMI/DVI cable). Both work. HDMI and DVI are both exactly the same quality wise. They use different connectors, and an HDMI can carry audio across the connection.

Pick the TV you like best. Don’t sweat it too much, a DVI source can be connected to a HDMI monitor and Vice Versa with a DVI/HDMI cable.

Answer #3: Get HDMI because support for DVI televisions is dwindling as HDMI is the popular interface for High-Def components like DVD players, game consoles, etc. Like it or not, HDMI is where the industry is headed.