HDTV

[hyperchord24 0]

So I just bought a Sony KDL46Z4100 and I was trying to hook up my HD cable box to the TV with an hdmi cable. When I do I get this copyright error -- Your HDTV does not comply with HDCP (or something like that). Sure the Blu ray works with the hdmi cale to the TV, but not the box. So I google the exact error message and apparently it's a huge issue that people are having. Now, mind you these discussions are from 02, 05 and 06 that I found online. So I figure they have to have fixed it by now. I called the cable company and he says it's essentially a poor cale. I needed to spend $40+ on a better hdmi cable b/c mine was probably not made to comply with FCC regulations. But from what I understand, it's bad (old) technology on the cable box itself and we're at the mercy of the cable companies. Has any one else had this problem?

So, for shits and giggles I tried the connection again. I got no error message and I get cable and sound. What most likely happened is that when I first plugged in the cable box, I turned it on too early, causing it to boot up improperly. Apparently, you can't turn the box on, or touch anything before the clock displays on the cable box (according to guys at time warner when I called them about an unrelated issue). This, time I know I let it boot up before turning the box on. Wierd.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Mike, sorry if this is too elementary, but I didn't see you mention anything of the sort: I'm assuming we're starting from scratch, that being the difference between LCD and plasma.

 

I feel that though both have benefits and disadvantages, the plusses of plasma outweigh LCD if the circumstance calls for it, and the problems (or potential problems) of plasma tend to get blown out of proportion. The biggest deciding factor is typically sunlight. The glass screen of a plasma (compared to moulded plastic with an LCD) is extremely conducive to sunlight, and will emit an incredible amount of glare. If you get a lot of sunlight in a room (a light bulb or CFL bulb won't have much effect), go with LCD.

 

The second drawback to plasma is the possibility of burn-in; anything left idle on the screen will burn into the phosphors and the image will retain, even when a channel/source is changed. I mentioned how it gets blown out of proportion, and it's entirely true. The amount of gamers I spoke to when I was in retail electronics who swore up and down not to play a video game on a plasma for even a second was staggering. It varies depending on your contrast and brightness settings on the set, but burn-in typically takes two to six consistent hours. Incidentally, burn-in can also be washed away via a blue or snowy screen.

Having said that, when I bought a tv for football season last year, I went with LCD, basically on the grounds that I fell asleep in front of the TV a lot.

 

Benefits of plasma over LCD include

* Better colour reproduction.

* Wider viewing angle(almost all plasmas offer 178 degree angles, though LCD's have made great improvement in that area).

* Quicker response time (typically 8ms, give or take on LCD, compared to less than 1ms with plasma).

 

Benefits of LCD over plasma include

* Lighter

* Much less power consumption

* Emit far less heat

 

You're in great shape, spec and price-wise, with either of those two sets. I don't generally recommend/discourage brands, but I've never heard of Sceptre....I've also never known Costco to sell crap, either. Ultimately, you've got it narrowed down to two very good-sounding sets, so have a look, ask yourself the two questions above, and enjoy. I'm jealous, you bastard.

[NoCalMike 0]

Mike, sorry if this is too elementary, but I didn't see you mention anything of the sort: I'm assuming we're starting from scratch, that being the difference between LCD and plasma.

 

I feel that though both have benefits and disadvantages, the plusses of plasma outweigh LCD if the circumstance calls for it, and the problems (or potential problems) of plasma tend to get blown out of proportion. The biggest deciding factor is typically sunlight. The glass screen of a plasma (compared to moulded plastic with an LCD) is extremely conducive to sunlight, and will emit an incredible amount of glare. If you get a lot of sunlight in a room (a light bulb or CFL bulb won't have much effect), go with LCD.

 

The second drawback to plasma is the possibility of burn-in; anything left idle on the screen will burn into the phosphors and the image will retain, even when a channel/source is changed. I mentioned how it gets blown out of proportion, and it's entirely true. The amount of gamers I spoke to when I was in retail electronics who swore up and down not to play a video game on a plasma for even a second was staggering. It varies depending on your contrast and brightness settings on the set, but burn-in typically takes two to six consistent hours. Incidentally, burn-in can also be washed away via a blue or snowy screen.

Having said that, when I bought a tv for football season last year, I went with LCD, basically on the grounds that I fell asleep in front of the TV a lot.

 

Benefits of plasma over LCD include

* Better colour reproduction.

* Wider viewing angle(almost all plasmas offer 178 degree angles, though LCD's have made great improvement in that area).

* Quicker response time (typically 8ms, give or take on LCD, compared to less than 1ms with plasma).

 

Benefits of LCD over plasma include

* Lighter

* Much less power consumption

* Emit far less heat

 

You're in great shape, spec and price-wise, with either of those two sets. I don't generally recommend/discourage brands, but I've never heard of Sceptre....I've also never known Costco to sell crap, either. Ultimately, you've got it narrowed down to two very good-sounding sets, so have a look, ask yourself the two questions above, and enjoy. I'm jealous, you bastard.

 

Thanks. Much Appreciated. I have heard in the past that sometimes LCD can run into "ghosting" issues, when viewing programming such as sports. Is this mainly older LCD technology or does this kind of thing still happen? I do plan on watching a lot of sports in HD.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

That's tied into response time, yeah - LCD's take longer to respond, so the pixels won't turn the correct colour with the same speed as say, a scrambling quarterback, so it leads to a kind of black shadow around him. Good rule of thumb is 8ms is the benchmark with LCD, but the lower the better. Most LCD's are at 8, but there's plenty of 6 and 5's out there.

[CanadianChris 0]

I bought a 52" 1080p 120 Hz Sony Bravia on the weekend, plus surround speakers and Blu-Ray player. We're pretty excited. The Best Buy sales guy saw us coming from a mile away.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Which model? Each series is excellent in its own right, but from what I understand, the later in the alphabet the model, the better the standard definition engine.

[CanadianChris 0]

I'm pretty sure it's this one:

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...=&langid=EN

[muzz 0]

I got the 40" in that series, except it's 100hz down here. Should be here soon!

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I'm pretty sure it's this one:

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...=&langid=EN

 

Though it doesn't look like cost was a great factor in your decision, you made a very good choice. To elaborate on that, during my seasonal tenure, we had two screen sizes (42 and 46) in the W, Z, and XBR series, each with a significant increase in price. It was a pretty tough sell on the W to the XBR, at an additional cost of 800 dollars, when the HD feeds looked identically beautiful side-by-side. I've probably mentioned this before, and I know you have as well, but I can't think of any channel I watch with any consistency, that's standard definition, so an improved SD engine seems a little frivilous (sic) - I'd rather keep the bills.

 

Thanks. Much Appreciated.

 

We're even for the pineapple pork chili, Mike.

[Turbo Lion 0]

My wife and I picked up a 26" for $300. 720P. We won't be getting cable for a while but I'm picking up an HD broadcast antenna today and putting money away for a Blu Ray player.

 

I noticed a BR player at Target for 199 last night. Am i right in guessing it might explode within a year?

[Matt Young 0]

I've had my HD DVR for 2 and 1/2 weeks now, and I love it unconditionally. I'm watching so much shit (and a lot more sports) due to the shows being in high def.

 

I have a 52" RCA rear projection, which friends said I would immediately want to upgrade from, but everything looks excellent. I can tell the difference between 1080i on my TV and 1080i on a plasma, but it's not enough to make me think, "Golly gee, I can't enjoy this without a better television." Still, I do find myself considering a purchase of a 60" plasma if I can pay it off before my gold card starts charging interest, so I guess they were partially right.

 

 

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The greater benefit of hockey in HD (which you'll learn quickly in the infancy of your hockey love) is not so much the vastly improved picture, but the fact that it's naturally widescreen - it's a night and day difference, and you'll get to learn, and appreciate, a lot of things you wouldn't on a 4:3 game.

[hyperchord24 0]

I also bought a sony Z series 46" LCD with speakers and blu-ray. The HD picture is amazing. The sound system with HDMI (instead of the red and white cords) is very nice too. Standard def picture is okay. It makes me wish I got a plasma. Anyway, the Z series is very thin and the bezel is also very thin. The TV set itself is all black (the TV speakers on other sony models are silver for some reason). Overall and very nice TV and a very nice looking set.

 

The thing about plasma is that if it's (supposedly) cheaper and has a better picture, why get an LCD? The only reason why I got an LCD was that plasmas use more energy and my wife didn't like the amount of heat the plasmas generate. But if I saw a deal on a top on the line plasma, I would've bit on it.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

^

 

As I mentioned to Mike, the problems with plasma tend to get blown out of proportion - hearsay and whathaveyou is enough to scare most customers away from plasma.

[muzz 0]

Does anyone currently use a DVD player connected by HDMI? If so, does it make much of a difference?

 

I love my new TV.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I heartily endorse an upscaling DVD player. Definitely notable visual difference, stronger contrasts and color depth. If you can get the Sony NS700H or its equivalent down in Auzzieland, it's totally worth the $70 or so.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Agreed. While it's not as nice as Blu Ray, it's a definite medium ground to stand on, especially when there's a three-figure difference in price between the two. I'd love a Blu Ray player, but my 360 upscales to 1080 with HDMI - that's ideal. Ten bucks for the HDMI cable, compared to 200 or so for a BR player.

 

I'm still holding out for a BR add-on for my 360, like they had with HD DVD a few years ago.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Philips is putting into production a series of 21:9 Ultra Widescreen LCD TVs. 21:9 which is basically 2.33:1 ratio. Too bad that everything else in HD on TV and the like would have be stretched to fill up the screen..ugh.

[muzz 0]

I got a HDMI cable for my Xbox last night and tried a few DVD's like Iron Man and Band of Brothers, and yeah... that looked pretty damn good.

 

Now I just have to find a new region free DVD player. I didn't even think about it when I bought my current Sony one, but it turned out to be.

[UZI Suicide 0]

With Circuit City going out of business I think I'm going to head over there this weekend and finally make the leap to HDTV. Unfortunately their website is down so I can't get a look at what they have. I'm looking for something for gaming and sports, basically. But I'm not looking to spend over $1,000. Any tips/hints/words of advice?

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

While most can't really tell the difference between native 1080 broadcasts and rendered 1080 broadcasts, I believe that spending the extra on a 1080p set is definitely worth it, in the sense that it's 'future-proofed'. Obviously, there's going to be advances down the road, but there's already more 1080 broadcasts than 720.

 

You're not likely to get 120hz for under 1000 bucks, but I would say those are the two biggest factors in tv price. Apart from that, refer to my LCD-plasma comparison above, and go with your guts. Decide which looks best, or which brand name you prefer, and run with it. If your budget is 1000 bucks, you've got lots of options, especially with CC's clearance.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

With Circuit City going out of business I think I'm going to head over there this weekend and finally make the leap to HDTV. Unfortunately their website is down so I can't get a look at what they have. I'm looking for something for gaming and sports, basically. But I'm not looking to spend over $1,000. Any tips/hints/words of advice?

 

 

Be careful with that. Stores are known to claim to liquidate shit but not actually knock down prices that much. CompUSA did that exact shit.

[Perfxion 0]

I went by one today, you were saving at most 2cents off normal price. Most of the cheap TVs were 25inch and less LCDs non widescreen.

[NoCalMike 0]

Yeah the Circuit City liquidation out here is a bunch of bullshit, you have guys with flyers and banners outside the store saying, "35% off everything" then once you actually go in the store you find it, that it doesn't apply to TVs, and if the TV is "already on sale" then there is no markdown, and if it isn't on sale, only 10% off............BULLSHIT.

 

They are expected to have inventory to last through March, so if I haven't already got my tax return back and bought a TV elsewhere, I might check back in there to see if the discounts have gone up some due to being more desperate to get rid of stuff.....

 

I was just amazed at the number of idiots in there thinking they were getting any kind of good deal on something.

[hyperchord24 0]

Don't the liquidators mark up just to mark down?

[Thoth 0]

Don't the liquidators mark up just to mark down?

 

Precisely; the liquidators want to make a profit.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Looking more and more likely that the DTV transition will again be pushed back...but only until June 12th.

 

This seems so stupid...everyone has had enough time. They should just do the switch as scheduled, and let people and companies deal with any problems after that.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I agree in principle, but that's giving the general public a little too much credit; I think it's tough to really appreciate how dumb, lazy, and/or careless people are as a whole. The PR for the DTV switch has been phenomenal.

 

"Not a single word of warning!"

"What about the leaflets from the space shuttle? The Tv commercials? And the two weeks we spent at DTV camp?"

"Not a single word of warning!"

 

On the other hand entirely, I'm a little surprised that at least a few advertisers and corporations didn't band together to try and fight the switch a little. Even with all the word of warning, the idea of losing up to 20% of my target audience is a bit unsettling.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I don't know...they've had two extra years already. I think enough is enough. Just do it and get it done with. There would be problems if they wait another year or two anyway...I doubt four extra months is really going to fix that much.

[Guest Smues]

I don't care one what kind of signals we get, but if they've decided to switch to DTV they need to just do it and get it over with. People will never be 100% ready, just force them to switch and everything will be fine.

 

"Not a single word of warning!"

"What about the leaflets from the space shuttle? The Tv commercials? And the two weeks we spent at DTV camp?"

"Not a single word of warning!"

 

I am really struggling to place this reference. I'm 99% certain it's Homer Simpson, but I can't figure out what it was about. The area code switch maybe?