High Def ramblings and questions

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I did about months of research before I went out and purchase my HDTV. Several emails to Joe Kane, looking at too many televisions to mention, talking to the other engineers and looking at all of the HDTV monitors at the station I work at convince me that CRT based HD RPTV was the only way to go if I was going to buy now. We have 20 LCD TV monitors, 5 plasma based HDTV monitors, and one Runco CRT based HDTV, all still say that the Runco is the best of the bunch right now. The opinions I heard over and over again were if space was not an issue(and it isn't in my case) that I should go with CRT based monitors at this point. As other have stated, black levels, picture dynamics, no motion distortions or lag is what puts CRT based monitors over LCD or plasma based monitors.

Listening to Woodman, the video engineers at the station, and a strong recommendation from Joe Kane pushed me to get a top of the line Toshiba RPTV. Just like with my other television, and all my equipment, I plan on replacing the screen with a better one, and I am going to turn off the scan velocity motion circuits of the television. For future technology, I made sure the television had a HDMI input with HDCP loaded, because I believe this connection will be supported by both BlueRay and HD DVD when they arrive.

As far as calibration, I use my own tools for setup and calibration because I believe the result is better, and they are much easier to use the the consumer based calibration disc on the market.

I have yet to choose a way to get high definition video, I cannot decide between dish or cable right now and I am very open to hear the benefits of both.

[Slosh]

This TV will surely change my viewing habits, but for the better I think.

I've had my HDTV since November and it has definitely changed my viewing habits. Used to be about the only thing I'd watch on PBS was Austin City Limits but now I find myself watching Nova and Nature whenever there's a new HD episode airing.

I'm no basketball fan but I watched the first half of the Suns/Spurs game today simply because it was in HD. I thought by now the sheen would have worn off but I still get excited about seeing just about anything new in HD

[edtyct]

Listening to Woodman, the video engineers at the station, and a strong recommendation from Joe Kane pushed me to get a top of the line Toshiba RPTV. Just like with my other television, and all my equipment, I plan on replacing the screen with a better one, and I am going to turn off the scan velocity motion circuits of the television. For future technology, I made sure the television had a HDMI input with HDCP loaded, because I believe this connection will be supported by both BlueRay and HD DVD when they arrive.

Sir T, interesting about Kane's recommendation, especially since I think Hitachi has been paying him. I have no reason to disagree, but did he give any reasons for choosing Toshiba? So far as HD delivery is concerned, there seem to be two approachs--most stations and least compression. It would be nice if one system could deliver on both. I might have recommended VOOM, if its belly were not prominently up. DirecTV is apparently raising the bar on the number of HD broadcasts, but rumors of down-resolution have surfaced. I know nothing about Echostar, except what someone recently posted about its nice pricing lately and its pickup of some VOOM stations (DirecTV, too). Cable is widely variable, but the nice thing about HD is that not even an artifact here and there can ruin the experience. God bless digital for that.

Ed

[toenail]

Sir T- if your local market has stations broadcasing HD I highly recommend an antenna and ATSC tuner to pick up OTA signals. Hard to beat for quality. As far as choosing technology, I too would have gone CRT RPTV 9" gun Mits or Tosh. Unfortunately I live in a small 2nd floor apt and there's no way I could have gotten one up the stairs. Also don't have good ambient light control in the room. I do prefer the more filmlike image for lower resolutions on CRT's but at 720/1080 it's a toss up.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Sir T, interesting about Kane's recommendation, especially since I think Hitachi has been paying him. I have no reason to disagree, but did he give any reasons for choosing Toshiba? So far as HD delivery is concerned, there seem to be two approachs--most stations and least compression. It would be nice if one system could deliver on both. I might have recommended VOOM, if its belly were not prominently up. DirecTV is apparently raising the bar on the number of HD broadcasts, but rumors of down-resolution have surfaced. I know nothing about Echostar, except what someone recently posted about its nice pricing lately and its pickup of some VOOM stations (DirecTV, too). Cable is widely variable, but the nice thing about HD is that not even an artifact here and there can ruin the experience. God bless digital for that.

Ed

Ed,
Hitachi has been paying him a consulting fee for his help in designing their televisions. Princeton also has this same setup with him. He doesn't acutally push their televisions, he just helps in the design of their lineup.

He did mention the Toshiba model that I purchased directly, stating that once the reflective screen is replaced with one that allows for better resolution(he seems to have issues with the factory screen), internal reflections have to be damped down, and then with proper calibration the Toshiba can squeeze everthing out of a Hi Def broadcast you can find.

Voom went up in smoke???? Wow, I didn't know that.

I would like to watch movies in Hi Def, but if they are compressed to death, then I wouldn't be all that interested. I really have to investigate how I want to proceed. what offers the best value and best picture.

[edtyct]

Well, I certainly wouldn't say compressed to death. Many of the films that I watch on HBO, Cinemax, INHD, et al., look considerably better than their counterparts at 480p, well worth the investment IMO. HBO even reveals which programming on the HD channel is upconverted, as if anyone needed to be told. I don't believe that you will see a huge variation in the PQ of various true HD delivery systems, though compression can detract to some extent, especially evident in occasional break-up. But the wow factor is undeniable nonetheless. Anyone interested in nature/science shows, travelogues, and sporting events, for whom access to HD is viable, ought to get it. Nefarious commerical interests can't destroy it easily, short of pulling the plug or downconverting, though trying to squeeze every channel possible within a given bandwidth is not my idea of fair play. I hope you'll let us know what you decide.

Ed

[Slosh]

I've been a Dish Network subscriber for several years and was planning to get an HD PVR receiver once the price dropped down to around $500 but now I'm holding off until the MP4 transition shakes out. I can live with just OTA HD for the meantime.

My friend has DirecTV and a 48" Mitsu CRT RPTV and HD-HBO usually looks a little better than DVD on a decent progressive scan player. Not dramatically better but still worthwhile, IMO. They reformat most of their 2.35:1 movies to 1.78:1, but hey, it still looks a hell of a lot better than SD DBS. The HD-Net movie channel shows their films in the original aspect ratio. I haven't seen any of the other HD pay movie channels, though, so I'm not sure what they do.

Problem with cable is much of what you'll likely watch will still be analog and as poor as SD DBS can look on an HDTV, it's still quite a bit better than cable.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Sir T- if your local market has stations broadcasing HD I highly recommend an antenna and ATSC tuner to pick up OTA signals. Hard to beat for quality. As far as choosing technology, I too would have gone CRT RPTV 9" gun Mits or Tosh. Unfortunately I live in a small 2nd floor apt and there's no way I could have gotten one up the stairs. Also don't have good ambient light control in the room. I do prefer the more filmlike image for lower resolutions on CRT's but at 720/1080 it's a toss up.

My area actually has 5 local stations broadcasting in HD. The station I work for(ABC channel 7, 11,5,2, and PBS channel 9. If a antenna and a ATSC tuner will do a better job than cable or dish, I would be inclined to go to the trouble of gettng this hooked up.

[toenail]

My area actually has 5 local stations broadcasting in HD. The station I work for(ABC channel 7, 11,5,2, and PBS channel 9. If a antenna and a ATSC tuner will do a better job than cable or dish, I would be inclined to go to the trouble of gettng this hooked up.

Generally speaking, if you're within range and the broadcast is of reasonable strength, OTA will outperform cable for HD picture quality. The issue with cable signal compression is real. What's important is your tolerance of compression artifacts. My wife and the majority of my friends don't notice the mild artifacts during most viewing. I on the other hand notice everything. Only problem with limiting yourself to OTA is that you miss out on ESPN, INHD etc and there is a lot of pleasurable viewing from these sources. Don't get me wrong about cable HD, it is still stunning.

[jocko_nc]

HD was simply made for baseball. What an enjoyable evening that makes!

Go Braves.

jocko