I just got a killer deal on a new 50" plasma HDTV. Its all set up now and just wanted to share some things I learned about HD.
- 720p vs. 1080p
I am sick and tired of people complaining about 720p HDTV's as opposed to 1080p. Every time there is a good deal on a 720p HDTV, the great debate over the 2 resolutions starts, but never ends. Well, the plasma I got is 720p and I have no regrets. Take that haters! First of all, the 1080p's are almost double the cost of 720p's. Secondly, you wont notice a difference unless you are closer 7 ft. away from the TV. Thirdly, the only way to get your picture in 1080p is by using a Blu-ray player (or PS3 which has a built-in Blu-ray player). Lastly, Im not going to convert my entire DVD collection into a Blu-ray collection. So for me, 1080p is totally not worth it. But for those of you who want to shell out twice as much $$$ and will sit closer than 7ft away from the TV and owns a Blu-ray player and has a Blu-ray collection and can tell the difference in quality...good luck to you. Just leave the 720p owners alone. - Break in
Did you know that you should break in your HDTV? Yeah, I didnt know that either until recently. Here's the scoop. The HDTV's by default have their color, contrast, and other settings set really high. That's because when stores display the TV's, consumers are attracted to the brighter and more colorful ones even though that is totally the wrong things to look at when buying an HDTV (more on that later). In any case, those extreme settings are too high especially during the first 100 hours of the TV. Its like when you buy a new car, dealers will often say not to drive the car too rough for the first 1000 miles. This is all to help prevent "burn-in" on your TV. Burn-in occurs most often by having static images on the screen for long periods of time. For example, when you watch TV, you will notice that most stations have their logo on the bottom right corner. Well, if that image stays their for a really long time it can leave an imprint. Or if you play video games, there can be many static images that dont move. So to break in your HDTV, people suggest lowering the settings and playing a special DVD (or SVCD) for at least the first 100 hours. I've been doing this for my TV and even though I dont know if its really helping, it doesnt do any harm. Im sure if people are posting specific TV settings and if someone went through all the trouble of creating a break in DVD, there has to be some truth in it. - HD Quality
"Wow". I say that everytime Im viewing HD. Once you see and taste HD, there is no going back. Food never looked so delicious on the HD Food channel. Tivo Series 3 does an excellent job recording HD shows. It is so amazing clear that I cant believe it is a recording. - Cable Cards
Because Im using my Tivo Series 3, in order for me to get HD, Im using 2 cable cards that I picked up from Comcast. It was fairly easy to set up myself, but I wasnt getting all the channels that I was supposed to, so a Comcast technician had to come by my house. Turns out it was just some wrong data set up on their end. So what is this cable card and what does it do? The cable card takes the place of a Digital or HD receiver because it does all of the unscrambling of the channels. So instead of getting a clunky HD or Digital receiver from comcast, you can just get a cable card and stick it directly into your HDTV. But not all HDTV's have cable card slots, so you will have to check. Its a lot cleaner this way because you dont have to plug the receiver and you dont have to use their ugly remote. But keep in mind that my set up is different because Im using Tivo. But can you imagine if my Tivo did not have cable card slots? Then I would have Tivo talk to the clunky receiver which then talks to my HDTV. Anyways, cable cards are a good thing. I would do anything to avoid those clunky comcast receivers and their nasty remote control. - HD Channels (Comcast)
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I have Comcast cable (non digital) in the SF Bay Area, so Ill be writing about my experience under those conditions. If you have Comcast and use a receiver that they gave you, then this wont apply to you.
If you recently bought an HDTV, most likely it will have QAM tuner and ATSC tuner. An ATSC tuner, will allow you to get "over the air" (OTA) local HD channels (ie. 2, 5, 7) . Although, I couldnt get any channels whatsoever in my area. A QAM tuner will also allow you to get local HD channels, but by using the coaxial cable. Now I thought that to get local HD channels, I would not only need an HDTV to view it, but I figured I would also have to pay extra for it. But currently, Im not. As long as you have a QAM tuner, you should be able to pick up local HD channels merely by sticking the coxial cable directly into your HDTV. But recently, the local HD channels on only one of my HDTV's have been disappearing. In otherwords, I cant view them anymore. The weird thing is that my other HDTV still gets it. But I heard that its because Comcast is gradually taking away those local HD channels. I guess you arent really suppose to get local HD channels for free so Comcast is trying to filter those out and make you pay for it. The Comcast cable packages are confusing, but I believe I have the Standard Cable package. It includes local channels plus the other popular channels like MTV. So with the addition of my cable cards in my Tivo, Im now getting all the channels that I use to get with the addition of non-local HD channels (ie. Discovery, TNT, etc). Comcast only charges me an extra $2 per month. Now to get the non-local HD channels on my other HDTV's, I would have to get a Comcast HD receiver and pay an extra $8 per month for each one. Am I confusing you yet? - Upscaling DVD Player
If you plan to watch DVDs on your HDTV, do not hook up your old DVD player to it. You can, but it wont look that good. You need to get what's called an "upscaling" DVD player. These players will upscale the DVD video to fit and conform nicely to your HDTV. I think if you use a regular DVD player, you will get the black bars on the side. Costing around $50, these players arent that expensive. Or you can altogether skip that and get a Blu-ray player. But those are very expensive, not to mention the cost of Blu-ray discs.
