Friday, March 24, 2006

HDTV

I did this research for someone about 6 months ago, but I think it still stands. When I post new research I will provide more links. This is from memory.

I personally own a 2 ½ year old 42” Sony rear projection LCD. I love the TV, but this generation of the RP LCD had slight problems with shadows especially with non HD sources. You can really see it when you can’t make out all of the details of an African American’s face in a dark scene.

TV TYPES:

Regular rear projection HDTV- They are cheaper, but they are huge, suffer from burning in and don’t have the best picture quality.

RP LCD and rear projection DLP- They are a nice size, don’t suffer from burning in and have great picture quality. It used to be that DLP had a better picture, but they also had some issues. Now from what I have seen the quality on the Sony LCDs is as good as the DLPs and Samsung seems to have solve the earlier issues that DLPs had. One thing you should look at is that on many series the smallest model will have the same bulb as the bigger screens in that series so it will actually have a brighter picture.

Note: If someone tells you that DLP is better because that’s what they use in Digital movie theaters they are wrong. The DLP technology used in theaters is better then the ones in the TVs (3 DLP chips in the theater only one in the TV).

Plasma - Flat screen, best picture, but have burn in.

LCD – Flat screen, best picture, no burn in.


Recommendations:

Unless you have a space issue or want the look of a flat screen I would go with RP LCD or RP DLP. From what I saw I prefer Sony (RP LCD) and Samsung (RP DLP). If want to spend the extra money on a flat screen go with LCD. You don’t want to spend all that money on plasma just to watch all your 4:3 television stretched. I would not spend the extra money on the 1080P models unless you are going to hook your computer to the TV, because that the only thing that can provide that level of resolution.

Sony 42" - KDF-E42A10 , 50" - KDF-E50A10
Samsung 42" - HL-R4266W, 46" - HL-R4667W, 56" - HL-R5667W and If you want a cool looking one for a little extra money the 50" HL-R5087W.

Things to know:

4:3 and 16:9 – It is the ratio of width to height of the screen. 4:3 is a regular TV screen and 16:9 is a wide screen.
480i - 480 interlaced - regular TV quality
480p - 480 progressive - DVD resolution - EDTV
720p - 720 progressive - HDTV
1080i - 1080 interlaced – HDTV
(720p and 1080i are both HD some networks broadcast in one others in the other)
1080p – 1080 progressive – Digital theater quality, some TVs now have this, but there is no source material available.
Burn in- When a static image is leaves a permanent mark on a television screen regardless of whether or not the television is on or off. If you are watching 4:3 shows on a 16:9 TV that is subject to burn in , you need to stretch the 4:3 image to 16:9 to avoid it.

Things to look out for:

EDTV is not HDTV (it’s not as good)

Cable companies suck at setting up your HDTV. Almost every time I go over someones house that just got a HDTV cable box from Comcast it is set up wrong. The technicians usually set the box to 16:9, but leave it on 480i. I get a lot of wows when I switch the box to 1080i.

You can still have black lines on the top and bottom of a wide screen TV. Some movies are recorded wider then 16:9

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