Not impressed with HD TV

pparks1, thanks for the link to Monoprice.com, I ordered a couple of the 5ft cables from them as their prices seem reasonable.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I agree that HD has a better picture but disgree that it is a huge difference. If it was just my TV I was dissatisfied with then I might agree with those saying it was a setup problem or even the quality of my TV but even when I see the top end TVs in the viewing rooms at the stores (which supposedly should be showing HD TV at its best) I don't think the improvement in PQ is worth all of the hoopla.

Last night I was watching the new show "Hawaii 5-O" in HD on the new HD TV. About midway during the show, I went to the bedroom to finish watching the show in bed before going to sleep. I watched the show in SD for about 10 minutes before it even dawned on me that I was now watching in SD instead of HD. I studied the picture very carefully trying to discover if there was anything I was missing by watching in SD vs HD and couldn't come up with anything. I guess I'm easily pleased as I didn't feel deprived at all watching the show in SD.

apollodominion said:

i was looking at JB HIFI catalog today and saw a SAMSUNG 3DHDTV 200HZ 50" for $1499 (Darwin Australia)

Has anyone here seen a 3D TV? I was just curious what it was like. Do you need to wear glasses? Can you watch it without glasses in 2D? Thanks,

Typically people purchase much too large a screen for their space. It's the keep up or one up the Jones thing. You must be the proper distance away from your given screen as well as the control of ambient light is critical !

linnemeyerhere said:

Typically people purchase much too large a screen for their space. It's the keep up or one up the Jones thing. You must be the proper distance away from your given screen as well as the control of ambient light is critical !

You don't have to be very far away. I have a 65" screen and about 12 feet is fine for viewing. Before I bought it I viewed several different sizes in the store and practiced sitting different distances so I would make sure the distance was right for my home.

bigmck said:

linnemeyerhere said:

Typically people purchase much too large a screen for their space. It's the keep up or one up the Jones thing. You must be the proper distance away from your given screen as well as the control of ambient light is critical !

You don't have to be very far away. I have a 65" screen and about 12 feet is fine for viewing. Before I bought it I viewed several different sizes in the store and practiced sitting different distances so I would make sure the distance was right for my home.

Some friends of mine bought a 65" Toshiba 1080P DLP a few years ago and they can only get about 8 feet away from it.

They asked me to help them set it up as it didn't look any where near as good as my 50" Panasonic Plasma 720P looked at my house. I went outside of their house and looked through their front window (from about 12 feet back) and told them that it looked outstanding from there. It's simply too big for the room and they cannot back away far enough from it for it to look it's best.

These latest posts are really supporting my idea that HD TV is not worth the hoopla. People insist you have to have good source material, use good cables, calibrate TV, check distance & ambient light as well as have an expensive sound system. Just to watch TV? You have to be kidding me. I never had to worry about ANY of that stuff with SD.

bigmck said:

Has anyone here seen a 3D TV? I was just curious what it was like. Do you need to wear glasses? Can you watch it without glasses in 2D? Thanks,

Yep. I have a 58" plasma 3D Samsung - personally I'm not all that impressed with 3D so far. Still feels a bit 'gimmicky' atm. However I bought the set for it's 2D capabilities, not 3D so I'm not too fussed about it.

You do need glasses for 3D (all first gen sets do) - but not for 2D viewing.

There are a couple of 2ND gen 'Glassless' TV's in the works. It's hard to say whether this is still just a fad again, or whether it's tech that's here to stay.

There's more support this time, but still not enough to make it mainstream yet.

strollin said:

People insist you have to have good source material, use good cables, calibrate TV, check distance & ambient light as well as have an expensive sound system. Just to watch TV? You have to be kidding me. I never had to worry about ANY of that stuff with SD.

Unfortunately the days of simply plugging in and watching are over. However, once it's all 'set up', it's fine.

To get the 'most' out of it you do need to tick all the boxes, but in reality it's not imperative to do so.

I calibrated my TV with my eyes to a PQ that I'm happy with, I sit where I want and often just use the TV's speakers instead of turning on my receiver.

Folks these tv's are all about the blacks. Plasma's have always had those deep dark, pitch blacks and the colors just jump. LCD's which I have one are good but normally not as good they do offer higher brightness which helps them in lighter rooms. LED's and 3D's I can't speak from any experience but believe me it's all about the blacks. Plasma's also seem to have a wet screen, very nice straight on not as good off angle LCD's don't suffer as much off angle but normally don't have that gloss wet screen look.

strollin said:

These latest posts are really supporting my idea that HD TV is not worth the hoopla. People insist you have to have good source material, use good cables, calibrate TV, check distance & ambient light as well as have an expensive sound system. Just to watch TV? You have to be kidding me. I never had to worry about ANY of that stuff with SD.

It just depends what is important to a person. TV is not important to you but I spend a lot of time in front of it. When I purchased it, I paid $80 for a first class surge protector. I wanted to protect my investment. With a $200 SD, you don't need that sort of thing.