Flat panel HDTV is now a "necessity"

getoutearly said:
Anyone else listen to books on tape? I've got about a 2-1/2 hour commute each day. I go through 1 to 2 a week typically. Love em.
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podcasts - there are tons of free podcasts offered on a wide variety of subjects. Everything form University lectures and Science Friday, tons of NPR stuff to cooking shows, and every hobby under the sun.


-ERD50
 
I have a five year old multi-channel receiver which I would like to use in an HDTV setup. Trouble is, it only has an S Video connection. Does anyone know if there's any way of converting an S Video connection to HDMI?
 
ForeignExchange said:
I have a five year old multi-channel receiver which I would like to use in an HDTV setup. Trouble is, it only has an S Video connection. Does anyone know if there's any way of converting an S Video connection to HDMI?
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Do you really need the receiver in the loop? Can't you just send video direct from your cable or satellite box or DVD player directly to your TV?
 
The short answer is no. While it might be possible to convert s-video to an hdmi compatible signal, you wouldnt get HD out of it. s-video's resolution is limited.

You might be able to use an upconverting box/line doubler that would produce an HD level signal, but something that also improved the quality of the output would be pretty expensive and it still wouldnt look as good.
 
Since I can't convert, in that case, if I pursue HDTV, I may only run the audio portion through my receiver using a coaxial or optical cable. Thanks for the replies.
 
NOTE: If you want surround sound audio (or any multi channel > 2 audio), you'll have to use an optical cable.

Audrey
 
Why buy? I haven't been overly impressed with the picture quality. Even if it were outstanding (and some are better than others, for sure), they're incredibly overpriced. They're especially overpriced if you won't be affected by the switch to digital and therefore don't need one of these gizmos.
 
starter82 said:
Why buy? I haven't been overly impressed with the picture quality. Even if it were outstanding (and some are better than others, for sure), they're incredibly overpriced. They're especially overpriced if you won't be affected by the switch to digital and therefore don't need one of these gizmos.
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Good question. Perhaps there's nothing left to upgrade to in my old home theatre system. The CRT TV I'm using was bought used over 24 years years ago, but still gives a decent colour rendition. The lowest priced 42 inch 720P replacement for it would cost about $750, and Soyo is not one of the top brands. Something that's well known, like a Sharp will cost me about double that price. The DVD player I'm using right now is just a standard one I bought about two years ago. It serves it's purpose, and no more. I don't think buying either a progressive scan or upconverting DVD player are going to improve the picture on my old CRT TV. If I bought a new DVD player for HDTV I would probably go with Blu-ray that can also play regular CD's for music, but this would add at least another $500 after tax to the total, or just buy a PS3 even though I'm not a gamer. The receiver I have is a five year old multi-channel, mid-hi-fi Yamaha, which I am more than happy to keep. No HDMI connection though. I have it running through five speakers I bought a few years ago, and I'm delighted with the sound. I don't look at TV channels so would just use the home theatre to watch rental DVD's or freebie loans from the local library.

....or I could always just keep what I have until the TV dies on me.
 
The poor economic conditions in 2008 will prevent some consumers from buying high definition televisions.

I wonder if this effect will be enough to delay the FCC's ban of analog TV broadcasting in 2009?
 
template said:
The poor economic conditions in 2008 will prevent some consumers from buying high definition televisions.

I wonder if this effect will be enough to delay the FCC's ban of analog TV broadcasting in 2009?
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Don't think so. I don't see the connection in the move to digital over the air signals and high definition TV. None of us will have to buy a high definition TV for over the air reception, only a digital converter box (if the set doesn't already have a digital receiver). Those of us with analog sets already getting cable or satellite signals won't have to do anything.
 
We "have" to have cable. In this area there are three broadcast channels, two of them religious, all snowy. Cable TV was invented in West Virginia for that reason. A guy put a tower on a mountain, amplified the signal and sold it. An industry was born.

History and scifi is about all I watch. When the price of HD gets reasonable (<$400) we'll think about it. Would rather see better programming.
 
Walt34 said:
there are three broadcast channels, two of them religious, all snowy.
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Seems God doesnt want you to watch them ;)

The programming really is the thing. Half of the HD miracle is smoke and mirrors.

One of my friends added a room onto his house for a home theater, has the tiered seating, all the big speakers and a top of the line 1080p projector. He's tried comcast HD and directv HD.

Most of the channels arent in HD. Of the ones that are, only some of the programming is in HD. Of those, some are upconverted SD and some are lower 480/720 HD. And the quality of the actual HD stuff is varied by the cable/sat company lowering the supplied bit rate for each channel to allow more channels in the same bandwidth.

When we switched from the AFC game to the NFC game yesterday, it was obvious that the AFC game looked a lot better, so was probably getting a higher bitrate. He said you cant watch anything in HD on friday and saturday nights that isnt a PPV movie, because they give all the bandwidth to those so they look good...same problem on saturdays and sundays during the day because it all goes to HD sports.

And with cable, the first 99 channels still remain analog and unless theres an HD version of it on the upper channel tier (like ESPN and ESPN HD), you wont get any better picture than you're getting right now. In fact, on some HD sets display an analog SD picture looks worse than the same channel on an old analog set.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
Seems God doesnt want you to watch them ;)

The programming really is the thing. Half of the HD miracle is smoke and mirrors.

One of my friends added a room onto his house for a home theater, has the tiered seating, all the big speakers and a top of the line 1080p projector. He's tried comcast HD and directv HD.

Most of the channels arent in HD. Of the ones that are, only some of the programming is in HD. Of those, some are upconverted SD and some are lower 480/720 HD. And the quality of the actual HD stuff is varied by the cable/sat company lowering the supplied bit rate for each channel to allow more channels in the same bandwidth.

When we switched from the AFC game to the NFC game yesterday, it was obvious that the AFC game looked a lot better, so was probably getting a higher bitrate. He said you cant watch anything in HD on friday and saturday nights that isnt a PPV movie, because they give all the bandwidth to those so they look good...same problem on saturdays and sundays during the day because it all goes to HD sports.

And with cable, the first 99 channels still remain analog and unless theres an HD version of it on the upper channel tier (like ESPN and ESPN HD), you wont get any better picture than you're getting right now. In fact, on some HD sets display an analog SD picture looks worse than the same channel on an old analog set.
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And then some of us who are very nearsighted and wear glasses that smear and get dirty often, can't really see the difference anyway.

My 42" plasma HDTV has beautiful colors and a nice, big picture. I love that about it. One of these days I will get a top-of-the-line digital cable package, though right now I am LBYM'ing with bare bones basic cable. I will enjoy having all the channels. As far as I can tell, I won't be able to see any difference at all with HDTV.
 
When you flip from a non-HD picture to an HD picture, I can clearly see the difference, but five minutes later I'm not really noticing it anymore.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
The programming really is the thing. Half of the HD miracle is smoke and mirrors.

One of my friends added a room onto his house for a home theater, has the tiered seating, all the big speakers and a top of the line 1080p projector. He's tried comcast HD and directv HD.
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A brother-in-law went almost that far. I've been around long enough, and made enough mistakes, to wait. I spent $600 on a Sony Betamax once, and keep it in the basement to remind me of my stupidity.

My crystal ball is as cloudy as the next guy's but I'm betting that anything electronic will eventually be dirt cheap. If I win the lottery (maybe it would help if I bought a ticket once in a while?) I'll do it sooner.
 
For me one of the motivations for getting an HDTV was getting away from paying for cable and satellite. I live just a couple of miles from the main TV transmission tower so I can get all the network channels in glorious high-bitrate HD for free with just a small $30 antenna by the window.

That saves about $400/year on cable which pays for the HDTV in a few years.

Of course one could get the same economic advantage with one of the converter boxes that will be given away for free by the FCC.
 
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