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HDTV Up Grade

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cincibuck

cincibuck

You kids stay off my lawn!
I just retired from teaching and am taking some of my prize money to do an upgrade on the family entertainment center. I've noticed from the posts that there are several of you who are far more conversant with what's available in A/V land than I am, so here are some questions I have and I'm hoping you can help me:

1. We watch VERY little TV aside from Buckeye games, the news, West Wing and PBS. We watch a ton of movies on dvd and vhs.

2. Right now I record many games on vhs for reviewing. I want to be able to burn them on to dvds and save future games to dvds (hopefully in HDTV). Is this doable?

3. The entertainment room has some limitations. It's 12.5 feet wide by 18. The way the furniture is set up, the room is shrunk to 12 by 12. There are two sliding doors on the north side and a fireplace on the east. I mnention this because I'm trying to decide between plasma and projector. Even with an excellent projector I'm not convinced we could get the room dark enough (we'd put vertical blinds over the doors). Also the screen would best fit if placed above the fireplace. That means I couldn't lower it less than 44 inches from the floor. I can put a plasma on the north wall at normal eye level. The costs - plasma vs projector - seem to be about the same.

4. What about dish versus Time Warner? Keep in mind that local PBS is VERY important. We get three channels from TW right now and I'd hate to loose that.

Thanks for your help in advance,
Cincibuck
 
I think plasma is way too expensive for what you actually get. What I mean by that is, I don't think the technology is where it needs to be right now and it seems that the life of plasmas right now is around 3-5 years. If I spent 6-10k on a plasma and it went out in 3 years I'd be really pissed. One thing I would recommend is to look into a DLP TV. Picture is just as clear as plasma in my opinion and is more reliable.

Also keep in mind that not every channel you watch will be viewed in HD. As of right now Time Warner only has a handful of HD channels. All others will be viewed in digital or regular over the air quality. If you purchase a TV with a built in HD Tuner you will be able to receive all of the local channels in HD over the air, some of which aren't offered by cable/satellite companies.
 
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DVD's aren't in HD yet. That will come with the next generation DVD players. My buddy did buy a DVD player that is supposed to upgrade a DVD picture to HD. If you get cable you have to get a special HD cable box and an HD package, which costs more. Not sure about dish. My buddy found a 50 inch plasma for under 2K. The thing is freaking sweet. He says that with normal use plamas last as long as normal TV's. Most of the stuff you hear about plasmas being bad is a myth. Personally I would go for a projector for the price you'll pay, but vertical blinds won't cut it. Good luck there really is nothing like watching games in HD.
 
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To answer question #2, with Time Warner you would need a DVR box to do this. DVR will allow you to record a show on the harddrive of the box and you can transfer the file to a computer to burn it to a DVD. I do not have DVR and am not positive on this working but in theory I would think you can. Recording on VHS would be worthless for burning to a DVD and keep in mind that not all the OSU games will be on HDTV for Time Warner (at least they weren't last year). It would be nice if they would be this year...at least the away ones :)
 
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dont get screwed into thinking HD is some great thing. We just switched over from DirectTV to Time Warner Digital Cable thinking all the channels would be HD as long as you had an HDTV. WRONG!

First, when they came to set up they didn't bring the HDTV reciever. It took 3 trips on 3 different days of "I'll be there between 12-5" to get this done.

Second, we finally get the HD set up right, and they decide to tell us theres only about 6 channels that it works for (one of them being HBOHD that runs out after our free trial; and one of them being ESPNHD that is an extra $5.00 a month). Luckily 2 of the channels are our 2 different ABC channels, so we will get all OSU games on ABC in HD.

For as big a fuss they make over having things in HDTV, there isn't all that much to it.
 
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They make DVRs that record in HD, but unless it specifcally has that feature you are going to have a fuzzy recording IIRC.

As for the HDTV channels, that's something you have to check out ahead of itme> Some areas have a lot more HD channels than others. Obviously, Orange County CA had tons of them, but out here there aren't nearly as many.
 
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exhawg said:
I beg to differ. As far as sports are concerned there is a huge difference between HD and non-HD.
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This is what I'm hoping (and really the only justification for the switch). I saw the HD in Circuit City and was blown away. Judging Amy* in HD isn't as impressive.

*-I swear to god that's what was on the TNT HD channel so it's the only thing I had to compare switching from channel 708 to 16 back and forth real quick. I don't watch Judging Amy.
 
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Those nature shows in HD are pretty amazing as well. I could watch arials of coastlines, rock faces, and forests for hours in HD...but back to sports yes there is a huge difference in HD and I think is well worth the $
 
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BuckeyeNation27 said:
This is what I'm hoping (and really the only justification for the switch). I saw the HD in Circuit City and was blown away. Judging Amy* in HD isn't as impressive.

*-I swear to god that's what was on the TNT HD channel so it's the only thing I had to compare switching from channel 708 to 16 back and forth real quick. I don't watch Judging Amy.
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I'm not a Judging Amy watching homo either, but JA might not be in HD to begin with. TW has some other channels that are enhanced so they have better quality than the normal channel. Those work well for normal TV and movies. HD isn't worth it except for the sports.
 
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HD is a nice feature. I agree with SIMV that you should probably check out the DLP and LCD TVs to compare to the Plasmas and Projections. The DLPs are like a hybrid between the Plasma and Projection TVs. Great picture quality, and about half of the depth required by the projection TVs.

I have DirecTV for my service (I'm not in a Time Warner Cable area.) I really like it. The HD package costs me about $10 a month, and I get about 8 channels with that, including ESPNHD. I pay about $5 a month for local channels (Cleveland) and I get the major networks, PBS, PAX, WB, etc. You might get more or less local channels, depending on what they provide in your area. Their website might even have a thing that will tell you based on your zip code, otherwise you can call them. DirecTV does have an HD receiver now that includes a DVR. It is quite expensive (currently around $599) but is what I will probably get when/if I get a new TV. The link should have some more information for you.

Also, if you become a new subscriber with DirecTV, they might cut you a really good deal and throw in some free stuff. You might need to call them directly. You should also check out the AVS forums. I researched a lot of stuff there when I bought my HD equipment. They'll have people that can help you with everything involved with this stuff.

For my TV, I actually have a 34" Sony WEGA XBR tube TV (an older version of this.) It was about $2000 when I bought it 2 years ago, and is about the same now. I get a great picture from all angles. I am presently trying to move, and will probably get another HDTV when I do so. I will probably go with a 50"-60" DLP or LCD, unless there is an awesome deal on a plasma at the time.
 
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FYI, there is no better forum on in the world than AVSForum for discussing this stuff. I learned just about everything I know about home theater from there.



cincibuck said:
2. Right now I record many games on vhs for reviewing. I want to be able to burn them on to dvds and save future games to dvds (hopefully in HDTV). Is this doable?
Click to expand...
Yes. The most common way nowadays is to use a HTPC (home theater computer) to record the shows, then encode them and burn them. This is not easy at all if you aren't good with computers, but you can use programs like Snapstream to make things easier. You could also look into a HDTV Tivo, but IIRC, they're extremely expensive.



cincibuck said:
3. The entertainment room has some limitations.
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I personally have a rather low opinion of plasmas, and a high opinion of DLP projectors. LCD prices have been plummeting recently, so I'd look at those before plasmas if flat is important. AVSForum can help a lot with helping you choose a TV.



exhawg said:
My buddy did buy a DVD player that is supposed to upgrade a DVD picture to HD.
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DVDs have 480 lines in the picture, and one of the HDTV modes has 720 lines. All that DVD player does is guess at what those 240 extra lines would be. Yes, it looks better than a normal DVD picture, but it's not true HDTV.



exhawg said:
HD isn't worth it except for the sports.
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At the moment, I think this is only because of the paucity of HD content. HDTV's aren't the only thing that's expensive; making the content is, too. Just give it time. When they get the next generation DVD format settled and start producing HD quality DVDs, it'll be amazing.
 
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exhawg said:
I'm not a Judging Amy watching homo either, but JA might not be in HD to begin with. TW has some other channels that are enhanced so they have better quality than the normal channel. Those work well for normal TV and movies. HD isn't worth it except for the sports.
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So let me get this straight. to watch something in HD with time warner digital cable, you need an HDTV, HD cable box, HD channel, and the show being broadcast has to be broadcasted in HD?
 
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