HDTV is overrated by a large margin.

I got myself an HDTV, and I have to say that it's not all that wonderful. The component cables are really expensive if you want high quality stuff, the color red is horribly rendered in all modes, the picture can often times have a screen of vertical lines running through it due to the innate nature of the projection, and if you're running something that does not support 480p or higher...the picture looks plain god awful with excessive blurs, static, lack of solidity to images, and an unstable contrast.

Think twice about buying these things.

Sounds like you've been looking at Monster Cables. You can just re-use composite cables; they're the same thing besides the color coded tips.

>>1 Agreed. A friend owns one and swears by it, but I really don`t see what makes it so amazing. Then again, I don`t watch much TV either. The advent of S-Video was more than enough to make me happy, seeing my TV is used for little more than videogames and DVDs.

There's no point in buying an HDTV if you're not going to watch HD content.

>>4 But even HD content isn`t that impressive. I guess it`s a little clearer, but seriously, I can`t see the difference. Maybe it`d be more apparent on some godly 72" set.

>>1

make/model pls.

Side note: any one know a TV (tube,plasma,lcd) that supports 720p?

1080p raa

in 5-10 years there will be another format that will cost you more money that will apparently be 'better' somehow and force you to give up more of your hardearned cash

>>5 But even HD content isn`t that impressive. I guess it`s a little clearer, but seriously, I can`t see the difference. Maybe it`d be more apparent on some godly 72" set.

Then why'd you buy it? Surely you actually looked at it before making the decision to waste money on it?

u cant notice more lines of resolution? ...its just aritmetic

HDTVs are fantastic if you play a lot of xbox games. Seriously, try something like 2 player co-op Halo in NTSC and then in 480p. If you can't see the difference, then you probably have vision problems. For a game like Knights of the Old Republic, the increased resolution makes the text in-game immediately more readable.

Halo 2 is the reason I bought a new LCD TV. Man was I ever pissed when I found out that the website I bought it from outright lied and it didn't support ANY HD modes, not even 480p. It does however have component in, and even VGA in (only up to 800x600) so it looks great and it was a nice price (>$300). Still pissed though.

I've looked at HDTVs, and I absolutely notice a difference.  Granted, a lot of this is attributably to the digital signal (I was watching Discovery HD Channel) and the high quality set (a display floor model, very big, and very pricy).  I noticed enough of a difference to exclaim, out loud in the store, "wow!"  I love watching TV, and the difference really can make you feel that much closer to the image.  Combine it with the right sound system, and it's the enthusiast's dream.

That being said, I currently own a 27" CRT with component inputs and digital satellite.  And it looks really good.  My friends have even commented on the improvement of component over coaxial input, which I had used on my previous TV.  While it's not quite as nice as a HDTV, it's certainly still good enough.  I think my enjoyment of watching TV would only go up maybe 20% with a HD set. 

What I'd really like out of a HDTV is the size.  Even a comparibly "small" 42" screen really makes things a joy to watch.  Combined with the higher resolution, it adds a lot.  But at $3k price tags, I'll stick with my nice "little" 27" set.  It does it's job wonderfully well, and I'm waiting for quality of sets to improve (display support for both 1080i AND 720p) and the price to come down.  If I could blow $3000 on something, I'd probably choose a HDTV set within a minute, but until I'm filthy rich, it's just not necessary.  Black and white films are still just as good as CGI and color movies today, so why should NTSC be any worse TV that HDTV?  For $3000, I can buy a LOT of good movies.

Standard NTSC sucks balls compared to other TV formats of the world, so the demand for a higher-quality replacement is naturally greater (as the old joke goes, NTSC = Never The Same Color). HDTV does look nice when it's set up really well with quality equipment and video sources, but it's still too early to integrate well with existing equipment (DVD, video games, etc). Early adopters always pay a higher price in both the cost of equipment and, in some respects, the quality - the fact that you can get a DVD player for $150 that does as much and more than the $1,500+ models when DVD first hit the shelves is testament to why you should wait for some technologies to be closer to mainstream than HDTV currently is.

>>14
truth. same story with cd burners too. remember?

>>15
ugh 2x cd bruners, with no buffer underrun protection, mount rainer cd-rw support, and actually dodgy overall cd-rw support.

These fucking idiots don't know shit about HDTV.

>>19
>BUMPING A THREAD FROM 2005