HDTV is so confusing --a few questions.

Factual Questions
1

Looking toward buying an HDTV. After all it is football season.

Prices and specs and different formats are very confusing.

What will happen in 3 years (3 years late) when analog will no longer be broadcast and all that will be available is HDTV?

Will todays prices for HDTV sets plummet when everybody and his brother will need to have an HDTV set (or buy an adapter to be able to watch HDTV downgraded to his analog TV set?)

Seems like the BEST HDTV set to buy for the long run is 1080p----Unfortunately nobody seems to broadcast in 1080p yet. Checked out the local TV sales centers and was always surprised how 1080p on display looked just about the same as the 720 models. Salesman showed me a video (Blueray?) having a 1080p format and the difference in clarity was astounding—well worth paying extra money for. If it was broadcast.

What will happen exactly in 3 years? Will 1080p be broadcast on all channels? Will cable companies broadcast 1080p as essential to their schedules on all channels? I love the History Channel and Turner Classic Movies--------will that be provided in 1080p by the cable companies as a matter of course ----or of necessity since no other signal will be available?

Should I buy a nowadays very expensive 1080p TV set assuming that in 3 years that will be the norm. And the 720 and 768 sets will be obsolete?

Again ----The whole thing is very confusing. Any help on this appreciated.

2

I doubt that 1080p will ever be broadcast over-the-air. The highest resolution that the current system (ATSC) supports is 1080i. While it is technically possible to design a new broadcasting standard that supports 1080p, it would be incompatible with all of the existing ATSC hardware. The value of a standard is that it is a standard, even though it may not be on the bleeding edge of technology today.

3

1080p will be useful for playing movies off disc and for consoles (XBox 360 / PS3 / etc).

4

Plus, there’s a limit to what increased resolution gets you. At some point your eye just can’t tell the difference, and I think we may already be there. The crsipness of 720p on my set already looks more real than real to me! Are you sure you were comparing 720p to 1080p?

As for prices, they’re already plumetting. You can’t worry about what will be available in 3 years-- you’ll never buy one if you think like that. There is more and more HD content now and almost all the prime time stuff is HD. Sports and nature shows are unbelievable.

Get out there and buy a set this weekend!!! :slight_smile:

Serioulsy, I think you’re asking the wrong questions. Figure out how much you want to spend and where you want to put it and then there are plenty of folks here who will give you some good advice.

5

What the first two posters said. Don’t waste your time waiting for 1080p broadcasts. 1080p demands too much bandwidth for broadcasting, cable, and satellite; it’s like trying to drink water from a firehose. You’ll see it in the new high-definition DVDs (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), as well as the next generation of game consoles.

In three years, it’s not HDTV that will only be available; it’s digital broadcasting that will be mandatory. And by “broadcasting”, we’re not talking cable or satellite, we’re only talking about the local TV you get through the antenna that’s on top of your roof.

HDTV is a subset of digital broadcasting. Compared to the standard-definition (SD) television that we’re used to, HDTV features higher resolutions and in some cases, progressive scanning. (I can’t recall if a widescreen aspect ratio or Dolby 5.1 sound are parts of the ATSC standard that defines HDTV, but they’re on almost every HDTV program out there.)

Digital broadcasting requires much less bandwidth for a given signal than analog does. This reclaimed bandwidth will be utilized by first-responders, like police and fire departments.

After the “analog cutoff”, which I think is January 1, 2009, you can’t expect to see reruns of “Night Court” in 16:9 widescreen format. Shows either have to be originally videotaped in HDTV format, or filmed using film stock, to be offered in HDTV. (You may laugh, but HDNet, an all-HDTV channel available on satellite, offers reruns of “Hogan’s Heroes” in high-def in the morning.)

And if you get all of your programming via either cable or satellite, you have nothing to worry about; your TV provider handles all the conversion before shooting the signal to your house. You won’t even have to upgrade your TV.

But if you do feel like upgrading, I’d say go for it. And get a 1080p set if you can afford it. Don’t worry about prices dropping and TVs getting better after you buy a new HDTV; they will.

Oh, and make sure your sound system can do Dolby 5.1, sound is often overlooked but very crucial to the experience.

You won’t regret it!

6

For a TV at regular viewing distances, can the human eye tell the difference between 720p and 1080p? Seems like 1080p might let you watch a 50" screen from 2’ away, but who wants to do that? Or, maybe 1080p will be great when 100" screens are the norm. But with a 50" screen, which is about the sweet spot these days, what does 1080p get your over 720p?

And that date has already been pushed back at least once from an earlier date. I expect it will get pussed back again.

7

As screen sizes grow, higher resolutions are required to avoid visible bluriness. Sure, 720p looks super crisp on a 50" screen. What about on a 90" at the same viewing distance?

8

Digital broadcasting (ATSC) uses the same bandwidth (6 MHz) as analog broadcasting (NTSC). The difference is that ATSC is much more resistant to interference from stations on the same or nearby channels. This has allowed the FCC to recover spectrum by reducing the required spatial and frequency separation between television stations.

9

I beat you by a few minutes on that one. :wink:

I’m assuming that the OP is not buying a 90’ screen.

10

With a projector in your home theatre, 90" screen isn’t even that big.

11

Obviously, 360p.

Seriously, 1080p is better resolution, but you may not perceive it. A lot depends on the source; in my opinion 1080p doesn’t matter unless you have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

I thought that was the latest date. I could be wrong.

I’m intimidated by all them there purty words you use, so I yield to your explanation.

12

I know this is subjective, but I can’t imagine getting a sharper picture than what I have. And again, I’m talking a 50" set at about 6-8’ viewing distance.

I didn’t mean to imply you were wrong, only that the date seems to be a moving target. The gov’t sets a date, the industry bitches and moans, then the gov’t sets a new date. Repeat. At any rate, as you said it’s really not pertinent to the HD discussion. Except for me… I live in one of Comcat’s ghettos in the bay (550MHz vs 750) and we dont’ get all their HD content because they still broadcast analog signals. Once they switch over to all digital, that is supposed to free up some bandwidth.

13

As several others have posted, resolution becomes more important as the screen size grows. I have a 60" TV, which is fantastic, but looks better the farther away from it you get.

At last year’s NAB I was able to catch a few mins of Ultra High Def TV… on a 100’ screen. Yes, that’s feet, not inches. drools If I remember correctly, about 15 times better resolution than HD. Still in its prototype stage, though. And more useful for movie projecting in theaters than home viewing.

14

How widespread is this January 1, 2009 “cutoff” you speak of? Nationwide? Worldwide? ALL cable providers or just yours?

15

It’s just over-the-air TV, just in the USA. I expect Canadian analogue TV will continue–we’re basically watching what you Murrikens are doing and doing the same five or ten years later–so you border folks with analogue sets will be able to watch the CBC for years to come… :slight_smile:

16

Personally, I’m waiting for all this DRM crap to work itself out and for the cheap Korean ones with the easily-hackable firmware to come out. So I figure I might finally go hi-def around 2012.

17

Thanks for all the info. Very informative.

Actually what I have now is a 480p front projector with a 103 inch screen. Picture is awfully good now even tho technically not HDTV at 480p.

But resolution is much better with what I have at a shorter distance----like about what gives me about a 70 inch picture. So I can see resolution can be a problem the bigger the picture.

Considering getting a large screen plasma or LCD at about 60 inches (well not that big for LCD)

Just wondering if I would be wasting my money on a 720p or 768p set when possibly in the next few years 1080p will be top line norm. And all those 720p sets will be considered “obsolete”.

18

Or the alternative–

People buying 1080p sets today are wasting their money because, as a previous poster noted, 1080p will NEVER be broadcast or made available by cable companies and will only be accessed by formats like Blu-Ray.

19

While we’re on the subject, what is a good brand to look at? Or avoid, for that matter?

20

What makes sense for YOU depends on how YOU use your TV.

I NEVER watch movies or DVDs, only over-the-air broadcast or cable-cast sports. So what matters to ME when I pick a TV is which format/resolution that content will be delivered in. If YOU never watch sports and watch lots of DVDs, then what matters to YOU when you pick a TV is which format/resolution that content will be delivered in.

It sounds like you’re real interested in broadcast / cable / satellite rather than pre-recorded. So based on all the comments above, 1080p is irrelevant to YOU (and ME).
What will the public collectively do? Some of each. That’s about all we can say.