# Are you happy with your Hi-Def? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006 "2008-10-22T02:24:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/21 "2008-10-22T17:55:06Z")
Get another new one. I have one, and it doesn’t do that. As much as I’d hate to drive to my local Comcast office, it’d be worth it for that–what you’re describing would be intolerable for me. Plus, I’d demand some credit on my bill for the time I’ve had the bad units. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/22 "2008-10-22T17:58:51Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > No, I’m saying it isn’t worth buying a stand-along High Definition Set Top Box unless you’ve got a decent LCD TV. > > And if you’ve got a decent LCD TV then you should have one with an HD Tuner in it; if you don’t (have an in-built HD tuner), then I wouldn’t bother paying the extra for and HD box, if that makes sense. Okay, I misunderstood you. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/23 "2008-10-22T18:13:22Z")
I’m very happy with mine, 42" Samsung Plasma. I’ve had it about 2.5 years too, so the magic hasn’t worn off yet. The picture on most HD shows is beautiful, only downside I see is when there’s a lot of action I see some blockiness. But that’s a compression artifact, hopefully broadcasters will get better algorithms in the future. HDTV is also great for gaming. I still have an old-fashioned TV in my bedroom, I just watch non-widescreen shows like Family Guy or Seinfeld on it. ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/24 "2008-10-22T21:34:27Z")
> [@drm](#): > > As an aside: Does anybody know what **The Godfather** looks like on Blu Ray? Is it worth it? In Canada it’s like 80 or 90 bucks for the trilogy and I really only want to buy it if it’s a really noticable improvement over the standard DVDs. Supposedly, it’s superb! Article about it here: > **[Rediscovering Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy on Blu-ray.](https://slate.com/culture/2008/09/rediscovering-francis-ford-coppola-s-godfather-trilogy-on-blu-ray.html)** > > Just as Bruce Springsteen's Live: 1975-85 box set drove lots of rock fans to buy a compact-disc player back in the mid-'80s, so I suspect the "Coppola... ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/25 "2008-10-22T23:17:53Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > What I do notice is that ALL channels on the stupid Time Warner Scientific Atlanta HDTV box, seem to take a while to show up when you first turn the TV on with the HD box. At random points, the HD box decides not to list what the program is that’s playing, saying “Not Available”, and then there is my personal favorite, which is where the box freezes, or the program comes in, but every two minutes, the screen goes black and it says “Please Wait…” and the picture comes in for another two minutes and the process repeats forever. The solution? Unplug the box and plug it back in - at which point the box takes 20 minutes to reboot. > > I was convinced the box was broken and went to get another one from the cable company. Same problem with the new one. I’m dealing with it, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten fed up with the B.S. and gone upstairs to watch T.V. on the non-HD box because of the hassles when the HD box is randomly acting up and needs to be re-set. Sounds like you have a weak signal coming in to the box. Call the Cable company and ask them to come test your signal strength. They may need to replace the cables in your house. I had a similar problem… turns out squirrels were chewing up the cable. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/26 "2008-10-23T12:58:37Z")
Blown away here – there is a huge difference in quality between regular channel, Roku, DVD, and HD channels. Simply amazing. Can someone help out with what they notice between 1080 **p** & **i**? (I know the GQ-technical difference, I’m asking about the IMHO-perceptive difference.) Is the step significant? Right now, if someone walks in to the room they can easily tell whether the TV is tuned to a regular or HD channel. Would the same be true if someone walked in and saw a movie playing — would they be able to tell if it was an HD in-demand channel or a Blu-Ray disc? ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/27 "2008-10-23T15:46:57Z")
The distance away from the tv required to perceive high resolutions is fairly surprising. For example, for a 40" 1080p TV, you’d need to be within 5 feet to get the full benefit of the resolution. [This Chart](http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/) is a handy reference. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/28 "2008-10-23T16:51:58Z")
For years I thought graphics were unimportant in video gaming. I cut my teeth on NetHack and other roguelikes, so I really didn’t care about graphics. Then I plugged our XBox 360 into our new HDTV. I withdraw every comment I’ve ever made on this board about graphics not being important in video games. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/29 "2008-10-23T17:21:49Z")
If it isn’t in Hi Def, I don’t acknowledge its existence. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/30 "2008-10-23T17:26:45Z")
> [@CoG888](#): > > Sounds like you have a weak signal coming in to the box. Call the Cable company and ask them to come test your signal strength. They may need to replace the cables in your house. I had a similar problem… turns out squirrels were chewing up the cable. Having worked in Cable for quite some time, I agree with this. So many customers assume that it’s faulty equipment and demand a replacement, and that is far, far more rare than an actual signal problem. Not that we don’t ever get bad equipment, but it’s nowhere near as common as some customers claim. For reasons I don’t quite understand (I’m not a field tech), sometimes replacing the box seems to help, because the problem goes away at first. Then it creeps back in after a few days, causing the customer to believe they have yet another bad box. And the problem doesn’t have to be in your house or your wiring, but that’s the place to start. I had a problem with ingress that was affecting my online service caused by a squirrel who had chewed through a drop at a neighbor’s house. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/31 "2008-10-23T18:47:17Z")
I’ve found that many of the HD channels present only a modest improvement on their regular counterparts. The local CBS and public television stations are superb, although I’m having sound problems with the CBS affiliate especially; it tends to cut to a “froggy” garbled quality for awhile, which often gets better after a few seconds… only to recur… rinse, repeat. It’s often a tossup between channel switching (and back), which temporarily clears the sound problem (but with the channel-switching delays), and simply waiting it out. Sometimes I give up and just watch the less-impressive HD CBS channel, which doesn’t look as nice but has more reliable sound. And there’s an annoying glitch between my Samsung TV and Samsung DVD player, in which I can turn on the DVD and get a movie going, but if I switch back to TV mode and then later back to DVD, I get a picture disruption every few seconds. It’s almost like a blink, and it’s a real problem. The only way to stop it is to turn the TV off for a few seconds, then turn it back on. And a couple of weeks ago, the TV abruptly shut off and wouldn’t come back on. Not even pressing the power button on the TV itself worked. I was consulting the manual and was about to start playing electrical plug musical chairs (to rule out a problem with the surge protector or wall outlet), when the damn thing came back on. No problems since, although I’m worried the problem may recur the day the warranty expires… ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/32 "2008-10-23T18:54:52Z")
HD is especially striking wih some sports. TBS’ regular broadcast is really grainy and MPEG-y, so much so that on a groundball to the outfield, the ball in lost in the pixellation until the camera zooms in. In HD, the ball’s shape is very clear. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/33 "2008-10-23T19:15:00Z")
> [@Engineer\_Dude](#): > > Now if you could drink beer at the movie theater, it might be a different story… 🆒 Cans of beer are routinely sold at cinema snack stands in Thailand. But I’ve never understood how someone can drink beer in a cinema. I cannot stand to miss one second of a film, so I don’t want to have to be running to the toilet. > [@drm](#): > > IAs an aside: Does anybody know what **The Godfather** looks like on Blu Ray? Is it worth it? In Canada it’s like 80 or 90 bucks for the trilogy and I really only want to buy it if it’s a really noticable improvement over the standard DVDs. Roger Ebert, in his [Great Movies entry](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/REVIEWS08/810020300/1004) for _The Godfather, Part II_, writes: “I have seen the restored ‘Godfather’ in the new 35mm print and ‘Part II’ in the new Blu-ray DVD. Having first seen both at their world premieres, I would argue that they have never looked better. For films of such visual richness, that is a reason to rejoice.” We’re still on our old Sony Trinitron that we’ve had for 14 years now. I’d like to get a Sony Bravia X Series, which I believe is HD, but the wife insists our old TV is good enough. She admits we probably should get one in the next couple of years. We can’t agree on a size. She would want a 35" screen, but I’d like the 42". ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/34 "2008-10-23T19:26:01Z")
HDTV and Blu-Ray hold a lot of promise for transferring older films. I saw a Johnny Cash biography on PBS a few months back, I think it was shot in 1969 or so. It must have been originally shot on film and remastered/scaled to 720p or 1080i HD, because I’d never seen footage that old look so clear. All these years we’ve been restricted to 480 pixels of 4:3 ratio video, now with 1080 pixels of 16:9 video it’s a lot closer to what you see on a good movie screen. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/35 "2008-10-23T19:50:09Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > And a couple of weeks ago, the TV abruptly shut off and wouldn’t come back on. Not even pressing the power button on the TV itself worked. I was consulting the manual and was about to start playing electrical plug musical chairs (to rule out a problem with the surge protector or wall outlet), when the damn thing came back on. No problems since, although I’m worried the problem may recur the day the warranty expires… Oddly enough, I read something about this a few months back while I was shopping for a new TV (haven’t bought one yet). I’m not 100% clear on the issue, but it appears that Samsung has released firmware updates for at least some models that is supposed to fix the “turns itself off randomly” problem. You can download the updates yourself and install them by using a USB flash drive. The firmware update for the A650 series, for example, is [here](http://www.samsung.com/us/support/news/supportNewsAlerts.do?spp_news_seq=380). Even if that’s not your model, do a search and see if there’s a firmware update for yours; might take care of things. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/36 "2008-10-23T20:14:40Z")
I’ve got a Samsung 50" DLP with Verizon Fios HD service. I can’t remember the last time I watched a program in SD. I simply do not ever bother looking at that area of the program guide. As others have mentioned, sports are the best, along with shows filmed with HD cameras like Planet Earth. In fact, I got my TV right when PE first came out, and I think I’m still catching my breath 🙂 Love it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006/37 "2008-10-23T23:28:00Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Oddly enough, I read something about this a few months back while I was shopping for a new TV (haven’t bought one yet). I’m not 100% clear on the issue, but it appears that Samsung has released firmware updates for at least some models that is supposed to fix the “turns itself off randomly” problem. You can download the updates yourself and install them by using a USB flash drive. The firmware update for the A650 series, for example, is [here](http://www.samsung.com/us/support/news/supportNewsAlerts.do?spp_news_seq=380). Even if that’s not your model, do a search and see if there’s a firmware update for yours; might take care of things. Thanks, but there’s no download available yet for the whole 300 series (mine’s the 330). Good thing I got the extended warranty coverage, eh? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-happy-with-your-hi-def/469006.md?page=1)