I think EDTVs will only do 1080 lines interlaced. If you see the diff. btw. 480p and 480i, even, it’s clear that interlacing turns a good signal into crap in short order. Having said that, EDTV quality is quite impressive, and having more to watch today’s DVDs is overkill anyway. Can an EDTV handle 720p? I think it’s only 720i, but I’m not sure; maybe it depends on the model.
That’s just like you ‘Greatest Generation’ types! Always picking on the Gen Xers, aren’t you! 
Keep it coming, people! I really need the flat if I’m to gain the square footage I want. And I’d prefer LCD because I don’t much like the thought of plasma ghosts.
And it can’t really be plasma. What’s up with that?
Thanks, JC, for starting this thread. Our 15 year old Mitsubishi just died last week and now we’re suddenly in the market for an upgrade.
I’ve heard some concerns about the life expectancy of the plasma units; however, they seem to be the most readily available. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone that actually owns one of these new-fangled tv’s so I’m shamelessly posting so I can subscribe to this thread.
Hey! Tom Brokaw wrote a whole great, big book about it and how can you argue with that?[insert smug smiley here]
And with ample justification.
Since you’re determined to spend that money how about sending me $500 for a new driver so that I can get more that 170 yards off the tee?
My understanding is that EDTV is only 480p, but will show an HD signal of 1080i or 720p downconverted to 480p, depending on the individual design of your set. Some sets can’t handle a 720p input, mine doesn’t unless it’s from a PC source (I don’t understand the distinction either).
If you’re going flat panel and want something in the 42" range, you won’t get HDTV for under $3,000. At least, not with a major manufacturer. I just bought a 42" Panasonic EDTV, and couldn’t be more pleased. As I was researching the purchase, I found that I had a very hard time distinguishing the HDTV from the EDTV when viewed at my normal viewing distance. I could tell between the two when close up, but not from 15’. That gave me enough confidence to go with the EDTV model and save a couple of grand. YMMV, if you can see the difference, and it matters to you, wait until the prices come down some more and get the full HD model.
As for mounting, I used an aftermarket universal mount from Sanus ($99 from Overstock.com). Brick should be fine, you’ll likely use a 1/2" masonry bit to drill 6 mounting holes, using lead shields and lag bolts to put the mounting plate on the wall. The other half of the mount gets bolted to the TV, then you hang the TV onto the plate and lock into place. Take your time to get it perfectly level, the mounts don’t have a lot of wiggle room, and even a 1/4" is enough to notice.
On life expectancy, Panasonic claims that you’ll get 60,000 hours before their panel loses 50% of its brightness. Under any normal set of usage, that’s in excess of 20 years of life. For reference, the TV I replaced was a 10 year old high end 32" Sony, and I couldn’t get rid of the damn thing fast enough.
I’m not going to go back and quote everyone, but for the record I have a 50" plasma. I can see it just fine when all the lights are turned on. YES you can burn things in, but it’s difficult. The worst thing I did was leave the splash screen from Brain Candy on for about 7 hours. I turned the TV off when I realized it, and went to work, when I got home it was still there, burnt into the screen, but it disappeard after about 2 hours of watching TV. As for power consumption, mine says 540 watts for a comparison my 31’’ CRT says 142 max, so not that much of a stretch. If it bothers you, turn off four 100w light bulbs in the house while your watching the plasma to make up for the difference. Oh and BTW, this was an impulse buy that I didn’t research at all and I’m very happy with it.
Slightly off-topic, but sort of relevant. I actually built a cabinet for a friend’s flat screen TV.
They laid out their room and set the TV on a flat wall. It looked awkward, so we built a flat cabinet (the kind you might see in a conf room to hind the white board).
The cabinet just makes the Tv look like it is part of the room now. We stained it to match the furniture and it makes the whole room look better.
My buddy swears the pic looks better, because you aren’t staring at a blank background.
Cheesesteak, thanks.
I have another question for the Masses:
When they say your box is “HDTV Ready”, I understand that to mean it does not have a HDTV reciever, but could be connected to one and display HDTV picture at full resolution. Can that same TV be hooked up to the coaxial cable in your wall and be good to go for high-def signal? It’s seems the answer could only be “yes”, but I don’t take these things for granted.
According to one of my journalism professors, this spring most flat screen TVs will experience a drop of 30-50%+ in price. I have no idea how accurate this is, but he said something along the lines of there being more flat-screen manufacturing plants opening all at the same time, so the market will be flooded. He also claims plasma technology is on its way out in a year or two as better technology is being developed. (But, once again, I’m not sure how correct this is… I just thought I’d throw it out there.)
[QUOTE=LoopydudeWhen they say your box is “HDTV Ready”, I understand that to mean it does not have a HDTV reciever, but could be connected to one and display HDTV picture at full resolution. Can that same TV be hooked up to the coaxial cable in your wall and be good to go for high-def signal?[/QUOTE]
Probably not. A TV with a built in high def tuner will be just an HDTV without the “ready.” There’s more to it. Some TVs such as the Panasonic LCD projection I considered at Costco were smart card capable so they would work without a cable box to get encyrpted channels such as HBO. I decided this wasn’t an important feature since the cable box/DVR that Cox is using has two tuners for picture and picture built in.
Thanks to Padeye.
To answer your question, I read someplace that they’re developing what is essentially a CRT with a bajillion individual electron guns for each pixel in it. Reportedly it will be thin, brighter than plasma or LCD displays, and cheaper than both to manufacture. I honestly can’t remember what this beast is called, but it’s supposed to come out next year, or maybe '96. I think the article speculated it might make both Plasma and LCD obsolete. I’ll take it all with a mountain of salt, but there are other flat-and-thin screen technologies in the works.
OLED is right now slated for 2007, but they still have some significant hurdles to overcome. I wouldn’t let that stop you from buying a TV now. HDTV was supposed to have been ubiquitous by now.
What Does the Future Hold for Flat TVs
Supply and demand for LCDs are in flux, for everything between notebook and large screen TV size. Plasma prices are dropping to where we mere mortals can think of purchasing. It’s a good time to be TV shopping, especially between Christmas and Superbowl time.
Ah, found something…The new technology is from Toshiba, and it’s called SED.
SED technology is an offshoot of FED (Field Emission Display) which has been around for at least 10 years. I did a study back in '95 about display technology for a company that made induction heaters (used in CRT manufacturing).
At the time, I thought that FED was really the wave of the future. LCD was limited to small size, Plasma was limited to large panels, both were very expensive and neither were as good as CRT. FED was the holy grail, all the benefits of flat panel, but the top notch picture quality of CRT. So, my conclusion was that they should keep an eye out for FED, boy did I read THAT wrong! :smack:
What I don’t understand is how anyone can possibly want to watch HDTV without HDTV TiVO.
OR does that already exist?
I have read that plasmas have trouble at altitude. Anything over 9,000 feet. So that’s out for me, by a long shot.
I’m hoping that in about 1-2 years I can get a 32-42 inch bright screen flat (rear projection will not work, my house is way too bright [passive solar]).
Sounds like some new stuff is coming. That’s real good news.
Television?
Gah! It should be screaming Apple 30" Cinema Display at you.
What? Not running a Macintosh? The 23" will still run on Windows. And 3 Gees will buy you a very nice Mac indeed. Two plain old nice ones even.
Yes, the FED’s will be coming, and en masse. They will be the new, carbon nano-tube-based FED’s. The technology will be another way to get a flat, bright display…and prices will most likely come down.
Until then…it loks like plasma is your best bet for large display sizes and decent brightness.
I have heard that the plasma burn-in problem is fairly severe. Joey P said that he fixed his by watching a couple of hours of TV. Have any other Dopers had plasma burn-in problems, or managed to fix them?
I have HD DVI box from the cable company which is about the same. The DVI lets you program to a hard drive and although it might not be “smart” like TiVO as far as picking shows you might like, it allows you to choose between all episodes of that show on that channel, all episodes of that show in that time slot, or all first run shows. So far it is great, and the few times it didn’t record, I realized the shows were re-runs, which was why it was not recorded.
Recording in HD does take up more space on the hard drive, so if you record hundreds of shows and movies that might be a problem, but otherwise, it does a fine job of recording the HD (and the 5.1 surround sound).