High Definition Sucks

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:19 pm

OK, so we bought a Wii over the weekend but couldn't find all the parts and doo-dads we wanted to go along with it, but its enough to plug in and play some games (Medieval Games is a lot more fun with the sword and bow accessory, by the way) and decided to replace my 15+ year old TV at the same time just because it sucks and gets all snowy (plus its very hard to hook anything new up to it without first passing through some damn adapter or other.) Well, the Wii is great on the new TV... a flat panel HD machine, but the HD channels that come through the service provider are awful. They get blurry, and even changing aspect ratio doesn't help too much; it's supposed to be a 1080P doohickey and we hooked it up right (or there would be no signal)... so what's the deal? TV looked better on my crap-o-vision. DVDs are awful too. Maybe if I bought a Blu-Ray or something. Oh well. New-fangled things aren't always for the best.
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ThrorII · Post by **ThrorII** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:21 pm

You probably need an HD DVD player and HD cables between the HD-DVD player and HDTV.

I found this out myself 5 years ago. HD is not as easy as plug and play, you need HD doodads too.

ThrorII · Post by **ThrorII** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:22 pm

ThrorII wrote:
You probably need an HD DVD player and HD cables between the HD-DVD player and HDTV.

I found this out myself 5 years ago. HD is not as easy as plug and play, you need HD doodads too.

Also, you need the HD cables between the cable box and TV/DVD

mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:25 pm

Serl, its sounds as though you do not have the TV hooked up right. Does it have a digital tuner built in? it should. hook the antens up and have the TV find local digital stations. if that does not look good on a high def local then its the TV. now i am assuming your locals broadcast in high def.

are u using cable, satelitte or something else for TV signal? are u using component cable or hdmi cable?

(edit. i wish i could spell)

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:41 pm

Everything is hooked up through HDMI cables, and the provider is a cable provider, straight from wall to box to TV (we then add stuff when we want to see something else, like a DVD, or the Wii, for example -- they are not connected otherwise.) I expected the DVD player to look bad on the TV because it is not a HD DVD player, but the HD channels provided by the service provider should be much better. If it is the TV, then it is a craptastic TV and I'll be getting my money back.
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mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:44 pm

get a Visio. its the best High def TV out there, unless you want to spend 4 grand.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:56 pm

mordrene wrote:
get a Visio. its the best High def TV out there, unless you want to spend 4 grand.

What is Samsung's rep? I am looking at buying their 55 inch with the 100,000:1 contrast ratio, today.
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mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:07 pm

ther are good tv's but generally the Vizio is rated higher and is about 1/2 the price. From what i have read in consumer reports only the top of the line panasonic HD tvs have rated beter than the Vizio. But a 50' was about 3 grand where the Visio was 1500.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:12 pm

mordrene wrote:
ther are good tv's but generally the Vizio is rated higher and is about 1/2 the price. From what i have read in consumer reports only the top of the line panasonic HD tvs have rated beter than the Vizio. But a 50' was about 3 grand where the Visio was 1500.

K, well the above 55" TV is being offered to me by Tiger Direct for $1450, shipping included, so I'll be calling them now.
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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:17 pm

Samsungs are regarded in some circles as the best quality LCD TVs available. I personally have a Sony Bravia (FTW!) with the associated Sony plug and play 5.1 surround system and love it. My dad has a vizio (48" I think) and he likes it but he has claimed that my Bravia looks better. HOWEVER, it should be pointed out that I'm on comcast and he is on some local yokel cable provider, which may make a big or no difference, I dunno.

What I CAN definitively say is that ANY decent quality HDTV should display an HD cable signal FAR BETTER than your old crapTV. Some of the non HD channels may look worse though, due to the sheer size of the screen interpolating a crappy resolution.

mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:32 pm

for a 4 hundred more you can get this vizio from walmart that is 2,000,000/1 ratio
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-55-clas ... T/13081789

or for 5 more there is this
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-VF552XVT/13812466

that is internet ready so you can watch hi def shows on your tv off the internet. now having said that the tv you were looking at is 4 hundred cheaper that through samsung so its a great deal as well.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:40 pm

mordrene wrote:
for a 4 hundred more you can get this vizio from walmart that is 2,000,000/1 ratio
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-55-clas ... T/13081789

or for 5 more there is this
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-VF552XVT/13812466

that is internet ready so you can watch hi def shows on your tv off the internet. now having said that the tv you were looking at is 4 hundred cheaper that through samsung so its a great deal as well.

Plus this one also does the internet thing as well. It takes up one quarter of the sales page bragging about it.

The 2 million to 1 contrast ratio difference is noticeable compared to the 100,000 to 1, but only noticeably. Not $400 worth of it, though. Besides, I have $1500 in cash to immediately pay off my Platinum card, not $1900, nor have I had to pay 8% sales tax. Yet. We'll look into that when its time to pay our 2011 taxes.

Edit: For Wal Mart I would definitely have to pay the 8%, because they have an in state presence. Thought I would clarify why that is a definite factor.

Here is the website link to what I bought, which reads a bit differently than the e-mail I received:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... ER-_-Deals

But it is "Internet Connected".
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Dagger · Post by **Dagger** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:13 pm

Serleran,

The basic things that you should check regarding your HD picture are:

1. The cable provider - most providers charge a premium to receive HD versions of channels. When i got my HD tv in November, I had to call Directv and have them install a new HD receiver. It also added about 10 bucks a month to my service plan. I would make sure you have the right cable box and that your service plan is including HD channels.

2. The cable box - provided that you are set with regard to step 1, you'll need to make sure the cable box itself is configured correctly. My directv receiver has settings that specify what resolutions it will output to yout tv. Obviously, you'll want to make sure it is set to output all of them. You should also configure it to output the channels in their native resolution. Some boxes/receivers have settings which allow you to upscale every channel to 1080p... You don't want that. You want your tv to do that instead.

3. I'm sure the default settings on the tv are going to be fine. You just want to make sure you are using the right connectors. It sounds like you are.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:00 pm

Well, my box does do HD but that doesn't mean it's receiving the signal as HD... that is, it says the channels are, but I could get them on my non-HD TV, so I might need to call the provider and have them turn it on (for a price, I'm sure.) Bastids just want more money. I think I'll be good without paying more for something I won't use much -- not like I have HBO or those pay-sports channels (which I find worthless.)

Thanks, all. It is fun to use a console game on the new TV though... for some reason the component connection works really well.
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tylermo · Post by **tylermo** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:38 pm

I got a 1080p Sanyo 42 inch for 599. That was in 2008 as part of a Wal-Mart promotion in early December. As of this year, that was still a pretty decent deal, although they briefly had the 46 inch for 648 earlier this. Both were lcd, NOT plasma. I haven't seen a cheaper deal the 42 or 46. I'm not sure how the Sanyo ranks, but it's done well by me for nearly a year and a half.

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:45 am

I'm not too good at the Wii Baseball, since I haven't yet figured how to throw anything but a fastball, but damn the boxing thing is a freaking heart racer... two and a half rounds to get the opponent KO'd because the bastard just kept standing up at 7 or 8 seconds... oh well, it is more fun than the Mike Tyson thing from long ago because you can actually get your whole body into it (and need to, to avoid being sucker-punched) and that gets this flabby a**e moving. I think I found my new thing to get angry with...
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:05 pm

serleran wrote:
Well, my box does do HD but that doesn't mean it's receiving the signal as HD... that is, it says the channels are, but I could get them on my non-HD TV, so I might need to call the provider and have them turn it on (for a price, I'm sure.) Bastids just want more money. I think I'll be good without paying more for something I won't use much -- not like I have HBO or those pay-sports channels (which I find worthless.)

Thanks, all. It is fun to use a console game on the new TV though... for some reason the component connection works really well.

Yep... that's about the skinny of it. A channel may be available in HD but usually your provider has an 'alternate' channel for the same content that is displayed in HD. When you've invested in a receiver and are willing to shell out the extra cash, then you'll get glorious 720p. That's right... 720 and not 1080. The companies that offer TV services seem to be sticking to 720 because of bandwidth concerns. Now I don't know if that's across the board, but from everything I've seen, it seems to be the regular practice. Trust me... there really isn't a noticeable difference as far as TV is concerned anyway. Regular channels plugged straight in via a cable does look like absolute crap though.

DVDs can also look completely underwhelming too. Bluray is the way to go if you want a crisp viewing experience on your new TV. That said, if you have a DVD player that can upconvert your regular DVDs, make sure the option is turned on. It will make a big enough difference and could even avoid you the cost of going Bluray anytime soon. My own player is a regular DVD player but it upconverts the image for HD TVs. I just watched Avatar last night on DVD and it looked great!

Take that Bluray!!

M
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:10 am

Yeah, thanks to this thread, and notification that my TV shipped today, I called my TV provider, they have me for $8 more a month, $100 more (one time) for a "box" which is also a DVR, but when my TV arrives I will be HD ready.

Now I just need to get an HD DVD player for my DVD collection.
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Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:38 am

We almost took the plunge and finally bought an HDTV around Christmas, but then I just decided not to. Hopefully, in a few years I will have my friggin' CPA license and make some more money, then I won't mind spending a little bit extra on toys like that. However, when push came to shove, I just decided that along with the television we would have to pay extra for the HD Cable service and I really don't watch that much television that would really pop in HD. We thought about buying a bluray DVD player, but the whole HD thing just isn't that big of a deal to me; not enough to justify a new DVD player.

Anytime that I've sat down to watch HD television or movies, I forget that I'm watching HD within five minutes if the story is good enough and I'm not a big sight-and-sound guy. I don't watch sports so the HD-broadcast games aren't a big huzzah for me either.

I'm not a Luddite and I think that all of this HD video and high-def audio are great. It's just not a big enough draw to get me to spend my money on it.

New books on the other hand....

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:07 am

I had the same thing happen. I think they purposely defract the image so you have to subcribe to HD.

That fixed it for us anyway.
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