I hate my new TV....

dcorrea

....its picture is so perfect that it brings out all the distortions and imperfections on many programs/dvd's. Take Full Metal Jacket for instance. When i first watched it on my DLP 50inch TV I noticed that there was a lot of video noise and many of the greens were very grainy. I could not believe my eyes. I already calibrated my TV and started to do it again. After hours of tinkering I decided to watch the same movie on my older non-hd sony Wega Trinitron. Guess what? Those same imperfections were there also, just not as noicable because the picture is no where close to my dlp picture.

Life is a vicious circle...

dorokusai

Life is a viscious circle....

Amen, man, Amen.....more like this whole freaking "hobby" is a viscious circle

bknauss

I hear ya... I can really see the crappiness of Comcast's digital cable on my nice TV. HD comes in A-OK, but the standard signal is plain terrible.

nebborjk

You should send your new TV to me. I have a 25" RCA TV in the basement I'll trade you for!:D

amulford

Tell me about it. I dislike watching std. broadcasts. I'm gonna have to get Zoom, for all the HD, Dishnetwork has some, but not as much as I thought it would.

hamzahsh

Every Display technology has it own problems. None of them are perfect! Tube is my favourite but hate the small size which really hurt my eyes.

Since, I work at Best Buy Canada. I found that HDTV looks best on DLP and LCD RPTVs but when you watch DVDs and regular cables they look like a piece of cr*p. Nothing against DLP and LCD RPTVs but what I've seen and heard. On top of that you've to deal with the wheel noise and rainbow effect, pixel burns on the screen and blowing up lamps or replacing lamp after 6000-8000 hrs of use which adds even more price later, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

Now, RPTVs look great overall both on HDTV broadcasts, regular cables and DVDs. On top of that you don't have to replace expensive lamps, worry about tiny pixel burns. Yes, RPTVs have there own problems like image burn-in's and convergence issues but not as bad as DLPs and LCD RPTVs. The best thing in the end is the price, for sure and RPTVs are the best bang for the buck.

I'm all set to buy Toshiba Cinema Series 57-inch HDMI by next year, hopefully. I personally care more for audio than video. I won't drop $$$$ on the DLP or LCD RPTV, instead I'll get the high-end pre/pro !:cool:

This is only my opinion!

Toxis

Originally posted by amulford
Tell me about it. I dislike watching std. broadcasts. I'm gonna have to get Zoom, for all the HD, Dishnetwork has some, but not as much as I thought it would.

for the love of everyone who owns an HDTV, PLEASE research it first.

Zoom claims to have 30+ HD channels but they barely have 10 that are TRUE HD. The others are just line doubled to be 1080i. If you've ever seen a picture that is just line doubled, you'd know that you'd be wasting your money. Not to mention, they have ONE satellite in the air, ONE! They have decent coverage of the west coast and that's really about it. I had a buy come in the other day all kinds of pissed off because he bought all their equipment and was ranting about how horrible the picture was, when it could even get reception...

sowen010599

They are just buying time off a Fed. com. sat. just like XM and Sirius do. Whoooopty who ha. Course, you can't expect Voom to be like Hughes (who has more money than God) and put up their own birds. Sure, it sucks, but there is a media vacuum for HD. There's just not enough material to support any kind of real network. There won't be for a number of years to come.

Then, DVD's, older movies were poor transfers. The technology just wasn't there like it is today. Things have changed a lot in the past couple years.

bknauss

Originally posted by hamzahsh

Since, I work at Best Buy Canada. I found that HDTV looks best on DLP and LCD RPTVs but when you watch DVDs and regular cables they look like a piece of cr*p. Nothing against DLP and LCD RPTVs but what I've seen and heard. On top of that you've to deal with the wheel noise and rainbow effect, pixel burns on the screen and blowing up lamps or replacing lamp after 6000-8000 hrs of use which adds even more price later, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard of DLP or LCD or LCOS RPTVs having burn in problems. The only current TV technology that I've heard of actually having burn in problems are plasmas. When I was in the market for my LCD tv, the kid at BB tried to tell me they have burn in and some ridiculously low bulb life. I did my research and found there is no burn in problem and the bulb life is 6-8k hours as you said above (on average/estimated). Even if you watch TV 8 hours a day, which is nearly impossible if you work a 40 hour week or have school, you get around 2-3 years of usage before the bulb dies. If you watch TV less than 4 hours a day like me, you'll have probably around 5 years bulb life... and for me, it would be time for a new TV most likely.

Sorry to rant, but I was told to tell a bunch of lies when I worked for BB one summer, and I like to keep others well informed of what really happens... not what BB tells people so they will buy the warranty.

bknauss

And about Voom... have you priced out how much it is to get the service? IIRC, I did a fake "setup" through their website for 3 rooms, and the inital cost was over $1k!!! And I don't even have 3 rooms that have HD ready TVs!!! Much easier to get the DirecTV deal for 3 rooms free and spend the extra $300 on a HD receiver.

dcorrea

Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard of DLP or LCD or LCOS RPTVs having burn in problems. The only current TV technology that I've heard of actually having burn in problems are plasmas.

Your right. DLP and LCD do not burn in. Also the rainbow effect( which I have never seen) has supposedly been fixed with the use of more color wheels or something like that. With my DLP TV I can even see video distortions on some HD channels. Take Discovery HD, many times in low light scenes the picture becomes grainy, but a similar picture on INHD is picture perfect.

Toxis

Originally posted by dcorrea
Your right. DLP and LCD do not burn in. Also the rainbow effect( which I have never seen) has supposedly been fixed with the use of more color wheels or something like that. With my DLP TV I can even see video distortions on some HD channels. Take Discovery HD, many times in low light scenes the picture becomes grainy, but a similar picture on INHD is picture perfect.

the rainbow effect has been somewhat fixed. The lower end DLP's out there are still running the color wheel at slower RPM's and that's what's causing the effect. A lot of the newer DLP's are running them at 9600 rpm or faster and they are not having these kind of problems. I have only had 2 people ever tell me that the rainbow effect could be seen by them.

madmax

The latest offer on voom that I saw was $50 for installation, $10 a month rental and $50 (voom) or $80 (vavavoom) per month. That would be $50 up front plus $60 or $90 per month respectively. Doesn't sound too bad.
madmax

Frank Z

Check out WWW.DBSTalk.com before signing up for VOOM.

sowen010599

There is still too much non-HD material on too many channels to go with Voom. If Voom offered all of the standard stuff you get everywhere else + their HD package, it would be the only way to go.

I still think Directv is the only way to go. You can get their HD package, all of the other channels, and you can even get an HD Tivo now.

Shell

Darn it now I am curious. What HD tv is best for both HD and regualar signals? I am talking picture, reliability and price.

bknauss

I think the biggest question is what provider do you have. I have zero experience with any of hte satellite HD services, but as mentioned above, Comcast stinks for standard broadcasts (and HD broadcasts aren't always wonderful). I was just reading up on a thing called "cablecard" today where you could use a real HD decoder box with a PCMCIA card from the cable company. Supposedly the quality is MUCH better with a real HD box and not the one that the cable company dishes out to you. There's a story about this stuff on audioholics.com. The BIG drawback with the cablecard is that you won't get the on screen guide, on demand, pay per view, etc.

Toxis

Originally posted by bknauss
The BIG drawback with the cablecard is that you won't get the on screen guide, on demand, pay per view, etc.

but the TV's that allow Cablecard come with a TV Guide program within so you're not out a guide. The PPV and OD unfortunately can't be used (yet). Cablecard is a one way communication but eventually they'll realize that Cablecard is the way everything's going and they'll put more R&D into it to make it two way. We can hope at least!

Personally, I think the best HDTV for both HD and non-HD programming would have to be Tube. Still a huge fan of 'em! WAY better than CRT and still better than DLP/LCD RPTV's. Plasma can look better on HD but no comparison with non-HD. Plasma looks like butt. Tube > all