Revised indulgence: New HDTV

I just want to go nuts, that’s why I’m getting the 61" one. I want a huge frickin tv for once in my life and the DLP technology interests me.

I love DLP, the only thing I’d say is that the image is only at its best when you’re seated right in front of the screen. If you have couches/viewing angles off to the side as well it’s not as good. This is not a problem with LCD.

Actually LCDs have issues with the side viewing angles too, though they are much less pronounced than they used to be. Plasma is the way to go if that sort of thing is a big problem for you.

Whelp if you want a ridiculously huge TV, rear projection is the way to go. Or… have you thought about front projection? The picture covers an entire wall! No side occlusion problems there, either.

That I actually did consider. the 1080p projectors are still “in the zone” as far as pricing goes.

Following up on the thread I needlessly opened before, I noticed the Westinghouse has only 1 HDMI input. Again, I’m a total hardware noob, but wouldn’t two be necessary if you have, say an XBox 360 (for which you might get the HD-DVD) as well as HD cable?

No, because 360 doesn’t have an HDMI output.

the westinghouse oes 1080p via via component even though it says it doesnt. My friend has one.

Ok, so the 360 would be done via component then I assume and I can use the HDMI for the cable.

Oh how I long for the days when playing a video game meant turning it to channel 3 and flicking the little switch attached to the screws behind the tv.

One other question. If I get a 1080p tv, I guess I need to make sure it can downconvert in order to play 360 games since it does not support that high?

As already mentioned, the 360 doesn’t have HDMI as an option even if you wanted to do that. I have both VGA and component cables for my 360. Currently I’m using the VGA cables hooked into the Westinghouse’s VGA input. As also mentioned, the Westinghouse supports 1080p over component (it has two component inputs) and VGA. I use the VGA because the upscaling DVD player only supports the VGA for 1080p for stupid copy protection reasons.

My 8300HD PVR cable box is hooked into my Westinghouse through HDMI, but the box also supports component output and it doesn’t look any better through HDMI. I use it as the HDMI input to my TV primarily to free up one of the component inputs (currently allocated to my Xbox 1 and Gamecube).

HDMI just isn’t that widespread yet. I’m sure in a couple of years this will change, but you can also buy inexpensive HDMI switch boxes, so having only one HDMI input isn’t a big deal. Especially when the TV has two DVI inputs and cheap HDMI<->DVI cables exist.

If you run out of HDMI inputs, you just can get a $100 HDMI switch from monoprice. Not something that should be an issue.

The 360 does support 1080p since the fall update, over both component and vga, though your tv might not support 1080p over component and/or VGA even if it is a 1080p set. The Westinghouse works fine with 1080p from the 360 over both inputs… but as mentioned previously, it will only upscale movie DVDs to 1080p over VGA.

I’m not aware of any HDTV/monitors that won’t accept lower resolution signals (though some true monitors won’t accept interlaced signals), though the job they do with scaling content and keeping it looking good at non-native resolution can vary.

You and Gary have been AWESOME with information and between that and my own reading, I feel much better prepared. One FINAL question, promise. I noticed on the plasma tvs at the various sites like Best Buy and Fry’s that they do not list the 1080p or whatever for the display. I imagine this is because of the technology used. Do they generally support whatever is thrown at them because of this or are there special considerations should I go plasma (and if I don’t, the Westinghouse looks like a fantastic choice)?

Plasmas have burnin. If you play games with a health bar in the corner, or watch sports with a scoreboard, it can get permenently burnt into the screen. Plasmas offer somewhat better color reproduction and blacker blacks but you’re not a videophile or we’d be asking you questions. Don’t buy a plasma.

I agree with stusser. Each different display technology has pros and cons. You can debate back and forth which is better, but at the end of the day it depends what you’re going to use it for and plain old personal preference. Plasma is a decent choice if you’re going to use the device to watch movies all the time or you want a REALLY honking big TV (like 50+ inches)… But I’m admittedly biased towards LCD. I believe it is the sweet spot for gamers who also want good video quality. A good 1080p LCD is great for video, great for current/next gen videogames and if it has VGA or DVI input, they are also amazingly good for home theatre PCs displays (along with the cable box and various consoles, I’ve got my LCD hooked up to PC via DVI with wireless keyboard and mouse, web surfing and PC gaming from the couch with a display big enough to support the distance, hooray!).

Of course this is all very debatable, some people really love the look of plasma or the cost effectiveness of larger DLPs. It is best to look around at least a little bit at a large electronics store to get a sense of what you prefer before dropping $1,000+ on a set.

At this point, I think the fear of burnin on plasma sets is more legend than reality. Panasonic’s take:

I’ll believe it when they stop excluding burn-in from the warranty .

don’t pause video games or watch TV stations with station logos onscreen for long periods of time

So basically every network and cable TV station currently broadcasting.

Again, this is nonsense. Plasmas are no worse at burn-in currently than normal cathode ray tube TVs.

A lot of cinephiles prefer the plasma pic to LCDs, but there are more 1080p LCD displays than plasmas capable of displaying that resolution - only the newest of either support it. At very big sizes, LCDs are more expensive - plasmas are better with colour depth, while LCDs are brighter. Plasma are also much more fragile. That’s about it for differences

The only real issue I found with plasma TVs is a more reflective screen. If you intend to place the unit directly across from a window (such that the window is behind you when viewing), it might not be the best choice; otherwise there’s little to dislike about them. You’d have to try pretty hard to burn something in on a new name-brand plasma.

That said, my father in law went cash-in-hand to buy a Panasonic plasma, and came home with a Sony XBR LCD instead. It just looked better than anything else in the store to him, and I had to agree - it made me envious (I have a Sharp Aquos LCD).