Finally joining the modern HDTV world (just in time for prices to drop?)

[Opus4]

I'll finally be able to see all this new fangled HDTV stuff people keep talking about -- I just bought a Panasonic TH-46PZ85U, to replace my 1992 27" Proscan TV. (I at least got my money's worth out of that TV!) I found what I think is a good deal at a local Circuit City & it is supposed to show up tomorrow. I just might have to watch a movie or two this weekend.

Anyway... one reason I mentioned this is that I bought it this morning and tonight I see this link on AVS Forum: Psst…Wanna Save Big on a New HDTV? It Will Pay to Wait Till May. Oh well, at least CC has a 60 day price guarantee, but those prices are going to have to drop a lot to be able to go make a price match claim.

Now to teach the kids not to touch it & cause all the plasma to leak out...

- Andy

[Lucas]

Welcome to the club Andy!

[Opus4]

Since I mentioned the TV we bought, I might as well continue with the HD source(s)...

I added the HDHomeRun last weekend, with 1 tuner for OTA and 1 for QAM. Setup was pretty easy. I had an issue where my old version of ZoneAlarm was interfering with recordings, but that was resolved by simply uninstalling ZA. The recordings look great. So far, I've tested the system by having 2 HD recordings + 2 SD recordings going to the same drive while playing one of those HD recordings w/o any recording or playback issues. I can now make use of that roof top antenna that's been sitting there for over 12 years! (The previous house owners installed it.)

I'm trying to decide whether I'll need to add a 2nd HDHR, but I do plan to get a couple HD PVRs when they come out, for use with my cable boxes.

I thought all the HDHR recordings were going to be larger than my current SD recordings, but I forgot that there are still SD airings on the digital channels & those are often smaller than what I get from my analog Hauppauge tuners. The HD PVR has recording quality settings, so file size will depend on which quality level we find acceptable.

- Andy

[evilpenguin]

Congrats Opus, that's a great TV. I have the previous model and *absolutely* love it

[Opus4]

Yeah, it does look pretty good -- I wasn't sure at first, because everything looked way too dark, but I think that was just the quality of some old analog recordings. The connection straight to the cable box & HD recordings look fine. (Oh, and the analog recordings look a little better now that I have my amp hooked up.) All the SD stuff at this size looks like they used soft focus lenses, though.

- Andy

[Opus4]

I used to discount what I would think of an HD TV/picture, figuring it wasn't that big a deal. But, I'll have to admit that after having an HDTV for a while now, I got spoiled by it and no longer want an older/smaller SD TV in my exercise room. I can hardly believe I'm looking at moving the above mentioned 46" TV into the exercise room & replacing it with a Panasonic 50" from Costco. With recent price reductions & the current sale, the thing is cheaper than the 46" was. It uses the screen from a step-down model, the Panasonic TH-50PZ80U with the connections from the 85U model. The biggest difference I can tell in the specs is a 20,000:1 contrast ratio rating instead of the 85U's 30,000:1, but from what I've seen, there shouldn't be a lot of visual difference that would be noticeable.

Hmmm.... tempting.

- Andy

[planetc]

....and the more you add the more you crave! Back in the mid 80's when Home Theatre was in it's infancy here I started with a 32" 4:3 tube TV and spent an awful lot of money over the following 2 years or so. I still have some of the equipment running now that I bought back then as it was all good quality kit. Although the specs and technology are out of date, and you can buy better cheaper, it still serves me well.

I've been watching the prices of large screen lcd and plasma in the uk. For less than the (very cheap at the time) £800 I spent on my 32" plasma about four years ago, I could now have a larger 1080p capable set or something significantly larger if I were happy to settle for 720p or 1080i.
I am holding back the temptation to put the 32" in another room and go bigger. Most of my network would require upgrading to do HD and the programming here is still fairly limited but is increasing quite rapidly now. I think perhaps another 12-18 months tinkering with network upgrades and I will seriously consider it though. Maybe by that time they'll be giving them away? lol