HDTV- Huge Dilema over Television Variables

Despite my aspirations to the top of geekedness, I had not bitten into the High Definition TV craze. I suppose my cheapedness trumped my geekedness - at least initially. Of course, I'm bombarded by the HD marketing Juggernaut at every turn. Take the Sunday paper for example. Every Sunday, Skip faithfully runs out, grabs the paper and trots back into the house with it carefully nestled in his jaws and drops it at my feet.

As if!

OK, so, every Sunday, when I have Deb go out and get the Sunday paper as I sit waiting for my cereal to be poured, I anticipate opening it up and pulling out "the section". You know, the section of the paper that brings joy to millions and let's you escape from the drone of endless stories of corruption, hunger, pain and suffering. It's the one that's been around for I don't know how long. It's always changing though - being constantly updated and refreshed for today's lifestyles and interests and trends. You know what it is because you, like everyone else on the planet, have that need to take a break from all your worries and indulge in that guilty pleasure that is the CircuitCity flyer.

What.

You thought I was talking about something else? The funnies? Yeah, Dagwood is "hilarious". It sets me free...Sheesh!

So anyway, CircuitCity, and all the guys at work talking about how many inches they have and how their wives love it so much have just been nagging at me for such a long time now that I finally decided that I needed an HDTV. Thus began the process of "HD selection". Now, if you don't know already, there are several variables that go into the HDTV selection formula. First, you've got the three main types of HD TVs - DLP, LCD, and Plasma. Of course, each has it's tradeoffs which means that there is going to be a decision involved which, as you know, is not one of my favorite things to do.

OK, so DLP is off the list since it's a bit older and is projection-based so it's not "flat" like the others. That narrows it down to LCD vs. Plasma. LCDs are lighter, use less power and have matte screens that don't reflect a lot of light from windows and such. On the negative side however, they sometimes suffer from "lag" where fast moving images (sports for example), sometimes blurr or pixelate. Newer displays have faster refresh rates but they are more expensive and there are still some people who say they still see the laggies. Plasmas are slightly cheaper than LCDs as the sizes get into the 50 inch range, and they display fast moving images better and are generally judged to have a better picture. The down side to plasmas are they are heavier, use more power, and can suffer from "burn-in" - where an image can get burned into the screen if it is left on and static for too long - kinda like the score indicator in all those fast moving sports shows it's so good at displaying - of course.

The next dilemma is resolution. HDTVs are primarily divided into 720p and 1080p resolution. The number refers to how many horizontal lines comprise the picture. A standard TV has 480 lines of resolution so 720 is half again as much and 1080 is more than twice as much. Obviously, more lines is better but, of course, it costs more as well so the question becomes, do you really need the extra resolution. There are several factors involved here of course. One of the big ones is based on the source material that you are going to be watching. Well, it turns out that the High Def shows coming across from the cable provider are only 720p so a 1080p TV is not going to show any more information than a 720p set would so you could argue that it doesn't make sense to get a 1080 set. *But*, the new high def DVD players - called HD-DVD and Blu Ray (yes, there are two competing formats just like Beta and VHS of the VCR days) - are capable of delivering 1080p video. *But*,since neither HD-DVD nor Blu Ray has won the format war yet, and since different movie studios have signed on to one or the other format and therefore if you pick a format, your favorite movie might not be available on that format, and since the players are pretty expensive so you probably can't get both, and since some people say that by the time the format war gets decided it won't matter anymore since we'll all be just downloading our movies over the internet, it's kind of a tough decision...the resolution decision...yeah, remember...the first sentence of this paragraph...that one. There's more to the resolution question too - like how far away from the set are you going to be sitting and how big is the screen. Sigh...

OK, so there are a lot of choices available and what you really need is some advice from people who are knowledgeable on this kind of thing. I know, let's ask Google!

Big mistake...

Christ, you could restore the Mississippi river delta with the silt from the muddied waters of HDTV options found in reviews through Google. I don't know what affliction I have but it's the one where the *last* opinion you hear always seems to make sense. I can read an argument for getting a 720 LCD TV and think "Ya know, that really makes a lot of sense. I think I'm gonna go with that." But then, my mouse, with a mind of it's own, clicks on the "Why you should always buy plasma" link and in no time I've abandoned the LCD camp and fully embraced plasma. And then another 10 seconds goes by and the cycle has repeated itself - twice. The customer reviews feature of Amazon should be outlawed as cruel and unusual punishment.

So, I think there are a few more variable involved in the equation but at this point, I'm not sure what they are anymore. Basically, I boiled it all down and decided I wanted to get a 50 inch, 1080p, plasma from Samsung. I won't go into how many times *that* final decision changed on the way to the shopping cart but I clicked the Submit button and tried to relax before the first wave of buyer's remorse set in.

The next step of course is figuring out where this thing would go because it won't fit in the entertainment center that currently holds our TV. So Deb and I set out this weekend to find something to fit. There are a couple of options for the TV. You can wall mount it so it looks like a big picture frame on the wall or you can get a stand - a coffee table of sorts that the TV sits on, or you can get a massive piece of furniture that the TV sits *in*. I listed those options in order of increasing price. Can you guess which option we settled on??

Right, the three piece HD entertainment center arrives in 3 to 4 weeks (which is after the TV is set to arrive - hmmm). Oh yeah, and then there's Tivo. We are addicted to Tivo since it lets us record all of our shows and watch them when we want (and all kinds of other good stuff). Can you guess where this is going? Yup, the current Tivo is not HD capable. Now, the cable company will rent you a Tivo-like box that will record HD shows but, in one of the few product reviews that is nearly unanimous, it is generally agreed that - they suck. So now we have to get a new Tivo that can handle the HD shows. All I can say is this TV better be so good that it's like stepping into another world because that's the only world we are going to have. We are going to have to experience eating out by watching high def versions of The Iron Chef and this will probably be my last post since I won't be able to afford an Internet connection either.

It's gonna be so cool!