We’re housesitting for Diana’s dad, who has a huge Mitsubishi HDTV… Like so many HDTV owners, they were watching standard-def shows, stretched to widescreen (which I can’t stand, but apparently no one else notices). After much poring over the manuals, I figured out how to set it up correctly. (The digital cable box was routed to the TV through *co-ax*, and the component cables (Monster brand, no less) were sitting unplugged behind the TV.)
Anyway, we’ve been watching that Planet Earth series. It’s the only decent hi-def content we can seem to find, but any description short of “fucking amazing” doesn’t do it justice. The color, sharpness, and detail are incredible - even Diana’s jaw dropped.
I don’t know how we’re going to go back to standard-def in a few days. Not only can we not afford new equipment, there wouldn’t be much content available if we could, and we might find ourselves locked into the losing side of the HD-DVD format war.
The HD revolution really will be amazing, but we’re going to be stuck in the lo-res ghetto for quite a while.
yakamoto | 27-Mar-07 at 10:04 pm | Permalink
If you don’t stretch the standard def shows to widescreen it hurts the TV. You get burn in on either side of the tv. I hate it too, but luckily our tv has 4 or 5 different viewing options to properly stretch the picture so it doesn’t look like people are super fat or 10 feet tall. Luckily though we don’t watch too much stuff standard def. We actually have our cable box hooked directly up to the tube via HDMI. Those high def channels are amazing. We have been DVR-ing the crap outta the Planet Earth series too and….yeah. Wow. I pray those come out on HD later on.
nephariuz | 28-Mar-07 at 2:43 pm | Permalink
If the sidebars are black they won’t burn in, will they? (And if they’re grey, they will, but more slowly, right?) Is this a plasma thing, or an LCD thing, or both?
yakamoto | 28-Mar-07 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
Plasma TVs can suffer from burn-in produced by static images. After extended periods, stationary images “burn in” and produce an after-image ghost which remains permanently on the screen. With technologies such as ‘pixel orbitor,’ new plasma TVs have addressed burn-in and significantly reduced the issues of older models. LCD TVs do not suffer from burn-in, but can have a “retained pixel charge” which may also produce ghosting. Stuck pixels are also possible with an LCD display. So yeah…its more likely to happen with plasma than LCd, but it does happen. That is one of the big reasons I went with LCD. The tv people out there also say that if you are a gamer of sorts, it is better to go with LCD as well because of all the static images that are present.
nephariuz | 28-Mar-07 at 4:27 pm | Permalink
What make/model did you get? Are you seeing any blurring?
Somebody did a Java app that is supposed to fix stuck pixels by displaying what amounts to TV static, but it’s not guaranteed to work.
yakamoto | 28-Mar-07 at 5:17 pm | Permalink
Do you know what that program is or where I can get it? I have 1 yeah….1 stuck pixel. Granted I am the only one who notices it…and Eric :) but it’s only when you stand right in front of it.
This is the tv I got. For the price it is an awesome buy for 1080p. I am actually contemplating trading in my old 360 for the Zephyr just so I can use the HDMI connection. I do all my gaming and high def stuff at 720p right now, and man it is sexy beautiful.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-42HL196-42-1080p-LCD/dp/B000FEHTDC
nephariuz | 29-Mar-07 at 11:33 am | Permalink
http://www.jscreenfix.com/
‘Course, you’ll have to get the signal to your TV somehow, either by hooking up your PC or viewing it in a console Web browser (and I dunno if any of those are Java-enabled).
Heh, welcome to the 21st century, where you *can’t* get a TV to display static.