I'm visiting my cousin's house in Chicago, and I just watched HD Kingdom of Heaven on his 65-inch, 1080p-native, Samsung DLP HDTV. I also watched his DVDs of LotR (upscaled). To be honest....I didn't notice much difference. Granted, I didn't watch native 1080p KoH (it was 720p, watched off a DVR), but still, I didn't notice the extra detail except when I took my attention away from the movie to look at the detail. Don't get me wrong, it looks great and I will definitely get an HDTV as soon as I can afford it, but I think the most important benefit of all these HDTVs is the much greater physical real estate (i.e. the sheer size of the screen), and the ability to upscale well to the native resolution. A good surround sound system is much more important for immersion, IMO.
I can finally post again! *Glares at GS.* Ahem, anyway.
Yes HDTVs are worth it simply for the fact that they are the future. Go to your local Best Buy or other big electronics store and look at the HDTVs they have set up and (usually) configured to show things in the best possible quality. The differance between SDTV (480p) and even low-end HD (720p) its very noticible on the righ TV with the right settings. The differance isn't as much as going from black and white to color, as some would lead you to belive, but its still a very big change. Also try playing some games in 1080i, you will deffinetly see the differance. Also don't judge off of upscaled DVDs (as you mentioned in your post) not all movies upscale perfectly.
I think that there is a pretty good difference between SD and HD, and I would gladly replace my SDTV with an HD one if it was given to me, but...it's not worth the amount of money at the moment. Call me a money stickler, but I haven't found a 26" HDTV that won't make my wallet cry out 'rape!'.
I think that there is a pretty good difference between SD and HD, and I would gladly replace my SDTV with an HD one if it was given to me, but...it's not worth the amount of money at the moment. Call me a money stickler, but I haven't found a 26" HDTV that won't make my wallet cry out 'rape!'. ak47lover
Same. I'd like an HDTV thats around mid to high 20s, maybe low 30s, otherwise, its usually impossible not to put down 4 digits of money. Im currently on a 21" approx SD TV, with the only logo on it being Sears.. it was free, but still. My Living room TV is 32" and about 8 or 9 years old, its starting to die out. My next to big purchases will probably be an HDTV and some console or PC upgrades.
I think that there is a pretty good difference between SD and HD, and I would gladly replace my SDTV with an HD one if it was given to me, but...it's not worth the amount of money at the moment. Call me a money stickler, but I haven't found a 26" HDTV that won't make my wallet cry out 'rape!'. ak47lover
Prices are dropping like crazy on the 20-30" models. If you really want a good deal, you just have to get lucky when you go into a Best Buy or whatnot and find an Open Item. I picked up a great deal on my 26" Samsung LCD 3000:1 C/R. Price dropped from 1100 to $948 with a bonus $150 gift card because it was open item. Bought it straight up and used part of the $150 for the extended 4-year warrantee. So, basically saved about $300 all said and done, with 12 month 0% financing. So, basically I'm paying about $85 a month for a year to pay this off, or if I feel like it, I can pay it off much sooner. Financing is the way to go if you don't wanna drop a lotta cash for expensive electronics.
You can get a 30" CRT HDTV for around $800, possibly less if you shop around. CRT's have the best life of all HD types and the best picture quality you can get for the price. I'm contemplating getting one of those myself.
I suppose there is more of a difference between SD games and HD games than there is between SD movies and HD movies, since SD movies just show fewer details but at least still look smooth, while SD games are noticeably more pixelated (at least from my experience in playing different resolutions on my PC). But I'm finishing up watching Kingdom of Heaven right now, a movie whose epic scale should be well-suited to HD, and in terms of movies, I don't see much difference insofar as improving my enjoyment of a movie. Regarding HD gaming, I played Fight Night Round 3 on both SD and HD. No, I didn't notice a big difference, either. Maybe with Gears of War, I will, but for the past year, I haven't seen a lot of games that I imagine would look noticeably better on HD than on SD. Not even Oblivion (the PC version of which I played "HD" on my 23" monitor and the 360 version of which I tried SD on my 30" SDTV). Maybe GRAW.
HD is most important for video games, least important for motion pictures. HD is also useful if you want to have a huge display for your PC; some people dig mousing and keyboarding by bluetooth from their couch.Â
One thing's for sure, if you buy into the next generation and don't use any kind of HD display at all, you are screwing yourself hard.
HD is ok... I mean it's really wonderful. I recently recieved a new HDTV just a few weeks ago, as a belated b-day gift. Really great. I mean, with the 360/PS3 using HD graphics, it is pretty cool. I used to play my Xbox 360, on a 20" SDTV, and the difference is big with my 32" HD TV. However, it doesn't exactly improve the games much in my honest opinion. Sure, the detail, and graphics look great, yet the games I didn't enjoy much (some like PDZ, and PGR3) aren't that much enjoyable in HD still. Though the games I do enjoy, some don't look too different from my HD set. *Looks at DOA4* but yet it's nice to have more room, with my wider screen, and now four player games are a lot more fun, and less crowded too....
Going out to buy the latest greatest high def tv is like buying wood cone in wall speakers with all of the latest tech. Those things will blow you away if you install them right. I'm talking crystal clear sound. Those things actually make it a blast to listen to classical music. If you don't install them right, they are going to sound like crap. If you are using 1/8" audio cables from some sub-par MP3 player you aren't going to get very good sound. On the other hand, if you hook them up to a full fledged adio PC with a mobo and sound card meant to work with the speaker setup, then you have yourself the greatest sound setup I have yet to hear. (My friend's dad has all the stuff I'm talking about and I got to spend a half hour with my friend just listening to music. I think that was the first time I ever came close to moshing to mozart.) The same goes with a hi def TV. If you get all the right equipiment, cables and output settings, it's going to be the greatest video quality you can get. Otherwise, it's just a big "meh..."
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