rage against the widescreen format

[Imran Siddiqui]

Go to your local Best Buy or Circuit City .

Think of it this way, SD is 480i (interlaced 640*480). HD is either 720p (progressive 1280*720) or 1080i (interlaced 1920*1080) or, the new technology, 1080p (progressive 1920*1080). [Current DVD is 480p - progressive 640*480]

Interlaced meaning it draws one half the lines and then comes back and draws the other half within a few milliseconds, Progressive meaning it draws all the lines at once.

Looking at those resolutions, and the far greater number of pixels, HD is far more clear. Looking at one at your store will drive it home.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Dis, read what CNET has to say as well:

http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-6635863-1.html?tag=main.understand

All HDTV looks good. If you're in the store and you're looking at all of the HDTVs, it may strike you that they all look pretty dang good. That's because they're showing high-def television, which any store worth its salt will use to demo HD sets. Sure, you'll still notice flaws occasionally, but in general, even an inexpensive HDTV showing high-def looks much better than a standard TV showing the highest-quality material it can. Whether it's 1080i or 720p, over-the-air or cable, DLP or plasma, HDTV shown on a high-def television blows standard TV out of the water. For more on why HDTV looks so good, and an overview of these numbers, check out HDTV resolution explained.

Regular TV looks underwhelming. Many people who first watch non-HDTV on their new high-def televisions are disappointed by how it looks. But it's not the television's fault. The single most important ingredient in picture quality is the source, and lower-quality standard-def TV, especially compared to HDTV, looks bad. The difference is often compounded by the fact that HDTVs are bigger and sharper than regular TVs and thus highlight the flaws of low-quality sources even more. No matter how nice of an HDTV you get, standard-def TV, at least compared to DVD and high-def, will look a lot worse.

Go ahead and read the other stuff they have on there. Really good info.

[Dis]

so by that logic there is no point in getting a HDtv since most broadcasts are still regular. So regular broadcasts will look even worse.

I'll wait until everything is 100% HD before I convert.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Dis
so by that logic there is no point in getting a HDtv since most broadcasts are still regular. So regular broadcasts will look even worse.

I'll wait until everything is 100% HD before I convert.

That's bad logic . If you can't afford it now or if you don't watch much TV to begin with, then that's good logic to use to wait.

Regular broadcasts will look worse compared to High Def programming and DVDs. It won't necessarily look worse that what you are used to.

And there are plenty of HD channels right now, including all the networks.

Put it to you this way, the money I spent on my HDTV is probably some of the best money I've ever spent on anything.

Saying that regular broadcast will look worse is a bad reason not to switch to an HDTV.

[Dis]

and finally (we are a bit off topic since we were supposed to be talking about aspect ration ), dvd's aren't HD are they? Not the old ones at least, right? I'd like to see how the DVD technology evolves and adapts.

[LordShiva]

No, they aren't.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Dis
and finally (we are a bit off topic since we were supposed to be talking about aspect ration ), dvd's aren't HD are they? Not the old ones at least, right? I'd like to see how the DVD technology evolves and adapts.

As LordShiva says they are not. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are in High Definition though.

[LordShiva]

That said, if you get an HDTV and pair it with an upscaling DVD player or (better yet) a computer (with post-processing), DVD's can look very good.

[Dis]

as for being against widescreen, I seen all I need to see. A couple websites out there show screenshots from full screen and widescreen versions of dvd's. And frankly, I think they should sell them at a reduced price since you get reduced picture. The websites I saw showed the star wars series and harry potter in both formats. How anyone could go with full screen is beyond me.

Haven't made the leap to computers yet (or my tv, but when I buy one it will be a widescreen).

Question: do computer games take advantage of widescreen formats? I'm talking games such as Civ4 and Neverwinter Nights.

[LordShiva]

Most modern ones do (in that you can specify the resolution). Civ4 definitely does.

[ixnay]

Widescreen is by far the best for all situations. The difference between standard TV and HDTV is amazing and I am so happy with our new HDTV that we've had for a few months.

Standard TV looks fine on it so long as we don't stretch the picture out.

[Solly]

Widescreen seems to distort everything, I prefer my normal 14" TV that I have.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, the shots of Civ4 in widescreen are very cool... I wish I had a widescreen monitor .

[Solly]

Everyone looks fat on widescreen

[Imran Siddiqui]

Only if you are stretching standard definition picture. Don't do that and they won't look fat .