HD television??

thank you!

Isn't it funny that once upon a time, anyone could plug a television
into the wall and watch.

I'll give up my television, but not my computer. :-)

Yes Wuvie, I have heard them say that if you get one of those big sets that you should pay someone to come hook it up for you. Guess that is why Best Buy formed the Geek Squad. But, my sister and her son didn't have a problem with it. NOW I said no problem. I mean they got it connected, up and running. I don't know how long it took them. LOL

Thanks for the link. I'll look.

Jeanette

Very informative link JMcDowell. Thanks.

Jeanette

When Howie and I were in our first apartment as newlyweds, we went without cable a few times for stretches of a few months. We didn't have decent reception, so it was about the same as having no TV. But we read a lot and really enjoyed it. We talk about dropping cable now, but he does enjoy watching some sports and that's his entertainment. If made to choose, both of us would rather go without TV than high-speed internet. There's so much you can watch online, anyway.

Yeah, I would miss the computer and going online more than the t.v.

Think we are all agreed on that, except I listen to the tv while waiting for my dial-up to respond.

Jeanette

No, I can't get radio. The mountains are in the way.

This message was edited Jan 6, 2008 10:24 PM

Just stumbled on this thread and wanted to say that I don't like TV that much. I could certainly live without one....and maybe then all my furniture would even fit in my living room. I'm 33, and when I was a kid there were many times that we either didn't have service or we just didn't have a TV. I never missed it then either. There's so many more worth while things to do with your time!

DH, on the other hand, loves his TV. I'm surprised we don't have a HDTV already. He actually built himself a big screen TV....a projection TV. The screen for it is as big as the wall. Seriously, from floor to ceiling and from corner to corner. He has it hooked up to his computer in one of our extra bedrooms. He has the TV cable running through the computer. It's actually pretty neat if you're into that kind of thing....but if you get too close to the screen you get motion sickness.

I'd just rather be out in the sunshine (or rain) in the garden, living life, not watching it. lol!

Same here..DH lives for his tv, I didn't even turn the darn thing on once in a year when I was alone. Read books. Crocheted. Played plants. etc. now I can hardly read a book for the noise from the tv.

what is with men? My BIL is also so 'into' his TV and sound system. Had to get Bluray already. I can only see the difference if its pointed out.
My hubby bought us a bigger TV a couple yrs ago, but claimed we need it for our aging eyes. Valid but weak argument.

I don't know, but I can see it being the grounds for our future divorce!!

LOL! I think it must be the macho "crash, bang, blow-it-up" movies and sports that they like. I dunno. Around here before bed at night I take a nice, hot bath. DH watches TV in the bedroom....and it's so loud that sometimes it almost ruins the bath.

I can see the difference between the HDTVs and all that jazz. Probably only because DH has pointed it out to me so many times.

We recently got a new computer and a new monitor. It's a fancy monitor, a flat screen....I don't even remember what it is exactly....maybe LCD? But, I can see a big difference in it too. For one thing it doesn't have glare and that's what's most important to me. Pics look great on it, very realistic....and we had a great monitor before too.

I don't mind having to get a new TV. Right now we have the same one as Tir (the Guide Plus from RCA). DH can get his flat panel HDTV that hangs on the wall, no problem because I'll be replacing the entertainment stand with an electric fireplace. I always wanted a fireplace in this house! Once the TV is hanging over the fireplace I can get a DVD of soft music with pics of flowers....like a changing work of art with music....well, it will work that way when DH isn't home anyway! :)

We tried putting our flat panel TV over the fireplace, but found it kind of uncomfortable having to look up that high toward it. Our living room is about 20' long, and the couch is about 12' from the fireplace.

How do you guys figure out how big a TV to get for the distance where you will place your chairs? My room is 25 feet long. However, my eyes won't reach that far. LOL Guess that's where eye glasses come in huh? Another thing, we got a new TV 32" flat screen less than a year ago. But, you know where they tell what the movie is about? Unless you are standing square with the TV you can't read it. I know my eyes are bad, but the DH also has that problem. What is wrong here?

For one thing, I think the light purple background with the white letters of Directv is one problem. Is there a way to change that?

Jeanette

Ok. I admit it. I'm one of the guys that can't live without my HD TV and sound system etc.
Gardenwife, they have different types of mounts for the tv's. If you get one that can tilt, it makes it more comfortable to watch.
Jeannette, the size of your tv is more important when you are sitting close to it. You wouldn't want a 60" when you are sitting 4 feet away.
If you have the furniture pushed back, you can go as large you would like. My TV is about 10 or 12 feet from the sofa and it is a 52", and I think it is just about right.
Different types of TV's project the light differently. In a lot of rear projection TV's if you aren't sitting right in front of it the screen gets really dark and hard to see. In plasmas and lcds that isn't much of a problem, but it could be the resolution of the tv that is making the letters hard to see. - I haven't heard of that happening though. What kind of TV is it?
I don't have Direct TV, just regular cable, but there is a setting menu that lets me choose the background colors.

Hey, doesn't that bother you having a picture that doesn't fill out the screen? The top and the bottom? Is everything you watch like that??? I don't like that at all. That is one issue that we have with a lot of the new movies. I think they are new. They are a band across the middle of the TV.

Why do we have a TV bigger if it doesn't fill up the screen? Other than that, yours seems to be a very clear picture. And it seems I am looking at it from the side. How would the words look from here? Would they be fuzzy, or clear? Would I be able to read them?

How would I know what size TV to buy if I wanted to put my chairs to the other end of the 25 foot room? Would I have to have it on the entire wall like one person said theirs is? I suppose either way I would have to put my seating area half way right in the middle of the room where the foot traffic is between the hall and the living room deck.

Oh well, I should have known this was not going to be easy.

I don't mind the 'letterbox' effect, (I think thats the term) but when we first watched this large wider screen, everybody on TV got fatter!!

Hey Jeannette,
lol, no, I guess they were just doing some split screen effect on that show. It normally fills the whole screen.
My M-I-L refuses to watch widescreen or letterbox movies. She feels like it is cutting off the top and bottom. No matter how many times we tell her she doesn't believe us that you are actually getting more picture on the left and right. That's one reason I like having the widescreen tv, letterbox shows up full screen for me. On some of the regular (non HD) channels it shows as full screen with the black bars on the left and right.
You can make it fill the screen, but then, like Sallyg said, it makes everyone streched.

For the words, I can read them clearly from the kitchen or breakfast room (about 40 feet) - granted I have good eyes, but from a normal viewing distance it should be a breeze.

The height is the issue for us, Jmcdowell. Our TV's display looks great no matter the viewing angle - just that height that bugged us. We have a 32" Polaroid LCD HDTV. Yeah, who knew they made TV's? It had the best display in our price range, plus has a built-in DVD player and memory card slots so we can easily view our pictures on it.

Howie and I keep up on the latest and greatest trends regarding computers, but with technology changing so rapidly, we do not pony up the coin to buy state-of-the-art anything. We're not as educated regarding audiovisual stuff, so we have a simple plan: We pick a price range and if it looks and sounds good, it's good enough. LOL We read a lot when preparing to choose an HDTV, just because the technology was so different than what we were used to, but it still came down to how it looked compared to the other HDTV's in our price range.

Letterbox is awesome! It seems like you're missing part of the picture, but you're actually seeing the whole thing as the creator intended. This article has an excellent visual explanation of what all this discussion means:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/764



This message was edited Jan 9, 2008 1:49 PM

Very cool link. Thanks! I've seen the Polaroid tv's, they do have an awesome picture.