About 90% of my TV use is to watch cable. Maybe 10% DVD and haven’t ever hooked up my computer to the TV. My last trip home, I watched my brother’s HD cable on his HD TV and was reminded of how much our cable signal sucks here in Taiwan. It’s ironic considering all these HD TVs are made here…
Even if you use DVD, unless you have an HD DVD, you’re still no better off on picture quality than a regular TV, assuming you have a decent regular TV.
I knew this argument would come, so tell me what regular TV can you get in sizes 42" and above? 
I knew this argument would come, so tell me what regular TV can you get in sizes 42" and above? [/quote]
What’s the point of having a larger screen if the signal from your cable provider sucks? Our first and overriding thought after we plugged it in and turned it on was that now we notice more how shitty the signal quality is. The snowflakes are just bigger. 
Also, the dimensions of the cable signal don’t match the big screens. So besides the shitty picture quality, you have to choose between large, black, blank spaces on either side of the picture, or distort the image and stretch it to fit the screen.
I agree. The cable here is so horrible, that’s why I stopped watching. If I want to relax I hook up my laptop to my TV and watch the shows I downloaded. Digital cable is coming soon I believe as the cable people have been calling asking if we want to upgrade our lines.
Now here is my announcement. I received my TV today after waiting 3 long long days. I bought the 37" Chimei 37S2100 D and let me tell you it is BEAUTIFUL and HUGE! To the people who were worrying, the TV is Full HD through HDMI. When I first hooked it all up I watched some TV and threw up in my mouth at how bad the cable signal looks here. Once I hooked up my PS3 I felt much much better. The picture looks amazing! Here are a few pictures, I haven’t taken a good one yet, but here is a few to hold you over.
I bought it mainly for watching DVDs (and in future HD formats), and I can live with the poorer cable TV signal for the time being. HDTV will sooner or later replace standard broadcast, and then you will get a nice 16:9 picture that fills the entire screen. 
I watch CATV in it’s original aspect ration (4:3), i.e. with black bars on the sides. However don’t forget that many widescreen formats are not exactly 16:9 either, so you will have black bars at top and bottom, too, for some movies (especially if they were filmed in 2,35:1).
The resolution of DVDs doesn’t fit the HD screens either and needs to be scaled but it does look damned good in my opinion.
Good to hear you’re happy with it and I wouldn’t have expected it to do anything less than 1080p via HDMI…
So, when do we get to come over and have a go? 
Frost,
If I may ask how much did your new baby cost?
I am moving to Taiwan in a few months and debating on buying TV here in the USA (company will ship to Taiwan) or buying one in Taiwan. I like the size of your TV and from the specs that I can gleam from you photo that would probably cost around US$ 1,000 here.
Thanks,
K
[
About US$1,200 for that one, but you can get cheaper non 1080p models.
shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=area … =AFAA&BB=E
A selection of what’s available, but you can get even better deals in super markets etc here.
[quote=“Kobayashi”]Frost,
If I may ask how much did your new baby cost? [/quote]
I paid $33,900NT and it includes shipping to your door. I haven’t posted here or my blog about it yet since it’s so beautiful I just want to play with it all the time.
[quote=“Rascal”]
Just a few generel comments:
I just bought my first TV ever (all others have been hand-me-down freebies). its’ full HD 42.
So, I want to get a dvd player that upconverts so I can watch my DVDs, but now that Blue Ray has won, should I not bother with an intermediary DVD-upconverter player?
I dont like the costs of Blue Ray players, so would it be better just to get the PS3 instead. I like games too, but haven’t tried PS3 games.
You don’t actually need an upconverting DVD player, the TV will do that for you. Some DVD players may do a better job but then you are looking at the upper price range.
Not a gamer, so can’t comment on the PS3.
the ps3 upconverts dvds as well, and is supposed to be pretty good at it. I’m taking the plunge soon. Not 1080p tv unfortunately, but should still be good improvement.
[quote=“Jack Burton”]
So, I want to get a dvd player that upconverts so I can watch my DVDs, but now that Blue Ray has won, should I not bother with an intermediary DVD-upconverter player?[/quote]
Only if the blu-ray player you buy is a PS3. However, unless you’re a Metal Gear Solid fan, there aren’t that many games available for the PS3 right now. Honestly I don’t think blu-ray is worth it yet. Blu-ray movies, rare exception aside, are not appreciably better in quality than DVD movies. Maybe side-by-side blu-ray is better, but who watches movies side by side? Even then, is that extra quality worth the hardware investment? The industry has forgotten that DVDs caught on not because they offered better quality than VHS, but because of the extras the discs came with. You’d be better off with an upconverting dvd player.
Uhm… I thought DVD caught on when the prices of the players came down and because the discs take up a third of the space of a tape…
Anyhow, the PS3 works great as a Blu-ray player, friend of mine got one, but Blu-ray discs are region coded and there’s no crack for the PS3 to make it multi region afaik. However, Taiwan seems to be in the same region as the americas and most of asia so there shouldn’t be any issues importing discs - tweaktown.com/guides/1524/gu … index.html
You can also stream downloaded content from your PC to the PS3 from what I understand, I’ve only done this with an Xbox 360, but it is very easy to use these days for that purpose and it upconverts most stuff to make it look decent on a 720p TV.
The problem with a 1080p TV is that the resolution is way higher than the source material most of the time when you’re upconverting, so no matter what you do will make it look great, but it should still be watchable.
Hardly so, quality was one of the main reasons and most people buy DVDs for the movie, not the extras; besides DVD discs being smaller and more convenient when you want to fast forward, pause the movie etc. And they carry surround sound (discrete channels) in many different flavours.
Rascal, I hope you have one of these dvdrewinder.com/index.php?ma … cd4568b416 for all those DVDs you rent… 
I wonder how many they have sold? (not as gag gifts)
[quote=“Rascal”]
Hardly so, quality was one of the main reasons and most people buy DVDs for the movie, not the extras; besides DVD discs being smaller and more convenient when you want to fast forward, pause the movie etc. And they carry surround sound (discrete channels) in many different flavours.[/quote]
How many people actually have their surround sound systems properly set up if they even have them? As A/V enthusiasts we can really overestimate the value of these things to the average consumer. Consider that most people listen to their iPods with those godawful standard headphones and are quite happy with them.
I worked at Sony during the transition from VHS to DVD and was a little surprised to learn that quality wasn’t what DVD purchasers were most interested in. Extras, convenient packaging and their durability vs tape all ranked higher in priority than quality. Consider the popularity of special editions that offer additional content or the popularity of the Criterion collection which pioneered some of the extras seen as standard today. Quality was one of the main selling points from a manufacturer’s or videophile’s perspective, but for John Q. Public it was a bonus. Content and as you mentioned, convenience, are what drove DVD adoption.
hey folks, i recently got a 22 inch LCD HDTV…i used the most basic way to plug in my dvd player, the red white yellow plug…the sound is pretty weak. Am I doing something wrong or are LCD tvs all like that (small speakers)?