As seen on teevee

[greatbear]

Yesterday I dismantled my stereo system/home theater setup. The 35" Toshiba console TV (yes, an actual console, floor-standing oak veneer cabinet, 350 pounds worth) had not worked properly for many years, defying all of my attempts to make adjustments to correct linearity and convergence issues. In the last couple years, it gave up entirely. Since no one around here watched much TV, it was no big deal. I finally hauled it into the basement, along with the Denon ProLogic receiver, the Sony cassette deck, Yamaha CD changer, Akai DAT deck, the JVC S-VHS VCR, Sansui and Polk speakers, the upright rack and other sundry bits, cables, power controllers and such that filled two decent sized boxes and sequestered it all in the basement for the time being. The receiver, the DVD player and satellite receiver will be the only holdouts from the old setup as I slowly assemble something new. It seems the longer I wait, plasma and LCD televisions get better, cheaper and supposedly longer lasting. I've waited long enough I think, and perhaps over the holidays will pick up a new set. Not sure which brand or technology yet, but I do want something 1080p capable. For those in my readership who are into such things, advice, personal experiences and recommendations are welcome.

The highest resolution TV is desired not just for television/movies, but it will also act as a display for a home theater PC which I have put together recently. The PC will act as the main DVD/CD player as well as a dual-tuner HDTV PVR, video/audio jukebox, multi-room audio source and PC gaming system. It's already proven itself capable of time-shifting television programming while giving good framerates in Doom 3. :)

I acquired a gorgeous, solid walnut credenza/sideboard several years ago when friends of ours moved out of state. The credenza has been sitting in the basement without a proper place upstairs to make use of it. I will attempt to use it as the equipment cabinet, but I hate the thought of cutting into the thing to make way for cabling. Also, it's not deep enough for the receiver or the HTPC. These will have to live out in the open, which overall is fine, since they are the items needing the most ventilation. The rest of the goodies can live inside the very roomy cabinet with the end result being a very versatile system that does not look like my studio setup piled into the living room.

In other news, today was to be the brake upgrade for the Stratus. Unfortunately, I received the wrong brake rotors for the front and had to bail out on that project. I also discovered that the musty smell occasionally inside the car was due to a veritable lake that had formed in the spare tire well in the trunk. This was not the case a few months ago, and damn if I could find out the leak source. Luckily nothing is permanently damaged save for perhaps the carpeting if I cant get the smell out from drying it out and shampooing it. To top it off, I left the ignition on and killed the battery. Being that it's the original, six-and-a-half plus year old battery, most likely that will need a replacement sooner than later. I guess an Optima Red Top battery is in order, since the car will get a nice, killer Alpine system over the holidays. Next up: Car Theater. Go me.

Comments

[woofytexan.livejournal.com]

We have had a Sharp Aquos 32" LCD television for 2 years. I've been happy with it but ready to upgrade due to advances in technology. I will, more than likely, stick with LCD and move up to a 45". The main thing to look for is the resolution. 1920 x 1080 is TRUE 1080p. 1366 x 768 is 1080i. The i makes the picture look stretched at the edges.
Make sure you get plenty of connectors for devices. At least 2 HDMI connectors for HDTV and DVD/PC. Some, like the Sharp, have VGA connectors for laptops. I use this with split screen to watch TV and work on code.
Check out Electronic Home magazine. They have really good reviews on new sets as well as remote controls, speakers, etc.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

My main requirements are at least two HDMI inputs (with that blasted HDCP DRM nonsense, just in case the industry decides to force it on everyone, and they will at the current rate), native 1920x1080 screen resolution and some auxiliary analog inputs for extra stuff. My new surround receiver will most likely have upconversion from analog inputs to HDMI and will act as a switcher if I have more high res stuff in the future.

Thanks for the insight!

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

1366 x 768 is 1080i.

Actually, no, it's not... it's "slightly better than 720p" It's technically not a standard HDTV resolution. 480, 720, and 1080 refer to the number of vertical scan lines, regardless of i(nterlaced) or p(rogressive). 1080p is visually superior to 1080i because you don't have image tearing during fast motion, as you do in an interlaced picture (where you're painting the even, then the odd scan lines every 60th of a second (painting a complete picture every 30th)

Here's a good question, and one that I am too lazy to look up. NTSC 480i (aka SDTV) has always been 29.97 FPS (double that to get the scan rate). Now that HDTV is digital, did they finally *kill* 29.97 in favour of 30?

Mind you, no content on the market is 1080p, so it's only worthwhile if you plan on using your monitor with your computer (and you are). Good news on that front, as HDMI to DVI adaptors are cheap, so you don't have to ever deal with an analogue VGA connection.

[woofytexan.livejournal.com]

Oops. You're right. I keep confusing the i between interpolate, which I have to use in some of my code for customers to get averages when data is missing from early entries, and interlaced, which i has always stood for in video terminology.
DirecTV "claims" they broadcast some of their HD channels (HDNet and HDShowtime) in 1080p but we do not have 1080p available on our set so I cannot verify this. *sigh*
Maybe Santa will be nice to me this year. *snerk*

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

The DirecTV info is potentially good news, although what many do in situations like that is up-convert, often 720p camera-source is up-converted to 1080i for broadcast. Obviously not the best case, but it's an interim step until 1080p cameras are cheaper/more readily available.

I wonder what cameras they're using, if they're actually doing 1080p "real". Perhaps 2-pop has the answer.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I envy you in a way.

I'm still stuck with the POS ford tape deck that came with my 92 Ranger and it has the shitiest electronics I've ever come across. Hell, even the stock 88 Honda LX-I cassette deck I had in the Honda ran circles around it sound wise. I'll be happy to just get a decent indash CD unit put in it before too long.

As for flat panel TV's. For a long while, anything over I think 30-36" came in liquid plasma as LCD's hadn't made it to that size yet and I think L.P has a brighter picture and more able to be viewed from the side than LCD but I don't know for sure. I need to bone up on this sort of thing myself. Right now I'm still stuck with an almost 20 YO 27" Mitsubishi stereo TV that does not have good shielding whatsoever. I suspect the VCR transformer (which sits on top) and the receiver (which sits below on a shelf) are causing discolorations in the corners but still gives a good picture otherwise.

Good luck in all of this electronics upgrading stuff.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Ford does tend to have some of the crappiest electronics unfortunately, only recently did they make some noticeable improvements IMO.

As for your color purity issue, try rearranging your gear a bit, sounds like a magnet is spoiling it for you somewhere. There is also a chance that the built-in degausser is not doing it's job. If you dont hear a nnoticeable 'oomp' as you turn the set on, there's a chance it's dead. It's usually an easy fix, a simple varistor burns out over time. If you have a tape head demagnetizer or bulk tape eraser, hover it over the screen in a spiral motion and slowly move in a corkscrew motion away from the screen till you are about 4 feet away before shutting off the coil. If that clears up your purity problem, it's definitely a bad degaussing circuit.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, you are very much correct as I get a definate something thorugh the speakers most times when I hit the power switch. Funny thing is, the old Sears Color TV that my parents got back in early 77 never had this issue and it sat somewhat near my old Sansui's even though it's color purity had long since gone due to just age (accurate color wise but noisy and add to that, noticeable scan lines near the top and it had major color bleeding in extreme reds but was still serviceable though).

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I have a perfectly serviceable color TV that I bought way back in 1976, a 12-inch Panasonic. To this day it has not given me a lick of trouble other than dirty tuner and pots (that is fixed by running the controls back and forth a few times). The picture is still as bright and stable as it was when new, though it suffered from an anomaly since day one that tended to affect most sets in that era, and that is the colors tended to be exaggerated and almost pastel. This is a function of the CRT phosphors that no amount of adjusting can compensate for. It makes everything you watch look like an episode of Star Trek. lol

This set still sees duty in my downstairs workshop.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

The TV I'm refering to was one that Sears sold between '76 and '82 and was really a Sanyo that had a faux wood grain plastic/metal cabinet and the touch sensitive analogue tunner down one side. It had no remote though some versions did. I got it in '88 and finaly donated it, still going albeit w/ less than fabulous picture in 99, 2000 or so after sitting in storage for a couple of years.

Someone at Sears who sold them at the time said it was one of the best TV's Sears sold at that time too.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Call me Luddite - but the best HDTV pictures I've seen have been on CRTs. And any discrete-pixel display won't do as good a job on upscaling Standard Definition material [and let's face it, there's going to be plenty of that for quite some time, even if it's just our libraries of DVDs] as a CRT. There's something to be said for going with a truly mature technology. ;)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I wont call you a Luddite, because I have the same feelings on the issue. This ends up being a case where I pick form over function - I want a wall mounted flat panel. If the space I have for the set would better accomodate a CRT, it would be a CRT. This is also the reason why I am still hanging onto hope that I will eventually get the old Toshiba working again - that old (94 vintage) set had a stunning picture that would still stand up well today. It's built-in sound is quite good too, a pair of 4 inch full range speakers in actual tuned enclosures along with a 7 inch sub in a ported box made that set sound better than a lot of today's 'home theater in a box' setups.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking the other day that I kinda miss console TV sets. ;) I remember when everything that wasn't a console was considered a "portable" TV.

[manticore1977.livejournal.com]

my 56" JVC HD-ILA will be arriving Tuesday, I'll let you know how it is ;)

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I've been looking at LCoS technology (HD-ILA in JVC-speak). It is visually superior to all the other rear projection technologies, but it still suffers from the angle problem. It's impossible for me to find a rear projection that allows me to watch both sitting *and* standing without colour/contrast shift. I suppose it's a flaw in the rear projection concept. I refuse to become 6 inches shorter.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Personally, of the two you've mentioned (LCD vs. Plasma), I'd go with LCD. Lower power, larger colour gamut. No, it's not as bright, but you really don't want to jack the brightness anyway. Run your Avia/Home Essentials disc, and calibrate.

I was very upset to find the largest LCD I can put in the study is 32".

::sigh::

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

While I'd prefer an LCD over a plasma, the spread-out nature of the living room and various seating positions make an LCD a bit awkward. I have yet to find an LCD set that doesnt change color or brightness depending on viewing angle. It's far, far better than just a few years back, but it's still a big problem by my perception. Plasma does not suffer nearly as much. True about the gamut on plasma; I have seen some sets, most notably Panasonic, that exaggerate colors and fleshtones and leave the image with a sort of posterisation effect. While I think it's partially due to default settings on the sets on display, I think it's also due to the screen as well as image processing. Some plasmas look quite stunning, especially with the brightness eased back somewhat, and they deliver are deeper black than most LCDs on average.

This is most likely an item that will be re-upgraded sooner than later, I'm afraid. Either something that much better and cheaper will come along in a relatively short time, or the thing will break and not be worth repairing, or even able to be fixed.

[jackal.livejournal.com]

Funny - I've been listening to Queen constantly for nearly the last 2 weeks.

I bought the best of albums for a friend as a gift and it got me listening again. Amazing stuff.