HDTV Question

[Taco Teo]

My dad went out and bought a Hitachi 42" plasma TV yesterday and is currently waiting for it to be delivered. He paid right around $1000 for it. What I'm wanting to know from you, my SFJ techno-geeks, is if he got ripped off or if it was a decent price. Here is a link to the one he got:

http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp?page=products/plasma_tvs/details/P42H401.html&level=2&section=products&parent=plasma_tvs&nav=left&path=jsp/hitachi/forhome/ubcg/&nId=iD

If it was a crappy deal, I'm sure he could still stop the delivery, but since I know nothing about this topic I'm hoping one of you can help. Thanks much! :tip:

[Howards Turn]

I think that's a decent price. He certainly wasn't ripped off.

[Booze]

Pics of your dad with his telly or it didn't happen.

[The BYP]

I paid 2500 for mine (42" panasonic plasma) 3 years ago. That sounds about right.

[Hole In Face]

Pics of your dad with his telly or it didn't happen.

lmao

That's the going rate, Teo. Your Pops did good and soon he'll forget to call you cause he's watching Planet Earth in HD.

[Taco Teo]

OK, I'm feeling a bit reassured. I know nothing about this sort of thing and I've never known anyone that has owned a Hitachi TV, so this helps.

And Lee, I'll see what I can do about getting a pic of my dad sitting on his new furniture watching the new TV when I go home for Christmas. Although, I'm not really sure I want anyone on here to see a pic of my dad. I can take people bashing me, but if anyone said anything mean about his I'd be sad. Sorry, I got off topic there. Carry on with the comments about the TV please.

EDIT: Hole, my dad doesn't have cable or satellite. That may very well be his next step though, as he was asking me how much I pay for cable, etc. when we talked.

[Hole In Face]

No cable? Why the hell would he get a new fancy TV then? He wants to watch Jeopardy in HD? :rofl:

I kid, I cherish you and your father.

[Taco Teo]

Awww, thanks Hole.

In all honesty, I have no idea why he bought one. My father, the man who doesn't have cable, no long distance on his phone, no computer, nothing. Yet, for some strange reason he has been wanting a HDTV for a few months now. I guess because he goes over to his buddy's house to watch NASCAR (yeah, I know, I know) and is fascinated by how clear the picture is.

Oh, and that's Wheel of Fortune, not Jeopardy!

[Franks n Beans]

Did it come with the converter?

[Taco Teo]

^^^^Ummm??

[Cliff Pettigrew]

^^^^Ummm??

It comes on the CD whats in the box.

[Franks n Beans]

^^^^Ummm??

It's a joke that only a few might remember. ;-)

[Taco Teo]

Yeah, I kinda figured it was something along those lines. Thus, I felt it was better to play dumb.

[djb]

Teo, that's a fair price... of course Ed could have got the same TV for about £900.

Also if your Dad lives in an area where he can get over the air HDTV signals, it's free and better HDTV quality than cable or satellite.

[Taco Teo]

Not sure if he can or not, Deej. He is having the guy deliver it and install it for him, since he's not technologically savvy. I will suggest he question the guy about it when he gets there. That's something they should be able to answer for him, right?

[djb]

Not sure if he can or not, Deej. He is having the guy deliver it and install it for him, since he's not technologically savvy. I will suggest he question the guy about it when he gets there. That's something they should be able to answer for him, right?


They should be able to help him. Here's a website (http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx)that can tell you / him if there are any "over the air HDTV signals" in his area. Just enter his zip code (ignore all the other personal info they ask for) and whether he lives in a single story house or taller and it will give you an idea if there are any available channels in his area. If there are, then he can ask the installer guy about what kind of antenna he'll need and have him install it for him.

[Taco Teo]

Very cool. Thanks, Deej. It looks like he needs a "yellow" antenna. I'm not sure what exactly that translates to but I will tell him to talk to the guy about it when he sets it all up. Much appreciated. :)

[Demiurge]

I own a Hitachi LCD, best LCD picture on the market at the time I purchased it, and I do my research. :tip:

Oh, and just a warning...there is more to an HDTV than just the price.

720P, 1080i, and 1080p are all different resolutions. If you buy a 720P HDTV you're just wasting your money.

[Taco Teo]

It's not a 720. It's a 1080, but I have no idea if it is the i or the p. That's why I posted the link. I knew it would make more sense to most people on here than it did me. I'm a complete moron when it comes to these things.

EDIT: It looks to be a 1080i, which, of course, means nothing to me.

[Belasco]

720P, 1080i, and 1080p are all different resolutions. If you buy a 720P HDTV you're just wasting your money.

Seeing as how much a 1080p costs compared to 720p and the fact that there's little discernible difference > 6 feet away from the screen, I would say that 1080p is more of a waste of money until the prices come down.

Are you one of those guys that pays $100+ for speaker wire?

[Demiurge]

I can see a difference between a 720P set and any 1080i/p. May just be because I'm used to it. Same way it's hard to watch SD DVDs these days after watching so many Blu-Ray and HDDVD movies.

As far as $100 speaker wire.... :runaway:

[djb]

I own a Hitachi LCD, best LCD picture on the market at the time I purchased it, and I do my research. :tip:

Oh, and just a warning...there is more to an HDTV than just the price.

720P, 1080i, and 1080p are all different resolutions. If you buy a 720P HDTV you're just wasting your money.


A video source may be 1080i but the native resolution of an HDTV LCD panel in either 720P or 1080P and a 720P TV is absolutely fine for a 42 incher at normal viewing distances.

Cable and satellite HDTV programming is currently either 720P or 1080i so if you are watching it on a 1080P panel, it is being up-converted to 1080P and how good it looks depends heavily on the hardware doing the upconversion, not the mere resolution. A 720P signal can actually look better on a 720P panel than a 1080P panel if the converter isn't up to snuff.

There is alot more to HDTV than resolution. I have seen plenty of 38 - 46" 720P panels kick the living shit out of some of today's budget 1080P panels that are being heavily marketed to the masses.

If you play mostly Blu-Ray or HD-DVD and you want a 50"+ screen, then 1080P will probably serve you better but to say that a 720P is a waste of money is utter and complete nonsense, but it is exactly the kind of thing you'll hear from a Circuit City salesperson.

[Jdiggity Dee]

resolution fight!!!

[djb]

resolution fight!!!

I get to be the white guy.

[myeviltwin01]

Are you one of those guys that pays $100+ for speaker wire?

Is that like $6 pasta?

[Demiurge]

A video source may be 1080i but the native resolution of an HDTV LCD panel in either 720P or 1080P and a 720P TV is absolutely fine for a 42 incher at normal viewing distances.

Cable and satellite HDTV programming is currently either 720P or 1080i so if you are watching it on a 1080P panel, it is being up-converted to 1080P and how good it looks depends heavily on the hardware doing the upconversion, not the mere resolution. A 720P signal can actually look better on a 720P panel than a 1080P panel if the converter isn't up to snuff.

There is alot more to HDTV than resolution. I have seen plenty of 38 - 46" 720P panels kick the living shit out of some of today's budget 1080P panels that are being heavily marketed to the masses.

If you play mostly Blu-Ray or HD-DVD and you want a 50"+ screen, then 1080P will probably serve you better but to say that a 720P is a waste of money is utter and complete nonsense, but it is exactly the kind of thing you'll hear from a Circuit City salesperson.

You sound like a guy who bought the shittier TV and is now rationalizing.

[Taco Teo]

So 'lasco and Deej, are you saying my dad would have done better with a 720, or for the price he paid for the 1080 did he still do alright?

[Belasco]

I'm saying that as long as your dad bought what looks great to him at an affordable price, then he probably made an ok decision. I do however understand your concern about him not getting ripped off - there's a lot of hype and double-speak out there.

[Taco Teo]

Gotcha'! Thanks B!

He went in to this whole thing looking for a 1080, since apparently family and friends had given him the scoop that that was the better of the two, so in his case I don't think it was necessarily a matter of a salesperson talking him in to spending an extra few hundred on the thing.

[djb]

You sound like a guy who bought the shittier TV and is now rationalizing.

Nope, not at all. I just know that a blanket statement like that isn't true. I love watching a well transfered Blu-Ray movie through a quality 1080P set, but since the vast majority of TV viewers currently only use their sets for watching SD & HDTV via Cable or Satellite (720P / 1080i) and Standard DVDs 480i / 480p to say that one needs a 1080P panel to enjoy really great HDTV is misinformed rubbish.

Most cable and satellite companies aren't even doing a very good job delivering decent programming at 720P or 1080i and the move to sending good 1080P is probably years off. Also, people are buying smaller HDTVs for rooms other than their great rooms and they certainly don't need a 1080P to have a kick ass picture. So again, I'm not talking about 1080P being a bad thing, but one absolutely doesn't need to buy one to enjoy really nice HDTV. For instance, I recently helped someone set up an outdoor antenna to recieve "over the air" broadcast HDTV and we compared the over the air HD programming on his 1 year old 46" Sharp Aquos 720P to what Direct-TV is delivering to his 2 month old 50" Sony Bravia 1080P, and the over the air signal on the "smaller, lower rez screen" looked way, way better since it wasn't being further compressed by Direct-TV (because they're wasting bandwidth on 200 crap channels that he'll probably never watch).

[djb]

So 'lasco and Deej, are you saying my dad would have done better with a 720, or for the price he paid for the 1080 did he still do alright?

I'm sure his 1080P TV will serve him fine (once set up properly). My little soapbox post stems from the fact that salespeople seldom ask any questions that would help a novice get the very best TV for the best price, they just want sell the "newest technology" that costs more and has a wider profit margin. You'd be surprised at the number of people who buy an HDTV set and take it home and watch Standard Programming on it and it looks worse that the CRT TV they replaced or buy a PlayStation 3 who use it in Standard Deffinition whilst hooked up to a very expensive HD display (and don't know they can watch a brilliant looking Blu-Ray disc at 1080P.)

A few questions that will be helpful to know the answers to when deciding which HDTV to buy.

What is your budget?
How big is the room it's going into?
What is the typical viewing distance?
Who is your current provider?
Do you currently have hardware that provides HDTV programming?
Are you able to recieve free over the air HDTV signals where you live?
Do you plan to use an XBOX 360?
Do you plan to use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players?

Time to watch some football.
:tip:

[The Sav]

If you dad likes it, then that's all that matters. And he didn't get ripped off by any means. He's got a 1080p res TV for $1000!

Hell, when I bought my 47" earlier this year, you couldn't even touch anything larger than 37" for less than $1200. And now they're selling 42" for anywhere from $800 to $1000.

If prices keep going down the way they are. I'm going to buy another Vizio (probably the 56") and put my 47" one in my bathroom ;-)

[moneymaker]

What is your budget?
How big is the room it's going into?
What is the typical viewing distance?
Who is your current provider?
Do you currently have hardware that provides HDTV programming?
Are you able to recieve free over the air HDTV signals where you live?
Do you plan to use an XBOX 360?
Do you plan to use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players?

Time to watch some football.
:tip:

And if you live in Texas:

Will the owner's neighbors be home during pick up?

[Taco Teo]

Umm, I don't know what that means, so I'll answer it the real way and say my dad lives in WI.

[Dr. P]

TT, there's a big thread about the Texas guy shooting the negroes that broke into his neighbor's house...

[Taco Teo]

Saw that after I posted it and figured that was what he was referencing. I was just too lazy to go back and edit it. Thanks, Russy!