Hi all, I'm needing some help on an upgrade.Let me start by telling you what I have,and then telling you what i'd like to do,then maybe you can steer me in the direction I should go.I only have about $2000.00 to play around with. 1st.What I have. I have a 42in.Sony Grand Wega LCD Projection HDTV,wich I have hooked up to a HD/DVR from my cable provider that gives me 1080i.broadcast wich I think looks great. This TV is only 1 1/2 years old.I paid around $2000.00 for it with a 5 year warranty wich ran about $300.00 so I really can't afford to upgrade it now.So I need to build around what I have.It has one HDMI input it has two component in jacks.It has audio out as well as Digital Audio(Optical)Out (PCM/Dolby Digital).Hope that wasn't to much info,but I wanted to cover it all. 2nd.What i'd like to do. DVD Bluray or HDDVD??? I know we have a format war going on,so this is a tricky subject. I would like to know what kind of picture you think i'm going to get with a Blueray or HDDVD player hooked up to my TV.I know I can't get a 1080p picture,but would it be the equivalent of say 720p,and if so would that alone be justification for buying one of these players??. I should say from what i've read about these two rivals i'm leaning toward Blueray,and heres why. #1.I'm not a huge gamer,but I do own a PS2,and am considering PS3. #2. 50gigs thats alot of room for alot of things.Wich leads to another question. If i'm thinking about a PS3 wich supports Blueray,do I even need a stand alone player?? I do watch more DVDs than play games,but am not going to be able to afford both.(No one probally knows enough about the PS3 at this point to answer that question.) 2nd.Part Two Audio Recievers??? I've looked in my local Sunday paper sales adds,and at Circuit City for $499.99 i saw a ONKYO XM Ready 1000-Watt 7.1 Ch.Home Theater System with iPod Capability,Dolby Digital EX/DTS-ES/Pro Logic llx,HDTV-ready component switching. Or should I stay away from these all in one's,and if so what do you recommend?? Look guys I don't want to wind up like I did almost 10 years a ago when I bought my 1st what I thought was surround sound system,wich turned out to be Dolby Pro Logic. When I bought my first DVD player for almost $500.00 and hooked it up to my Dolby Pro Logic,and then heard Dolby Digital for the first time I had to run out and by it. Any help on my new upgrade would be very helpful.I'm not looking to do this right away,but possibly after the first part of the year. Thank You,and this forum. Tim
Tim, you’re on the verge of repeating your mistakes from ten years ago. The market will not tolerate another beta war and will demand a hybrid player, at the very least. Don’t buy into it! No library yet to support either one. When it does come, you’ll see a dramatic difference between your 720x480 DVD and the 1080i level of your Sony. Will you ever use any of the extras on an all in one receiver? Money is better spent on an HTPC.
@nesbart: I've got to agree for the most part with Largarto and stay away from it for now. If you need a DVD player at the moment, you can go with 1080i upconversion for pretty cheap...I've got an oppo and the picture is damned good, LG also makes one which isn't too expensive ... many do now I think, but the 1080i signal is always HDMI or DVI ... I've never seen one use component for whatever reason.
If you had just a tuner-less monitor then the up-convert DVD player would be great but, since your HD set already up-converts from the DVD 720x480 standard, that would be redundant and you wouldn’t see any difference. Of course you would be able to utilize an HDMI to HDMI digital connection instead of the analog component leads your probably using now.
@Largarto...his 42 in Sony Grand Wega LCD Rear projection upconverts to 1080i?? Where do you see that? I don't know which model nesbart has but I've got the Sony Grand Wega 42WE655 which I bought the same time as he bought his and I know mine doesn't. I get 1080i from cable, but my TV doesn't upconvert (My AVR does but I don't have my DVD player connected to it.) Obviously, I would not have suggested an upconverting DVD player if I saw that there is that ability in his TV, but I don't know where you got that from....I mean, I could be all wet here, I'm hardly the world's greatest authority but you've got me curious....Gerry @nesbart....when you change channels or turn on another device like DVD player, VCR etc, it will tell you in the upper right of your screen whether it's 480i, 720p or 1080i.
I feel no one reads my posts. But anyway... Hooking up your Sony TV to an upconversion DVD player is a no brainer since it is; 1) a FPD (Fixed Pixel Display) 2) capable of a resolution higher than 825x480. In your case the picture quaity will be better depending on how much better the video proccessing chips are in the upconversion DVD player you choose vs. the chips in your TV (yes your tv can scale and de-interlace too). Also, having an all digital connection (i.e. HDMI) should be a priority (for the first reason listed above). You should go with an HD-DVD player. Since Blu-ray hasn't gotten there act together yet I have no hopes that they ever will. But my personal bias aside, The HD-A1 (v2.0) and new HD-A2 both make for excellent upconversion DVD players. In fact the HD-A1 has been rated as good or better at upconverting SD matirial than models costing 3+ times more. But if you just can't spend the money the Oppo upconversion DVD player is the best upconversion DVD player you can buy for any price range and costs 1/10th of price campared to other "high-end" models. I can't stress how important audio is to the theater experience. I would sacafice video quality to have a better audio system. With that said, there are some HTiB systems that preform very well while most don't. The main thing to look for is a low Total Harmonic Destortion (THD) rating (start with numbers under 1% per dB at 8 or 4 ohms). If you want to be prepaired for the future invest in a reciever that has HDMI inputs (that except audio not just a switch box!) or at least analog 7.1 audio inputs. All the new audio technologies can be passed as uncompressed PCM via one of those two options. When you hear a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack for the first time you will have the same experience you had years ago with Dolby Digital! You will be gald you made the upgrade. As far as which would be best, (HTiB or a component solution) if you want to spend less time matching speakers and more time buying DVD and watching tv then go for a HTiB that has at least a reciever and speakers included but if you want the best experience possible it will come from a well matched reciever and speaker package (i.e. Yamaha 6090 with Klipsh speakers and sub). What is a Fixed Pixel Display? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_pixel_display 1080i vs. 1080p; the truth? http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/344032 Ced
gerry1 wrote: gerry1 my TV is just like yours. Yes it tells me.When i'm in DVD it says 480i,when i'm in an HD Broadcast it says 1080i,and when i'm on just regular T.V. it says 480i.I don't have my VCR hooked up.I've never had it say 720p. I think i'm gonna stay away from HDDVD/Blueray for now i'll just wait and see what happens. I would like some help on a good surround sound system without going broke.Thanks Tim
@nesbart: I think we might have the same TV but even if not, it's probable that many of the functions are the same. Your 1080i TV is either broadcast that way of your cable box is set to deliver HD in that fashion...you're TV display won't read 720p in that instance. I own an oppo like Ced was talking about. It really is awesome. If you read some reviews, you'll see that what Ced said is correct....its as good as the most expensive models. It upconverts to 1080i and while it isn't exactly HD (I'm afraid Ced would have to explain that one), its a great pic all the same and the upconversion makes a huge difference. You're looking to buy a new AVR and some of them upconvert also (my Denon does) but they are more expensive. Tell me, what sort of HD cable box (& company....comcast etc) are you using? There are lots of smart and informed guys in the receivers/amplifiers forum. I would either start a new thread there or ask a mod to move this one there. Whether you start a new thread or stick with this one, add a little more info so guys can give responses more specific to your needs/wants. Do you have speakers already or will you need to buy them? What will you be using it for the most...movies, music, games (I'm afraid I don't know squat about games). Will it be in a big room, a small room? Do you want to get a complete system all at once or build a better one over time (unless you've got buckes). I "built" my system over time because I couldn't afford to shell out the kind of money in one shot to get what I really wanted but that takes a certain amount of patience. I know this is going to sound strange but there are systems for two different sort of personalities...guys like me and others in the the recievers forum love to setup systems, tinker around, etc. but some just plain hate that and get all frustrated and ready to throw the thing out the window...they want as much as possible, to just plug it in with minimal set up and have great sound. This is a [bold]VERY IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION!![/bold]. Ced spoke of home theater in a box systems and those are perfect is you the sort of person named above. They make really good ones now...not as good, but many of them sound really good now...wasn't always the case. But don't believe it when people say that home theater in a box is junk...it just plain isn't true anymore....Gerry
gerry1 wrote: Cox Communications Motorola Dual-Tuner DVR High-Definition Set-Top DCT6412 http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/products/dct6412/ I may start a new thread over at receivers/amplifiers forum. On a side note here,do you know if my/our TV will hook up to a computer using any of the inputs on the back?? Thanks for everything.Tim
Hi Tim! I'm no authority on this subject but I would guess that it depends on your computer more than the TV and if your computer has the video outputs. I have connected my computer to my (our) TV but my computer is set up for it with both DVI and composite Video outs so, in my case, it was no different than connecting a VCR or DVD player...and, I think that is always the case ...that it depends on the computer. If memory serves though, there are ways to adapt the computer but I don't know how. I know some computer savvy people on the site and I'll give them a link to this so they can better advise you. I'll take a look at your cable box tomorrow to see if you can adjust the way the box sends the signal to the TV ....upconversion, 4:3 to 16:9, widescreen, 720p etc. Mine does and it is also a magnavox and looks exactly like yours...doesn't mean anything though. Too beat to check it out tonite.
the main question, nesbart, is do you want to watch tv on your computer or watch stuff from your computer on the tv. i'm assuming the latter. in this case, you should have component, composite, and S-video inputs. all of these could be used. odds are, whatever computer you have, you have an s-video output on it. a cable from here to the tv's input is all you need. if you have a tv-tuner card, depending on the model, you have the possibility of a component output. if your computer is capable of use of multiple monitors, you can use a vga/dvi input on your dvi with the proper connectors. the possibilities are almost endless; once we know what outputs your compie has, we can find you the best-quality devices to use.
Watch stuff from my computer on the tv.The computer i'm using now has nothing really.But I have a computer i'm not using that has these things: Looks like a lime green video out very small looks like what a mic.or headphones plug into,yellow s-vhslooks kinda like s-video but smaller,as well as yellow video that looks like your standard video jack. I have that computer bagged up sitting in a corner,(thats a long story)my plan is to dig it out and start playing around with it next weekend.If I can get it to work the way I want it to I plan on installing a DVD recorder to it.It does have a TV tuner in it at one point I had my cable running thru it,and you could watch TV.
@nesbart...one thing you will notice about your TV is that [bold]IT DOES NOT HAVE A VIDEO OUT!![/bold]. I put in bold because its still pisses me off beyond words! Sony...it figures! I didn't think to look for that because when I bought this TV, all TVs worth their salt had a/v outs so I looked for everything but! I'm told this is called "Plugging the analog hole". I wanted to buy a DVD recorder and with a little doo-dad between the recorder and the video out, record whatever plays on the screen like I use to do with my VCR. I'm going to run start a thread to find the best way to remedy this situation; I know it's possible with a central switching device, it just ticks me off that I should have to...Gerry
on that second computer, you'd probably be best off using a the monitor's connection to the big tv and just turn the entire pc into a dedicated pvr/media machine.
Yea...it seems perfect! @Auslander: I just bought a sculpture for my collection and thought of you...he seems to fit into your furry anthropormorphic obscession ... what do think? This one is actually an original not a reproduction...20 in tall) He's actually Anubis, the egyptian god of enbalming(?spl) but we can overlook that mobid little point LOL! EDIT: It's a new original ... not a 6,000 year old one! LOL!
