I am not myself in the market for a new television, but went out shopping for a new television with Fyrlocc yesterday to help her sort out the crazy marketing doublespeak from the pertinent and useful facts. I was pleasantly surprised by the dropping prices, generally better pictures on nearly all displays, and useful features. I was disappointed in the extortionate prices on extra things (HDMI cables particularly), installation fees, and mounting brackets. I remain deeply disappointed in most brand name televisions ability to display a decent standard definition program, and am deeply disappointed that for most Americans, standard definition television will still make up most of their watching time, and most of the televisions simply display crap when offered a standard definition signal (from an old DVD player, older VHS player, or from their standard definition cable/satellite reception box).
HDTV shopping details after the fold…
High Definition Television is great, but unless you are lucky enough to get it off the air with an antenna, it will cost you more. The cable companies and digital satellite companies all charge more for an HD box, and more in monthly fees for any HD programming. The monthly fees add up quickly. Blue-Ray remains an overpriced rip-off, where they gouge you once on the player (except possibly the PS3 gaming machine) and again on each and every Blue-Ray DVD. Frankly, most of us will be watching mostly standard definition for a long time to come, even if we have a few precious Blue-Ray discs, and pay extra to see an occasional movie or sports game in high definition. Given that standard definition is still the majority of the television shopping public’s viewing, why are so many major brands completely failing to do upscaling (up-converting) of the standard signal to some high-def format that looks good enough?
Additionally, the folks at both Best Buy and Circuit City are charging extortionate and insulting prices for HDMI cables, and Monster (the vendor they are pushing) is charging absolutely stupid prices for their cables to begin with. They wanted $180 per cable for 15 foot HDMI cables “fast enough to do 120Hz LCD” (whatever that means). We bought two 10 foot HDMI cables (Circuit City had only 6 and 15 foot, no 10 foot option) that are certified fast enough for $25 each, threw in $8 next-day shipping and still came out ahead. They are also asking $569 for wall-mounting over a fireplace installation; which seems like a bit too much, but we are getting a second opinion.
So enough of the rant; here is the really good news. Prices on the televisions are falling, dramatically, and will probably continue to do so through February. There are now several affordable brands doing 1080p resolution, and that is a jump since the last time I looked (where you had either 1080i, or 720p, or both – but not 1080p). Of course there are still nearly no signal sources doing 1080p, but these sets look great. The other astonishing thing to me is that nearly every set on display shows a fabulous picture if given an good high definition source (720p or better). That should not be surprising, but only a few years ago most sets on display in any big box store had grossly unacceptable pictures for any price at all, and the only sets I’d bother looking at were the top of the line models (yeah, I am a bit of a video snob). Yesterday, I could not find a set that could not display a beautiful high-definition picture. Keep in mind, most cannot display standard definition very well, but at least the high definition picture is amazing at all price points, on all sizes, of all sets. Power consumption is down with LCD models particularly, speeds are up so there are fewer visible artifacts during action shots, blacks are mostly really black, whites are very white, colors are bright, and the key differences are glossy vs matte finish screens (glossy equals brighter perception, but requires darker room because of reflective glare; so I prefer matte). Remotes are more sensibly laid out and easier to use. While it’s a shame about the up-converting of analog signals or standard definition inputs in most sets, you can get around this with an up-converting DVD player, a good Blue-Ray player can up-convert standard DVDs, and some audio “home theatre” receivers can up-convert any NTSC signal into simulated high definition that is pretty good, so there are options even with a TV that is lame about displaying standard definition signals. Pretty good news for television shoppers.
I am still holding out for cheaper and more ubiquitous high-definition DVD players (and I am not convinced today’s Blue-Ray will be the next de facto standard, even now). I am too cheap to pay Dish or Comcast for a high definition receiver just so I can pay more in monthly fees for high definition programming. So for now my Apple TV remains the only source for my own high definition programming, but I am very encouraged by what I see in new televisions and look forward to someday replacing my Sony 40″ XBR tube in a couple of years.
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