The Gang of Five

Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => Hobbies and Recreation => Computer and Electronics => Topic started by: action9000 on April 21, 2008, 12:37:42 AM

Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: action9000 on April 21, 2008, 12:37:42 AM
I'm just curious, what kinds of TVs does everyone have?  What are the TVs used for?  Watching TV?  Watching movies?  Playing video games?  Has anyone watched blu-ray movies at home or have a cool home theatre system?  Anyone hoping to upgrade their TV experience in the future?  Anyone have an X-Box 360, PC or PS3 using HDMI cables for full-HD?

I know myself, I've got a 33" CRT TV (an older tube TV) running at 480i resolution.....and a PS3 with a few blu-ray movies. :lol I also have an older DVD player and a VHS player hooked up to it as well.

I have a hard time buying new movies on DVD now that I have a blu-ray player (built into the PS3).  I'd rather future-proof my movie collection as soon as possible so as to not have to buy them again later.  
*Hoping for LBT on blu-ray!* :wow  :lol:

I'm hoping to abuse my staff discount at Future Shop/Best Buy to buy a shiny new TV in the next couple of months, but we'll see. B)
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: f-22 "raptor" ace on April 21, 2008, 12:39:37 AM
Some HD TV don't know the resolution though. I play Video Games and I watch movies and TV.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: landbeforetimelover on April 21, 2008, 12:50:56 AM
I will never be spending any more than $20 for a used TV from a garage sale EVER.  I don't even like TV so I don't see the point in buying one.  I watch everything on the computer.  As for bluray, I don't see the point of it unless you've got some freaking $5,000 TV and a pair of $2,000 speakers.  I'll get 2 players for my master computer, but I'll only use them to backup data.  I don't think I'll ever get a bluray player for my TV.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: action9000 on April 21, 2008, 12:55:21 AM
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As for bluray, I don't see the point of it unless you've got some freaking $5,000 TV and a pair of $2,000 speakers.
That is very true.  Blu-ray is a high-end format for high-end systems, there's no getting away from that.  I just know myself - eventually I'll have something that will utilize it (technology gets cheaper and cheaper as time goes by).

As for watching movies on computers - blu-ray is useful there. :)
DVDs are 720x480: significantly lower than any modern monitor, with definite artifacts on larger screens.  A blu-ray movie is 1920x1080.  The larger the monitor, the more important blu-ray is to get high-quality.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: Flathead770 on April 21, 2008, 01:40:24 AM
Im not sure an HD TV in my house, though im not sure what resolution it is. I don't watch TV or really even watch movies so i pretty much use TVs only for gaming.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: landbeforetimelover on April 21, 2008, 03:09:32 AM
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As for watching movies on computers - blu-ray is useful there. smile.gif
DVDs are 720x480: significantly lower than any modern monitor, with definite artifacts on larger screens. A blu-ray movie is 1920x1080. The larger the monitor, the more important blu-ray is to get high-quality.

To be honest, I'm one of those people who can barely tell the difference in quality between VHS, DVD, and Bluray.  I will certainly never buy a bluray player until they come way down in price.  

http://www.techspot.com/news/25164-pioneer...uter-drive.html (http://www.techspot.com/news/25164-pioneer-announces-299-bluray-computer-drive.html)


Oh yeah.  $300 for a useless drive for the computer sure is cheap! :rolleyes: No thank you.  I'd much rather have a 1TB hard drive for that much money.


Screw these people.  I just replaced every VHS I had with a DVD, and now they offer a new DVD that can fit about 5 times more onto it.  That's not by far a big enough incentive for me to rebuy everything.


Now if they were something like an SD card, that would be something worth buying.



Bluray is the same concept as a DVD.  I'm not paying them for inventing the same thing twice with the only difference between the two inventions being trivial and minor.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: action9000 on April 21, 2008, 03:20:39 AM
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Oh yeah. $300 for a useless drive for the computer sure is cheap! No thank you. I'd much rather have a 1TB hard drive for that much money.
Here's a blu-ray drive for $170, but it's true, they're still pretty expensive.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX20257(ME).aspx (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX20257(ME).aspx)

Quote
Now if they were something like an SD card, that would be something worth buying.
That would be extremely cool: solid state disks that actually have enough capacity/speed to be useful.  I'm waiting for the day when solid-state drives replace mechanical hard drives.  That will be a beautiful day. :D   I hate mechanical drives.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: Kor on April 21, 2008, 03:47:28 AM
I have a 20 inch flat screen tv standard format with stereo speakers.  I use it to watch the local pbs affiliate (at least till everything goes full digital in this coming February) and my dvd's.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: Lillefot on April 21, 2008, 09:07:28 AM
Mine is a 32" HD ( 1080p) from Andersson.
I use it mostly with the PS3, mmmm... HD graphics's so nice!  B)
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: Petrie. on April 21, 2008, 03:41:00 PM
No TV here....I watch all my dvds on my computer...its good enough for these eyes with terrible vision anyway. :p  My parents have a 1080 something or other from Samsung--its had its share of hardware related issues so all the more reason I don't really care for them.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: DarkHououmon on April 21, 2008, 05:01:13 PM
I don't really know what kind of TV I have. But it's old. We had it since sometime in the 90s. We've had it for at least a decade probably, and it still works just fine. It's become a little wobbly but nothing too noticeable.
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: The Great Valley Guardian on April 21, 2008, 05:04:19 PM
My family had a 1080i HD Tv in our living room up until about two days ago...man it had to go out during dinner too! :mad Silly HD television. Oh well, we're going to have it fixed soon, or buy a new one...so hey more power to whoever has the most money. :DD
Title: Home Theatre / TV - Standard or High Def?
Post by: Cancerian Tiger on April 21, 2008, 10:10:35 PM
We have a 50" big screen TV that recently got the high-definition component added, courtesy of the cable company(digital cable, almost as good as satellite).  There is also a Bose home theatre system connected to it.  It's nice, but I barely watch television.  Not many good programs on anymore, and I'm already very busy as it is.  I frequently play music in the Bose :lol.