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a word about LCD TVs, high definition, upconverting and such

I can't claim to be an expert, other than I have an LCD TV (Dell 26" W2600) and I know a guy who has a different one (Panasonic Viera 32" TC32LC50).

The sum is this: 480i regular old-fashioned TV, as delivered by analogue or digital cable, does not look good on an LCD TV. Make sure you are able to check this (either in store, or try at home with an option to return the TV). If you are expecting your expensive LCD TV to do wonders with regular TV signals, you may be disappointed.

This is not something I have really heard mentioned, but it is my experience with both TVs: the image is noticeably grainy, and may appear to have MPEG-like artifacts. The fact of the matter is 480i regular TV is a crummy image and the LCD brings out all its flaws. You're used to watching TV on CRTs that have decades worth of optimization engineering to present this image as well as possible.

LCDs are engineered to display digital images well. 480p progressive from DVD players, and in particular 720p high-definition TV (HDTV). They also should do a good job of displaying images from a computer, or gaming console.

Also, a few words about "widescreen":
- first, regular TV is 4:3, which means you either
a) watch it as 4:3, which means big vertical black bars on either side on a 16:9 widescreen LCD
b) use some digital stretching voodoo which displays it as 16:9 - I don't like this digital fakery myself

- some shows e.g. Galactica are broadcast 480i 16:9, so you can view them full-screen in "zoom" mode, at least I think this looks fine (my friend is dubious)

- there's widescreen, and then there's widescreen, and then there's WIDEscreen
not all widescreen is 16:9. anamorphic 2.35:1 is also popular, e.g. Serenity DVD widescreen is in this format which means... you paid all that money for your widescreen TV and there are still &%#%^%* black bars along the top and bottom of the image. There is also crazy wide widescreen, I don't know how common this is, anyway Great Escape (original DVD release) is in non-anamorphic, so it's like this tiny strip in the middle of the TV screen.

(And no, I don't actually follow the details of this whole "anamorphic" thing, but it's fun to say.)

The connectors available, in order of increasing quality, are:

composite (the yellow RCA) - analog
s-video (the small round one with lots of pins) - analog
component (three RCA plugs marked red, green, blue, although the signals aren't sent as RGB) - analog

component supports 480i, 480p (progressive scan), 720p and 1080i

(VGA computer connection - analog)

DVI-D (large with many pins) - digital
HDMI (small connector) - digital, same signalling as DVI (so you can get a converter to change one to the other), also carries audio in the same cable

both DVI-D and HDMI support the industry's wonderful HDCP High-Definition Content/Copy Protection. No digital copying for you, you naughty pirate! You thought you owned your own content and equipment within your house? Harr harr harr.

Older DVD players just output 480i. This may or may not be the native DVD format, anyway even cheapie DVD players now offer 480p progressive out, over component. 480p, according to the net, is also called EDTV, just to add more confusion.

You can also get "upconverting" DVD players with component and HDMI outputs, they will artificially interpolate the 480 up to 720p or 1080i. I don't know how good of a job they do. You're basically asking a machine to guess what all those extra pixels should be. Anyway, while technically they could send the upconverted signal over both component and HDMI, in practice they only upconvert over HDMI, because it supports the precious precious HDCP content protection bullsh*t.

A number of DVD players now also play Divx, which is cool.

Beyond those DVD players is coming High Definition DVD.
However, the industry is busily scr3wing itself.
There are two competing formats: HD-DVD and BluRay, and no signs of a shakeout yet.

Plus which, there is the "enough extra benefit" problem.
CDs. You can get Super Audio CD (SACD). And DVD-Audio. With extra bonus copy protection, avast ye scurvy pirate dogs. So people say:
- I need new player
- I get some slightly better audio I maybe can't even hear
- I can't copy the CD

So SACD and DVD-Audio are dead.
Plus which, there is a replacement for CD: it's called digital music download.

High definition DVD comes with even more ridiculously intrusive copy protection, e.g. the player calls home over the Internet every time you play the DVD, just to make sure you're not Blackbeard, yarr. Who needs that? Plus which, regular DVD looks pretty good to most people anyway. So high-def DVD may quite well die.

Plus which, there is a replacement for DVD: it's called digital video download.

I think this ends my tale of technology.
You can research plasma vs. LCD yourself. Personally my reading of it is that plasma is over-rated: runs hotter, uses more power, has lower resolution (typically 1024x768 for plasma vs 1366x768 for LCD; 720p native is 1280x720). Anyway I've never compared them side-by-side so YMMV.

Also, if you do want to try the giant screen experience for movies only, I highly recommend a projector. I have been very pleased with my projector and I think the 5' wide image looks great. I don't think you would want to use it for regular TV, I haven't tried it, plus which the project bulb life is short (3000 hours?) and bulbs are expensive, so it's probably not a good choice if you're a regular TV watcher.

UPDATE 2006-01-03: There is a good article on AVS forum

A Primer on DVD in a High-Def world; or How Much is that Scaler in the Window?

I like both AVS forums and Digital Home Canada forums for AV tech info.

For equipment reviews I usually check Amazon.com and CircuitCity.com

UPDATE 2006-01-06: I found a previous posting about progressive-scan DVDs with a good link to more info

December 26, 2003 DVD players part 2 - progressive scan

Labels: lcd tv

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