h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right well the long and the short of it is that my complication equation of desperate desire for new technology weighed against my relative poverty (or at least lack of affluence) has finally started pointing toward maybe buying myself a big ass plasma TV. What with HDTV finally coming in and this being a world cup season.

I remember reading something you posted sometime ago about them and how to get the best out of your kit. Any hints/tips/advice?

FB

Right, can't be bothered logging alex out and logging in as me, so I'm posting as her.

Wow. Where to start?

First and foremost, don't do what I did and buy and "HD compatible" tv. My TV will accept an HD signal, and will display it correctly - just not at a high definition. This is because of the native resolution - mine's too low to display true HD.

The numbers you're going to see related to HD sources are 720 and 1080. These will usually be followed by a letter, either i or p.

Numbers first - 720 and 1080 are the number of LINES in the picture (normal TV pictures, as I'm sure you're aware, are made up of only 625 lines - what you may not have known is that many of these lines are off the top and bottom of the screen, so the actual number of lines you see on a normal CRT telly is only somewhere around 500. This means the 480 lines on my plasma are perfectly acceptable. Obviously 720 is better, and 1080 is even better. Bigger numbers means bigger money, of course, and there's some question as to whether your source will be capable of sending a 1080 signal. Will it?

Next i and p. i is "interlaced". This means the picture is made up in two "frames". The first is all the odd numbered lines, the second is all the even numbered ones. There is an almost imperceptible flicker and loss of picture quality due to the change in the picture between frames. "Almost" is of course not good enough, so the truly cool sources (e.g. DVD players, X Boxes etc.) will be capable of outputting a "progressive scan" picture - a single frame in which all the lines are sent out in order, 1, 2, 3, etc. A noticeably steadier picture is the result.

One thing to bear in mind is that there is simply NEVER a good time to buy this kind of stuff. Resign yourself to the fact that no matter what you buy, there'll be something better, cheaper and nicer out six months later. But you want one NOW...

One of the most important things to think about - assuming of course that the TV you're thinking about has decent picture quality when properly connected to a nice source - is *connectivity*. Put another way, are you going to be able to get that lovely high definition signal into your screen in the first place?

For high def, you're talking two standards here - HDMI, and DVI. My mate swears by HDMI, but DVI is as applicable. The thing that bothers me at the moment is that I've never yet seen a TV with more than one of these things...

Of course, that doesn't matter if you do what my mate did, and connect all his sources to his PC, and use that to process the signal and scale it for the screen, then connect the PC directly to the TV.

There are a number of benefits to this:

1. You have a bigger monitor than any four of your mates combined, right there in your lounge.
2. You can watch TV and post on h2 at the same time.
3. The PC will make your TV picture better. (google for something called "DScaler")
4. The PC will also operate as a PVR, allowing you to pause live TV, record programs etc. You will of course require a BIG HDD.

As far as HD DVDs are concerned, there are two formats coming out, and my money is on Blu-ray, for one reason and one reason only - it's the drive standard for Playstation 3. There are going to be millions of these things in loads of homes, which will give it a head start.

HD TV broadcasts will begin in the UK next year, via Sky. You will need a new box, something like a Sky+, and of course another subscription. The BBC has been recording things in HD for years, so they've already got a library of stuff they can broadcast. They won't be able to do so via Freeview until at least after analogue turn-off - there isn't the bandwidth. So for the immediate future, you only have two realistic options for HD content - DVDs and Sky.

Don't worry about that, though, for now. Get yourself a nice, big telly that *can* display a 1080p signal, or failing that at the very, very least a 720p, with plenty of SCART sockets, at least one set of component inputs, and at least one of either DVI or HDMI. Don't ask people in the shops about them, read up on the net reviews of models you like the look of.

One other thing - do not skimp on interconnects. When I bought my TV, I went out and bought a new DVD player that could supply it with a progressive scan signal via component inputs. The player only cost me fifty quid. The cable to connect it to the telly cost EIGHTY. But it was worth it - I've tried a cheap set, and the difference is definitely noticeable.

Next step - how much do you want to spend?

SoRB

Oh, one more thing - if you're aiming for "big ass", as far as I can make out this still says "plasma". Do not be put off by people telling you they don't last long. Modern plasma screens have significantly better lifetimes than the old ones, and in any case how long are you really going to have it on, per day? Lifetime figures are relevant to people buying them for public spots like restaurants or wherever, where they'll be on ALL the time, but for home use, a plasma has plenty of life in it.

One thing though - do make sure to check the settings and don't have the brightness set too high. It's very easy to set it too high, which leads to a washed out look to the picture and reduced lifespan. Much better to have the brightness at the proper level, see the picture as the makers intended, and extend the life of your screen.

Another thing worth doing is narrowing down your choice to one or two models, then doing a search for the model number on the AVForums website. A lot of the people who frequent that place are installers and suppliers, so they really know what they're talking about. It was reading AVForums that made me plump for the telly I eventually went for.

SoRB

Clarification: big ass means plasma, as opposed to LCD. Big ass LCDs are becoming available, but the best picture quality at 42" and above is still plasma. I don't know if you can get a plasma much smaller - there are some 37" ones I think, but not smaller. Below that you're into LCD, but all the ones I've seen have poorer quality picture than any plasma.

Having said that, there are DLP projection tellies available that are quite stunningly good also, but you can't hang those on the wall - they're seriously BIG mothers. If it's a flat telly you want, and you want it 42", plasma it must be.

One serious point here - if you get a 42" plasma, no matter how good it is, the picture quality from a non-HD source will be worse than the picture on a good 36" CRT. Ultimately, CRTs offer by far the best picture quality of any technology - they just don't do HD and you can't hang 'em on the wall.

However, while you will notice the slightly worse picture quality at first, you will soon get used to the slightly different texture you get with a plasma, and the benefit of having a f**kin HUGE screen outweighs the tiny disadvantage of slightly poorer picture.

And of course if you get one that's HD ready, as soon as you start feeding it with an HD source you'll see a world of difference - a good HD picture is literally like looking through a window at what's on the screen - picture quality is shockingly good, so good in fact that it looks almost 3D.

Any other questions?

SoRB

Hmm well since I posted yesterday my circumstances have changed...

I now have to move from where I am living which is going to put my outgoings up by £200 a month minimum so I am having to scale down my plans. My budget for buying a TV and equipment being probably about a grand now I might have to wait a little longer. Damn.

Still I will have a look around and see if there is anything decent ish lookingf for that sort of price. Like you said the stuff is getting better and cheaper all the time. It just my 28 inch flat screen CRT (which was the dogs… when I bought it) is seeming a bit crappy now, and with the 360 coming out soon and Perfect Dark Zero I had my heart set on some funk TV kit….

Oh well where are those overtime forms…!

Yeah it is Plasma I was thinking of 42 or 50 if I could have stretched to it. Which is looking less liekly now to be fair.