[Kichigai]

I am planning on getting a Samsung 40 inch LCD but I don't plan to do HD for a little while.

Wife told me to enjoy the TV for awhile before getting HD. :lol:

Does anyone have any thoughts about what the picture quality will be like and will I be unhappy until I get HD?

I am also planning to get an upconvert DVD player...any thoughts on that?

 

[say-what]

I am planning on getting a Samsung 40 inch LCD but I don't plan to do HD for a little while.

Wife told me to enjoy the TV for awhile before getting HD. :lol:

Does anyone have any thoughts about what the picture quality will be like and will I be unhappy until I get HD?

I am also planning to get an upconvert DVD player...any thoughts on that?

Get HD, you're not going to really enjoy anything you watch until you experience it in HD.

Watching SD is going to depend on the broadcast picture quality. Some stations or programs don't look bad, but others are horrible. I've found that watching sports is difficult to do when it's not in HD....guess I'm spoiled. Really, the experience between HD and SD is like night and day..... At the very least get a regular H20 receiver from D*.

Don't know about the upconverting DVD players - the few reviews I've seen gave mixed results and it seems like you're paying a bit extra for something that doesn't really make much difference. A good progressive scan DVD player with component connections probably does about the same. I have a 7 or 8 year old Sony DVD player hooked up via component and the picture quality is pretty good - an HD or BlueRay would be even better, but too expensive yet.

 

[Jeremy W]

Wife told me to enjoy the TV for awhile before getting HD. :lol:

You need to tell her that you can't really enjoy an HDTV without having an HD source. Widescreen DVDs are nice, but HD is what you need.

 

[MikeR7]

Everything these guys have said, I agree with.

 

[bwaldron]

Watching SD is going to depend on the broadcast picture quality. Some stations or programs don't look bad, but others are horrible. I've found that watching sports is difficult to do when it's not in HD....guess I'm spoiled. Really, the experience between HD and SD is like night and day..... At the very least get a regular H20 receiver from D*.

Agree with the above. Watching sports via D* in SD is painful on a big screen -- partly because it's not HD, but mainly because of the excessive compression that is being used these days. A good, clean SD signal can look quite good on an HD set -- unfortunately we don't get such a signal from D*.

 

[carl6]

I am shopping now for an HDTV - looking at 42 inch Plasma (either Panasonic or Samsung most likely). One local store uses DirecTV as it's programming source, and I was able to watch both of the TV's I was considering, side by side, with both an HD, and an SD channel from DirecTV. The SD was upconverted to fill the screen (as opposed to displaying in 4:3 format).

I was pleasantly surprised at the SD picture. Of course it did not compare to HD, but it was to me, very acceptable.

YMMV.

Carl

 

[bwaldron]

I was pleasantly surprised at the SD picture. Of course it did not compare to HD, but it was to me, very acceptable.

But they weren't showing live sports, which is where the picture goes south on both my plasmas. Some games are decent, some are awful. Other SD channels/content can often look good and are acceptable to me -- more "static" images aren't so much impacted by the compression.

Of course it depends to some extent on screen size and seating distance.

 

[briang5000]

I've got a 52 inch DLP and a lot of the SD channels look horrible.
The locals look the worst. Most sports are also unwatchable.

It's $9.99 a more per month extra for the HD package and well worth it.

 

[jcurrier31]

If you get a TV with an ATSC tuner depending on where you live it could be fairly cheap to put up an off air antenna and receive Over the air HD channels. Then when your wife gets used to watching things in HD it will be much easier to convince her to pony up the extra $9.99 a month for HD programming. If you watch sports, HD is the only way to go. I would compare it to the difference of listening to a game on the radio vs being there in person. I am spoiled though.

As for an upconverting DVD player I would suggest getting one using DCDi by Faroudja . Look it up and you can read about the difference. They are usually $60.00 and up more expensive then the ones you see for really cheap at your local stores. You can find them on Line starting at $150.00. If possible go to your local Circuit city or something and ask them to show you a comparison. You will notice the cheap ones are more blocky. It just uses a better engine / algorithm. I know CC has one made by Dennon that they sell for about $399. Don't spend that much, just go look for yourself. Same movie on same TV just so you can see the difference. Then go online and spend $150 or so on a samsung hd 960 or an oppo. Just do some research and see for yourself. Even the $90 ones look good when you have nothing to comare them to.

Just my 2 Cents.

 

[carl6]

But they weren't showing live sports, which is where the picture goes south on both my plasmas.

Rarely watch live sports, so that would normally not be an issue. The possible exception is if the Seahawks somehow surprise us and get to the Superbowl again

Carl

 

[paulman182]

I think you should go for the HD.

If you don't requre a DVR, the H20 receiver is only $99 at Wal-Mart, Circuit City, or Best Buy. You'll really be glad you got HD.

 

[cmoss5]

I am shopping now for an HDTV - looking at 42 inch Plasma (either Panasonic or Samsung most likely). One local store uses DirecTV as it's programming source, and I was able to watch both of the TV's I was considering, side by side, with both an HD, and an SD channel from DirecTV. The SD was upconverted to fill the screen (as opposed to displaying in 4:3 format).

I was pleasantly surprised at the SD picture. Of course it did not compare to HD, but it was to me, very acceptable.

YMMV.

Carl

Go with the Panasonic, you can get it cheaper at SAMS, BRANDSMART USA, and sometimes when on sale at SEARS...I have a 42" and a 50" Panasonic plasma and have not ever had any HDMI problems connecting to the H20 and HR20....also, if you see a Panasonic side by side in any store, you will see that there is as much as 1 to 2 inches more of a picture shown....look at the left and right hand edges of the picture....in Atlanta, BRANDSMART USA is selling the 42" HD Panasonic for $1500.00 and the 50" HD Panasonic for $2,000.00...cheaper than SAMS or any one else....carried their ad to Sears and got them to price match as I got additional 10% off due to employee discount....

 

[JCO]

NO one has posted this yet, but DVDS, with or without the HDMI connection
will look spectacular compared to the way they looked on old non progressive scan 4x3 analog TVS using the S-Video connection. YOU GET all these improvements : 1. Component Connection vs old S-Video. 2. 16x9 format anamorphic DVDs are no longer downconverted to letterboxed 4x3, 3. Progressive scanning instead of old 480i, 4. Full resolution of the DVD will be seen instead of the older sets limited resolution. Bottom Line : HDTVS are worth getting
just for DVDS, even if you dont get HD right away. The very best (newest) mastered DVDs using the HDMI connection are incredibly good looking, slightly softer than HD but blows away ANTHYTHING you ever saw on your old analog
480i S-Video 4x3 set for sure.

 

[carl6]

Go with the Panasonic, you can get it cheaper at SAMS, BRANDSMART USA, and sometimes when on sale at SEARS...

Actually I'm going to choose the Samsung 4273. Side by side with Panasonic and Pioneer, it had the better picture hands down, SD or HD, cable or DTV sourced. And I compared them in two different stores, two different environments, so it was not a specific unit or bad set of settings.

I'm going to buy where I shopped/compared. Could I beat the price? Yeah. But if I take advantage of a local showroom to look/feel/compare using their inventory, then I feel some degree of obligation to purchase. If they treat me bad, I go elsewhere, but if they treat me good, they deserve my business. I've seen several good stores go out of business because everyone went there, looked at the product, decided what they wanted, then went home and ordered on-line. Now there are no local stores selling that product/line of equipment (not tv's) and if I want to see something first hand, I've got to drive 150 miles to the nearest store.

Plus, the store I'm going to buy from has an excellent customer service reputation, a no hassle return policy, and a price match policy against any other local retail outlet.

Just my personal perspective.

Carl

 

[bwaldron]

Actually I'm going to choose the Samsung 4273. Side by side with Panasonic and Pioneer, it had the better picture hands down, SD or HD, cable or DTV sourced. And I compared them in two different stores, two different environments, so it was not a specific unit or bad set of settings.

The Samsung is nice...however, I don't put any stock in in-store viewing for comparing sets. Panasonic plasmas, for instance, look awful in stores as they're shipped and usually displayed w/ horrible "vivid" settings. Once taken out of vivid mode and contrast lowered, they look great. As do Pioneers.

But you really can't go wrong with the sets from any of those manufacturers. Enjoy your new TV!