The Glory of HDTV

you just had to mention csi and alias, my two most favorite shows right now, in 16:9 hd ... didn't you?

there goes another 1000 of mine :-Þ

HDTV? Pah! A mug's game.

Real life™ offers infinite resolution (progressive scan no less) - and no artifacts at all, unless you get up too quickly or rub your eyes too hard, in which case you might see spinny sparkly things.

And it's free, too.

I'm wondering, how would HDTV improve over PAL? Apart from the detail part?

I would consider anything an improvement over NTSC...

Just curious - which comcast package do you have? I'm still on the satellite thing (and can't see the high def sat through the trees). 80 clams a month is a lot for tv!!

Don't forget to calibrate your TV. If you thought your (HD)TV looked good before, just wait. This is non-invasive, cheap, and makes a huge difference.

Digital Video Essentials

Buy it from Amazon, and give me a kickback if you'd like.

Cablevision offers HDTV for the same price as DTV and it rocks!!!!

For a really great HDTV picture, you should see the Discovery HD channel. I'm not sure if they film in 1080i, but their content is some of the best I've ever seen (at least since the 2003 Super Bowl on ABC).

Rock on.

Do "normal"-sized HDTVs (i.e. 20-25" ish) exist yet, or are they all still exclusively big wall-sized monstrosities?

Alias on HDTV was the best television experience I ever had. It was awesome stuff.

Since I have moved to Adelaide, I miss that. Consequently I have stopped watching the show, or most television for that matter.

jeeez, i can not even afford cable. good news is probably non HDTV are dropping in my price range right?

Whilst us poor Europeans won't be getting HDTV for a while, we're well down the line of switching to digital in the UK. This doesn't quite have a monster picture size that you would be nice for 32"+ size TVs, but it is compatible with all, and is just like watching a DVD. Colours are vibrant, edges are sharp, and there's full widescreen. Which is great because almost everything is widescreen in the UK now.

Yes, you can buy a smaller set in the 25" range that are HDTV compatible. I remember seeing a couple of Samsung TVs that were smaller than the 32" I purchased. (I should also add here that the Samsung sets are fantastic. Sonys are nice and all, but in my opinion overpriced).

One thing to keep in mind when going smaller though -- HDTV pictures are compressed vertically on a regular 4:3 TV to render the 16:9 "letterbox" aspect ratio. So the smaller your 4:3 screen, the more dramatic the downscaling of the HD picture size will be. Personally, I wouldn't touch anything below a 32". Or if I really wanted to watch HD content (or DVDs) all the time, I'd get a 16:9 television.

FYI, here is more information about what I have:

http://comcasthdtv.com/

I have never seen HDTV, but when you say it is like watching DVD all the time, it could not be much better than PAL.

I have a LCD TV, and live in Norway where PAL is the system. I have to admit its like watching DVD without all the artifacts that DVD has (from MPEG-2 compression)

Not all the programs sent is like this, but the programs that is sent live, many films and some series + MTVideos and others.

There are two factors that improve when you switch from analog NTSC to digital HDTV. MPEG 2 is better than both NTSC and PAL, and of course resolution is better.
NTSC is, under ideal conditions, equivalent to 702 pixels by 480 interlaced scanlines under ATSC, which is nominally what you get from a DVD in region 1. This format, in analog, takes 525 scanline transmission periods to send the 480 picture scanlines and some overhead (such as closed captions). DVDs use MPEG 2 just like ATSC and HD cable do, so that means that region 1 DVD is not encumbered with NTSC's limitations.
PAL region DVD's (I think that's region 2) have a few dozen more scanlines, something like 702x550).
ATSC's highest resolution interlaced format has 1920x1080 resolution (known as 1080i), which is more than double PAL's resolution. For some purists interlacing is humbug and the highest resolution in progressive scan is 1280x720 aka 720p.
CRT-based HD displays, including CRT-based rear-projection TVs, usually convert everything to 1080i or 540p. LCD panels and plasma panels usually have something close to 1280x720 resolution and convert everything to 720p for display.

The resolution and colors may look real purty-like, but that doesn't mean there's anything on TV that's deserving of them.

I've been receiving my local channels in HD for over 2 years for the bargain price of FREE! Just slap a HD antenna on the roof and plug it into your receiver.

Cable? Bah.

I remember years ago everyone talking about how HDTV would be "standard" in a year that has long since passed. I was just wondering what percentage of all broadcasts are HDTV now, and if there are any new estimates as to when the HDTV market is supposed to be saturated enough that it is essentially the "standard", whatever that means...

Funny you should mention the Masters. I love watching and Alias and Sex and the City and CSI and lots of other HD shows but NOTHING compares to golf in high def. You simply see every blade of grass, every tree leaf, and every flower petal. It's very, very impressive. People think I'm weird when I say I love watching golf in HDTV, but it's true. Oh, and I watched a documentary on Discovery a couple of months ago about these divers who explored a bunch of underwater caves in Florida (at Wakulla Springs) and all their film was shot with HD cameras. It was unbelievable -- you couldn't even tell they were underwater. No distortion whatsoever with amazingly vivid colors. Yep, I love HDTV! (We've got a 32" Samsung, too - love it.)

Region 2 DVDs are usually PAL, but not always. Japan is R2 but also NTSC. Many region-free (R0) discs are NTSC.

DVD resolution is 720x480 pixels NTSC, 720x576 PAL.

http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4

Now, can Todd here see if he can get closed captions working anywhere, at any time, on HD programs, plus write a blog entry and give us screen photos?

Whoever said that HDTV is like watching DVD could not be more wrong. Before, I thought DVD was considerably better than regular non-HD broadcasts. But now that I have HDTV, I see now that DVD is just barely better than regular TV, and HDTV is FAR FAR clearer and sharper than DVD. The difference is dramatic. I have a 60" lcd projection, and with the added clarity, the low resolution and compression artifacts of DVDs are painfully obvious.

Forgot to post this: For people who want to see screen captures of HDTV.
http://doug.le.home.comcast.net/
and
http://www.feldoncentral.com/hdtv/ABC_S/

I would agree with JJ, I don't have HDTV (or cable at all here in the boondocks), but after comparing the matrix trailers (1k res) with the original Matrix DVD, the trailers put the DVD to shame. The DVD feels like watching through a screen door or someone put waxpaper over the screen. I want HDVDs.

Oh, and HDTV star trek enterprise bittorrents are much better than their NTSC counterparts. (even at standard 480p)

Living in Sweden with the PAL system, I don't really comprehend how you guys [americans] have been able to survive that crappy NTSC for so long. Ok, tv is not everything in life, far from it, still, I'm really happy for you that things are starting to happen.

Regards, David.