Re: OT Help Please with Television DVD

On Jan 1, 3:43 pm, "richer...@xxxxxxxxxxx" <richer...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
My New Year's resolution is to be more of a couch potato. I have
decided this weekend to buy a new television to 1) watch football and
2) watch opera and other musical dvds. I know nothing about this and
my eyes swim when I try to evaluate the factors. I have decided to go
with a 22 inch screen in a room which is very sunny. I currently have
a 12 inch screen television with a portal for VHSs to be put in - I
don't have a dvd player and on the rare ocassions on which I've
watched, I put them into my laptop. All very primative so you get a
sense that any improvement is improvement. Even under the best of
circumstances I am not going to be watching more than a handful of
hours in a week,so I don't want to get something oldfashioned, but
this is not going to be the center of my life.

My questions are

1) Do I get plasma screen or the other kind?

2) Do I get HDTV? (I currently have cable) and will I really see the
difference?

3) Do I assume these things all have speakers already?

4) Do I need a separate kind of dvd thing? I presume I do, but if
there are kinds that don't need a separate dvd player that is better

5) Is there any brand that is particularly good or bad?

6) Can I buy this stuff somewhere like CIrcuit City, which is going
backrupt, and not worry about service issues?

7) Since I already have this tv hooked up to the cable, can I install
all this myself (given who myself if), or do I need to make an
appointment for someone to do it? If it is simple and foolproof I can
do it.

For the two point conversion, I may also later in the month get a very
large screen (like 52 inches or something) for a dark room, where I
would project images and so on from a computer I have in there, and
maybe watch 'real' movies on dvd, as opposed to largely music dvds. Is
there any difference in the concerns on the type of screen, etc?

Please do not provide analyis - it is wasted and will only get me more
confused. I need humane, religious authority here.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

Richard, I have a home theater set up with a HD projector showing on a
106" Carada screen. The first thing I will tell you from this
experience is to get the largest tv screen you can afford and have
room for. The seating should be one and half times the distance of
the size of the screen. I can not imagine watching a 22" inch tv
unless you are right on top of it. Your 52" will be much better and
will easily become the one you go to for serious viewing of sports and
opera. Let us assume your small set will be for things like watching
the news in the morning with your morning coffee. Beyond that, a 22"
will not give you the thrill of HD, however, the picture should be
fine run on cable. In fact, any picture on a screen that small will
look good. How you got by with a 12" tv is beyond me!

The best thing to do is go to the store and look at plasma and LCD
displays in both the smaller screens and the 52" and see which type
and which manufacturer looks best to your eyes. Keep in mind they
will have the contrast set way up and as bright as can be but in your
home you will have to tweak the picture, even calibrate it, to get it
just right. Plasmas have pluses and minuses, ditto LCD but which ever
you decide on it most certainly should be HD. I watched Carmen the
other night in HD (the one with Jonas Kaufmann) which was not a great
performance overall but the picture and sound was fantastic. PBS is
also broadcasting from time to time the HD theater telecasts from the
MET. Many PBS stations are now broadcasting in HD. You will notice
the quality of HD on your 52" much, much more than you will on the 22
incher.

You can easily hook things up yourself as tvs today have multiple
inputs, everything from coax to component and even HDMI connections
are available on most modern tvs (although you may not find HDMI on a
22" tv). HDMI is a single, all digital connection from your source to
the tv and transmits both the very best sight and sound possible in
one wire. This is a moot point if your cable company box does not
have HDMI outputs but if they support HD, they will have to have
either component or HDMI. There are also RGB and/or DVI computer
inputs on many tvs. As far as the screen is concerned, the only thing
you should concern yourself with is glare from ambient sources around
your home, either from lights that must be on or windows. Today's
screens are usually glare proof but if I were you I would take that
into consideration and put a lamp in the vicinity of the tv while at
Circuit City or wherever (to simulate your home's lighting).
Depending on the screen material and your home lighting, this could be
a huge factor.

There are tvs with built in dvd players but that is never a good
idea. One part breaks, the whole thing has to be taken in. DVD is
best as a stand alone unit and is simple. You only need to know one
thing - Blu-Ray. Any of the major manufacturer's will have decent Blu-
Ray players for under $300. Check out Panasonic first, then Sony,
Samsung, etc. There are several opera titles available in Blu-Ray and
I'm sure more will be coming. Last year Blu-Ray beat out a competing
high definition format touted by Toshiba and is now the only format
for high definition play back. Nearly all movies are, or will be, on
Blu-Ray disks. You can get very decent "Upconverting" players that
will make standard dvd's look almost like Bluj-Ray but once you've
seen the real thing you will not be satisfied with anything but Blu-
Ray. You say you may not want to watch these things more than a few
hours a week but once you get into this you will find that will enjoy
it more and more.

The sound system for an opera lover is all important. Ideally, at
least with your 52" set, you do not want to play sound through the tv
speakers when listening to opera. News and football games, okay, but
not opera. It is best to hook up the audio to a good A/V receiver
(Onkyo is a very good brand and at a fair price) and play the sound
through it to good speakers. For example, the Domingo/Netrbko/
Villazon concerts from Germany that are on DVD are in DTS 5.1 sound so
if you have two front speakers, two surround speakers, a center
channel speaker and a subwoffer, you will maximize the incredible
sound technology available. Watching Blu-Ray movies with such a set
up and you can get even further enhancements such as Master Audio and
HD Theater sound.

Well, I tried to give a few tips without an in depth analysis. If
there is anything else specifically I might be able to help with just
post away.

shortspark
.

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