The Consolidated Television Display/Electronics information thread!

All that information is too overwhelming for me. I just have a question.

I have a small bedroom in my home with no TV set. I'm going to have to hang a television in the corner to save space. The corner I will have to use is fairly far away from the chair and the bed so I will have to get a nice sized TV, but not real big. I would also like a DVD player in that room. I don't want a plasma. I did see this set that is in my budget. Are the HDTVs cable friendly, and if so, will the cable company have to install a cable box? I have Suddenlink. Do any of these types of sets come with a built in DVD player, or will I have to buy that separate as well?

 

1. Why not a plasma? What size are you looking at, by the way? I mean, if you're under 42" a plasma probably isn't the right choice anyhow, but there is a lot of FUD out there about plasmas that just isn't true. If you're looking in the 20" range, you can get an LCD HD-compatible TV for a pretty reasonable price.

2. I don't know if you'll need a cable box. Some HDTVs come with cable card slots, and Suddenlink may be able to provide you a card so you don't need a box.

3. I've never seen a flat-panel TV with a built-in DVD player. I'm not a fan of ever integrating two separate components into one, anyhow.

A good compromise solution on the cable box and DVD player might be to build a shelf under the TV to hold them.

 

There are many flat panal TV's with built in DVD players. Depending on the size and brand you want determines how much you want to spend.

Here are some flat panel tvs and some have built in dvd players:
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ECPLASMA/shop/showcaseb/default~showcaseb~tvmonitor~SubShowcase~flatpanel.asp
There is even a 27" LCD with DVD player for $449.

 

Well, there you go. Like I said, I'd never seen one, but I was never looking for one either.

 

I'll try to get a set that has a card place. The Suddenlink technicians hang out at the Dairy Queen. I may stop buy for a treat and ask one of them about the card. I know this goes against the world as it is, but for me anyway, the less machinery and electronics in my home, the better. I only want as much of that as I need to comfortably function. I wont even have an ice maker on my fridge.

We looked at a mid sized plasma next to this LC HD television and I remember that we just liked the picture better. I cant remember how many inches it was but it wasn't square. The picture was clearer and the colors seemed more vivid. Aren't the plasmas alot more expensive as well to buy and to have fixed?

 

The only thing I have to add to this is that I saw a flat panal TV today at 2 different locations (Sams and Best Buy) with built in DVD players.

edit: they were both 32".

 

Depends on which plasma and which LCD with which feature set on the price. As for repair-neither one of them is something you'd call easy to repair. www.panasonic.com has a great deal of information about the differences between plasma and LCD. They're one of the few manufacturers who make both anymore.

LCDs will tend to look better on showroom floors because they have brighter pictures. Brighter does not always equal better, though.

 

Why do I have to have 2 remotes? Why can't I just have a universal one? TIA.

 

I really like my new LCD HDTV and ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, NFLHD and all the VOOM channels. I really could'nt tell much difference between the LCD vs plasma... but mines only a 37 inch.

 

Each device has a remote. Cable companies usually provide universal remotes that can control multiple devices. Or, you can purchase one Amazon that is nicer. This is about as inexpensive as I have seen the nice universal remotes. There are one's that cost less but have less too. Programming is fairly straight forward.

 

This is the remote I use. $250 is a little spendy, but the features on it are nice. It controls everything except the dang PS3, which Sony decided to make Bluetooth compatible instead of IR.

Greatest thing about it is just plugging it into the computer and telling the remote what I have instead of searching for codes.

 

That computer feature would be really nice. The code looking upping is a pain in the arse. I think that I saw that one for a really good price recently. One of the bargain hunter sites found it for a really good price. Of course, as soon as they list something it is only a matter of an hour or two before things are sold out.

 

I am nitpicking here, but as a CS/EE guy, this is really important to me:

Lossless compression means that the decompressed signal is not just indistinguishable from the original signal, it is in fact identical.

This is important because, well, let's take an example: mp3. A lot of the compression is achieved by stripping out frequencies and patterns that the normal human ear can't hear. Thusly, the decompressed signal is indistinguishable to the majority of people, but it is not truly identical.

But to some people, it is distinguishable from the master. They're rare, but they do occur.

Lossless is superior to lossy compression in that it has perfect fidelity to the original, but a good lossy compression can provide a good tradeoff between lost data and what you really need -- just like mp3 does for the vast majority of people.

 

That's a good distinction to make.

By "indistinguishable" I meant "identical in side-by-side comparison using a sonic frequency analyzer" but the way you put that is much more clear. Thanks. I'll edit the original to reflect the more accurate description.

 

Also, since someone linked the antenna thread, and Norm was talking about amplifying the signal, I'll let you guys know something you'd learn in an electrical engineering class:

First rule: You want to get as much unpowered gain from the antenna as you possibly can. Powered gain adds noise (reducing signal to noise, here after referred to as SNR), a better antenna does not.

Second rule: When you're receiving ANY signal, if you're going to put in powered amplification, you want the amplifier to be as close to the antenna as is possible; ie, if you can hook it directly to the output of the antenna without any intervening cable, that is ideal. You also want as few "stages" as possible.

The short of it is that each successive stage of amplification (this includes the unpowered antenna AND the path loss along any cabling!) adds noise and has a *tremendously* reduced ability to increase your SNR compared to the previous stage.

Mathematically, the formula looks something like this:

Ftotal = F1 + (F2-1)/G1 + (F3-1)/G1G2 + (F4-1)/G1G2G3 + ...

Where Fn is the noise figure (defined as SNR of input divided by SNR of output) of stage n. Gn is the gain of stage n. If you're mathematically inclined, you can see that each successive stage has hugely diminishing returns -- and as I mentioned, each stage actually adds some noise, dependant on the quality of the amplifier/cabling/etc.

Third rule: You want as little cabling as possible. Cabling is necessary to carry the signal, but it also does cause some signal degradation.

 

There's going to be some rather big announcements at CES coming up real quick here.

A couple things have already been announced, the biggest being that LG has developed a dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player and apparently has the licensing worked out, something many insiders thought was never going to happen.

 

And statements like this is why we always made fun of EE majors. :texan:

 

Another huge CES announcement:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/technology/04video.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Warner Studios is going to produce hybrid BD/HD DVD discs that will play on either player. VERY smart move.

 

Finally someone is getting smart.

 

OK, ok, I know all this, but what would be typical numbers to look for when shopping? How much should I worry about spending and everything else? What is the best for the money?

Great post though.