Top 10 HD Misunderstandings
It pains me to surf the Internet and read the horror stories of people buying a Vizio at Wal-Mart, plugging it into analogue cable and wondering why “this new fancy HD” looks like ass. There are a lot of myths about HD and even more misinformation out there. Electronic stores are pushing under-trained employees to sell more and mass media always seems to get things just a little off. So hopefully I can clear up some of what I think are popular misunderstandings and myths about HDTV.
10. Digital is good, analogue is bad
Yes, digital is in most cases better, but there is no reason to run from everything analogue. HDMI is a great way of cabling your AV setup but for the most part it just isn’t practical for everything. It gives sharp detail and exacting color but there are situations where component connections can come in handy. While HDMI is exacting component can be warm and enriching. Sort of like the difference between vinyl records and CDs, component can add a subtle softness to HD movies and up-converted DVDs that helps give the picture a more cinematic feel. While the advantages on most TVs are debatable a best, the fact is that component is cheap and more common than it’s digital cousins, so don’t give up on Y’PbPr. VGA connections can also be useful, DVI is a good choice for hooking up your HTPC, but most TVs only offer 1:1 pixel mapping on their VGA port.
9. Bigger is always better
Lets face it, TVs have gotten bigger and more expensive. The prices of HD sets have fallen like a rock but a nice display still does not cost what a TV did 10 years ago. While a lot of people were content with a 30″ set in the 90’s many people these days have sets in the 40″ and 50″ range. Just because you can afford a 60″ display doesn’t mean you should.
This chart is a life saver (It’s not mine, and I do not pretend to claim ownership of it.) As with 720p/1080p so much comes down to how you are planning to watch your TV. The bigger your display the worse the picture will look. I know that is a pretty big generalization but it really is something to think about, especially if you are planning to watch a lot of up-converted content. The things to look for when buying an HDTV are contrast ratio, inputs, tuners, resolution and brand.
8. Letter-boxing/Pillar-boxing ruins your life, kicks your dog and makes the world come to a swift end.
Okay most people aren’t that dramatic about it but my parents (and probably yours too) still don’t own a single wide screen movie. There are now two major formats for TV, and neither 4:3 or 16:9 are going anywhere. That’s right, 4:3 will be around for years to come, so just as people should have gotten use to letter-boxing people are now going to have to deal with pillar-boxing. Personal preference is one thing, but I just want to make it clear that when you see black bars on the top and bottom or left and right of your picture you are probably not missing anything. Chances are you are getting more picture, so relax and in a few minutes your eyes will ignore the black areas in the same way that they ignore the giant expanse of wall, ceiling and floor that also surround your TV.
7. On an HDTV everything is HD!!!
Life in HD is all rainbows and butterflies, this IS true :D Although just because you picked up that Vizio doesn’t mean that you are now living in Hi-Def. I’ll talk about HD cable and OTA a bit later but the fact is that if you have an HDTV you need HD content, there is nothing else like it. DVDs look pretty good and most video games are crisp but regular old TV will look worse. That’s right there are things that do in fact look worse on HDTVs. Your regular analogue cable channels (CNN, Comedy Central, VH-1) will have to be up-converted and the process is not good to them. As a general rule everything looks better at it’s native resolution, if you’ve ever used the digital zoom on a camcorder or tried to print a photo from a thumbnail you know what I’m talking about. Up-converting SD to HD means blowing up the image up to 4x, this just exploits the problems and imperfections of SD and leaves you with a lot to be desired from your new TV.
6. All “flat screens” are HD
I don’t like the term flat screen because it draws attention to the one things that is probably the least important factor in buying an HDTV. How many inches deep the TV happens to be. Sure hanging your TV was awesome in 2001, but today the novelty has worn off and unless it really fits in with your decor the cool-ness of “flat screens” was over awhile ago. That being said, I do own an LCD and I do like it. Again, when buying an HDTV contrast ratio, inputs, tuners, resolution and brand are what you look for, not how thin it is.
5. Plasmas will burn in like leathery skinned cougars
While a Plasma TV that was on store shelves five years ago might have burned in with anything static today’s plasma displays are not nearly as delicate. While burn in is still something to contend with, some basic maintenance and planning will eliminate most any problems. I’d still be weary about leaving a plasma on CNN all day, every day. But for your average user, even cheap plasmas shouldn’t be much of a concern.
4. LCDs/Plasmas/LoCOS/DLP suck for Gaming/Movies/TV/HTPC
There is a lot of choice in the HDTV market and thank God (or Allah or yourself or Ramesses II) for that because there are advantages and disadvantages for each type of display. The technology behind just about all kinds of HDTVs have grown so much in the past few years that all types are viable options for almost all applications. LCDs are faster, Plasmas cheaper and DLPs have affordable and practical bulbs. If someone says “well don’t buy ____ because of _____” please look into it. The different display types all have different price points and options, I love my LCD, but I also love my father’s LCD projection. In the end there are many things more important to think about than LCD vs Plasma vs DLP vs whatever, there are even still some CRT TVs that are viable options.
3. That guy at Best Buy knew what he was talking about
I’ve known a lot of people who got through high-school or college by working at Best Buy or CompUSA or other stores like them, and while most of them knew a lot about electronics there is no guarantee that anyone within 100 feet of your local big box store has any idea what the hell is going on. Brick and mortar stores should be a part of anyone’s buying experience but take all advice (including this article) with a grain of salt. Your average store employee knows jack shit about HD, they are going to walk you around and read you what the little card in front of the TV says. I am continually amazed at the sorts of lies and half truths that are told just to sell TVs. People at Best Buy or COSTCO or heaven forbid, Wal-Mart are not your friends, they want you to buy their products, and there is no accountability if they just make stuff up. AVS forum, howstuffworks.com, SA and even Wikipedia.org are good places to start. Read up and educate your self before buying, and never feel pressured to close the deal on the spot. If a an employee at Best Buy wants your business ask for a business card or their name and tell them you’ll return when you’ve given the purchase some more thought.
2. 1080i is inferior to 720p which is finger paint to 1080p Van Gogh
Brace yourselves, someone on the Internet is bringing up 1080i/720p… heck he’s even throwing 1080p into the mix.
First off I revert to the chart on myth 9, on the vast majority of displays in the vast majority living rooms you WILL NOT see a clear difference between HD’s three unruly children 1080i, 720p and 1080p. Interlaced is NOT always worse than progressive, in fact there is a good chance that, any piece of 720p content you see on TV was 1080i at some point. The filters and deinterlacers in displays have come a long way and interlaced video is, in most cases, not a big deal. 1080p is king, there is no doubt, but with the current state of MPEG-2 encoders you won’t see TV stations broadcasting it any time soon, if ever. 720p and 1008p sets are great but 1080i is not a deal breaker. And for the record, 1080i is higher resolution than 720p, those who think otherwise can not use a calculator, a 1080i field is bigger than a 720p frame, and there are twice as many of them.
1. Expensive cable or satellite is the only way to get HD
Don’t get me started on DirecTV’s 150 HD channels or the picture quality debate between cable and satellite. You see, there is a light at the end of the tunnel… FREE HD! The guy at Best Buy gets kick backs from DirecTV and your cable operator is just trying to hold on for dear life, the only thing you really need to get HD is a $20 pair of rabbit ears. Yea, you probably have a pair already, while some older antenna’s filter out the right frequencies, almost all antennas will get you beautiful HD channels. These are your local channels, no HBO or Discovery HD Theater here, but it beats the crap out of analogue cable or regular off air. Another great, yet mostly unknown option is the QAM tuner. Most cable companies have agreements with local TV stations to carry their channels, in some areas they are even required to by law. So if you have regular ol’ cable or maybe just cable internet you can get local HD channels without a cable-box. A QAM tuner is the same thing that is in an HD cable box only it just reads the un-encrypted channels. Local stations (and sometimes others, but that is a no no) are not encrypted and with a QAM tuner you can pick em up. However a QAM tuner is usually not a published feature on TVs, and that guy at Best Buy will have no idea what you are talking about. So do some research and don’t be afraid to ask to see a manual. A QAM tuner is a great, free, and of course legal way of getting HD channels.
The key with buying an HDTV is asking questions. There are a lot of resources out there to help even the most novice buyer… unfortunately it does take some effort. Don’t worry, in the end, it’s definitely worth it.
David Hildreth
August 22nd, 2007 17:57
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August 22nd, 2007 21:36
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August 22nd, 2007 22:02
Although this article is very helpful to the consumer, I cannot see myself endorsing it based of its blatant biased towards best buy. Yes large electronic retail corporations do not normally hire experts with years of experience in any of their departments, whether it be home theater, digital imaging, computers etc. but to say that every person you speak to in these stores knows jack shit and is trying to rip you off is ridiculous. I work for a best buy store, i know what a qam tuner is, what tv’s have them, and i gladly tell my customers about them, as well as over the air free HD etc. we make an hourly wage, not commission, it blows but its a good part time job and i’m not a brainwashed douche bag looking to screw people, nor are 99% of my coworkers. I can make just as a big a sale telling the truth and not having the tv be returned. why don’t you go into more than one store, do a little more research and talk to more than a few employees.
August 22nd, 2007 22:03
p.s. i will be using that chart on resolutions. it is a great tool. thanks!
August 22nd, 2007 22:14
ok cool except for the reasoning on “cant tell the difference for 1080 and 720″ - here the problem is that most all source hd is in bad shape… so getting a pixel for pixel image from blu-ray or VC-1 in HD-DVD is the only way to know. most cable and OTA is pathetic, the occasional Discovery HD that was done well will prove that 1mpix 1366×768 is not as good as 2mpix 1920×1080. Thanks for pointing out that distance to screen and screen size matters, as does your eyesight quality.
for sharp eyed people who love detail , 50″ and up has to be 1080.
My favorite thing is older people that say HD isnt any better, and thats because they dont posess sharp eyesight, for them a 1366 display with great blacks is the right choice. The fact is that 1080i is the broadcast std that will previal and if that is not all blocky mpegged to death, and properly scaled down to 1366 by the display firmware, it will make a great image.
love the way your write- keep doing it
August 23rd, 2007 01:08
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August 23rd, 2007 07:33
The http://realht.info take from Marshall…
Meh, I’m about 50/50 on this guy’s take on things. Not a complete point by point, but here’s the highlights:
10) I don’t buy into the whole “soften up the picture for a more cinematic feel”, and component cables are no cheaper than HDMI, most are more expensive. Now if you’re talking about TV sets that support component vs. component and HDMI, yes they are cheaper, but I wouldn’t buy one today.
9) Misses the point. Seating distance and size are equaly important. Got a 42″ 1080p but want a bigger picture, don’t buy a bigger set, scoot your lazy butt up.
8) Unless your talking 2.35, all letter boxing must go. It has to do with filling your field of view (which is rectangular, not square), use a smart stratch feature for 4:3 material.
7)Mostly spot on, but some TVs, usually crt proj, upscale SD very nicely, while others, usually digital, actually create flaws that aren’t in the original signal. You TV can be to blame for making SD look worse, don’t blame just the content.
6) Right on, especially is your flat screen is sitting on a TV rack, whih is probably about 50% of flatscreens sold. Flatscreens do have the major advantage of not blowing bulbs, usually in the middle of a big sporting event.
5) Spot on.
4) Ditto.
3) As a former BB employee, you are right, but relatedly see point 1…And Wal-mart employees don’t care if you buy shit or not. They’re just putting in their 8 hours, and going home.
2) Yep.
1) Again, right, except for those of us living in a river valley or in the middle of nowhere. Over the air HD is no where to be found. And BB employees don’t get any significant kickbacks. I was once part of a contest to win a $15 mall gift card. Whoop dee friggin doo.
August 23rd, 2007 07:50
#9 is very misleading. 90% of HDTV purchasers are not seeing real HD because their screen is too small. I bet that you have never seen a HDTV with an inferior HD picture because it was too large.
August 23rd, 2007 11:08
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August 23rd, 2007 12:32
Best Buy is complete and utter garbage, nuff said. Do yourself a favor and, after you use Best Buy’s showroom to visually compare HDTVs walk out of the store, go home, log onto the Internet and go order the same TV shipped directly to your home for less.
Same goes for all “big box” electronics retailers, only a small percentage of the employees are knowledgeable about their products or their features. I went around a few months ago looking for standalone HD tuners and I got a consistent “huh what’s that” response everywhere I went.
August 23rd, 2007 14:02
ok for one i agree with the best buy guy even though it makes me sad in my happy place to do so. i work at Circuit City and every single person in my department knows what a QAM tuner is and what tvs have it. most even know the different levels of QAM. Like he said we arent on commission. i get paid the same whether you buy a 50″ plasma or 13″ tube. I like the chart and i will show my fellow associates to see what they think. Give some retailers credit…we know what we are talking about the problem is breaking it down to customers who may not be in the know. Thank You though
August 24th, 2007 18:07
Se7enwolf you don’t have a clue.
The signal from ATSC (OTA HD in the US) is not slower. There are plenty of cities in the US that broadcast ATSC. Use google. ATSC signals are in the UHF range.
I still love the slower comment. Please read on electromagnetics. Is your cell phone call slower than a land line? Do you sound like you are talking slower to the person on the other end?
August 28th, 2007 14:22
he he…you are a smarty-pants
August 28th, 2007 15:26
I’ve been working in the electronics business for over 8 years, selling and repairing and the whole bit. Last year i was looking for a new job and i went around and talked to the guys at best buy, and circuit city, and other big places like that. I asked them all the questions i thought someone ask about computers, TVs, stereos, etc. And i agree with this guy. They didn’t have a clue. So rather than be associated with those guys i got a job with an internet retailer that really knows their products. We really specialize in video equipment. We don’t sell the actual TVs, but a lot of high end (by high end i’m talking stuff up to $70,000-$100,000) video matrices, baluns, and converters. Then we also sell a lot of regular video converters for home use. I talk to people every day who are all “so and so at best buy told me that i could convert HDMI to composite and it would look just as good” or other rediculous comments. I don’t mean to bash you guys personally, you may be an exception, but most of ‘em are clueless.
I agree with pretty much everything said in this article.
September 2nd, 2007 17:04
I second the big box store bashing. Like jon said, you guys may be an exception…. But most of the time i go into a futureshop/bestbuy i leave with a headache because i cannot believe how useless most sales people are there. Sorry that they get the most centered out but they are the 2 most common in canada. There are others as well that drive me nuts. I’m no expert and i don’t claim to be, but i took post secondary electronics engineering technology, now work in the satellite telecom industry… So i have a good idea when someone has no clue. If you read this objectivley he isn’t biased he’s encouraging you to do your homework, which you should be doing anyway
Good article
November 20th, 2007 07:31
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February 3rd, 2008 10:25
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