Recession? What recession? If you want to experience the ultimate in giant-size HDTV technology, all you need is about $20,000 in loose change. The 70-inch Sony Bravia XBR7 packs all the latest features, including a 120Hz frame rate, 1080p resolution, 24p True Cinema, 10-bit processing, and a laundry list of others into a giant package.
Amazon.com is offering several 32- to 42-inch HDTVs, including two Panasonic Plasma sets and a Sony Bravia XBR6, at a price point of around $1000 for the winter season. Check them out here:
The recent economic downturn and rising gas prices in the US have had some pretty significant effects on the way we spend our money lately. The HDTV industry is being affected too, but in a more subtle way than you might have thought.
Are we passing on the latest technology, and saving that money for the uncertain future? Of course not! Well, many of us are not. It seems that people are still buying HDTV sets as fast as they were last year, but are stepping down in size to save a few hundred bucks. The Samsung HDTV line includes several models at or below the $1000 price point. Most of these are 32 inches or smaller, but some have a 40 inch screen. And the Vizio HDTV lineup has several LCD sets, in the same size range, selling for $500 to $800.
Making the jump from regular TV to HDTV usually means switching from a square-ish screen to a flatter, more rectangular screen. Speaking technically, most of the TV screens we are used to have a 4 to 3 aspect ratio, meaning they are 3/4 as high as they are wide. Almost all HDTV sets have the “widescreen” format, with the slightly more movie-like 16 to 9 aspect ratio.
So, if you want to replace that old Trinitron with a similar-sized HDTV, you’ll need to do a little (very little) geometry to make sure your viewing experience will actually be better.
TV sets are measured diagonally, from corner to corner. So, because of its flatter shape, a 25 inch widescreen HDTV will be wider than a 25 inch regular TV, but will be lower in height. To match the height of a 25 inch regular TV (which is 15 inches, incidentally), a widescreen would need a diagonal measurement of 30.6 inches:
Maintaining the same picture height is important, because there’s still a lot of content out there that is designed for the old 4:3 format. This is what happens to regular content on a widescreen:
So, your new HDTV will need to be about 20 percent bigger, in the diagonal measurement, to display standard content as big as you are used to seeing it. If not, a good portion of the shows you watch will actually be smaller on the widescreen.
Of course, the easy option is just to “go big” with the new set. The extreme sharpness of HDTV, especially 1080p HDTV, makes it hard to go wrong by going too big.
Digital TV and HDTV have been changing the way we entertain ourselves for a while now: super-lifelike images, integration with computers, and near-effortless access to content are just a few of the things that make it feel like future technology is coming to fruition now.
But, there’s one aspect of HDTV technology that makes us feel like it’s still the 20th Century: all those damn wires to trip on. Your cell phone doesn’t need wires. Why should your TV?
Luckily, there’s a movement in the electronics industry dedicated to establishing a new standard for wireless transmission of high definition audio and video content. It’s called the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) Special Interest Group, and has been established between Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Motorola, Ammion, and Hitachi. They are hoping to implement the new standard in a video-modem that can transmit 1080p HD content, wirelessly on the 5GHz band, throughout several rooms in a house.
For more information, check out WHDI’s news page or their FAQ page.
Samsung’s new 120 Hz, 1080p, super-fast and super-sharp A650 is winning huge praise from consumers for its performance and quality. None of its specs are much different from the other top-of-the-line LCDs, like those from Sony and Sharp, though. So why is the Samsung so hot?
A high performance HDTV is a fickle beast, and those exciting new features sometimes come at the expense of something else, like reliability or display problems. The LN46A650 seems to be one of the first HDTVs to blend all the latest features into a good, solid, reliable package.
Check it out here: Samsung LN46A650
And more from Samsung, by way of FlatHDTV.net: Samsung’s HDTV Lineup
