Hey all. New guy here. Recently purchased a 37" Philips (37PF9631D) LCD HDTV w/ Ambilight. I currently have nothing hooked up to this to get the HDTV - straight coax cable is what I am going off of. I was wondering what I need to purchase to get the most out of the HDTV experience. Obviously I'm going to need to get a digital cable box from our cable provider first - but as far as cords/cables, components, and hardware (HD-DVD/Blu-Ray) - what would you all recommend? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

- Pierce

How far do you want to go?
For best video transfer, use HDMI or DVI cables.
For sound surround is the way to go!! 5.1 or the latest is 7.1
Your budget will determine what you should buy.
For other sources, again budget!
If you go DVD try one that upconverts the signal.

If you get a cable box HDMI/DVI may not be active. It depends upon your local market. You may be interersted in reading this article before buying any cables. http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/122868.html The bottom line is: " . . .there's no good way, in principle, to say in advance whether the digital or the analog connection will render a better picture. "

As far as the cables go, any brands I need to keep an eye out for? Monster?

And regarding HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, is it really worth it to purchase these just yet, or would it be better to wait til the prices drive down? I've heard of those DVD's that upconvert the signal - how are those?

As far as the cables go, any brands I need to keep an eye out for? Monster?

Monoprice or Blue Jeans Cable (links at the top.) Monster is good, but markup on those is high.


And regarding HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, is it really worth it to purchase these just yet, or would it be better to wait til the prices drive down?

Well, this is not an easy question. HD-DVD is supposed to get some lower priced players this summer, mostly Chinese made. No idea on Blu-Ray's price drops, although most regard the PS3 as a pretty good player (although it doesn't upconvert standard DVDs, which is a minus in my opinion.) xBox 360 addon is also got a lot of fans. I would personally wait for players to drop, and maybe pick up both formats, unless you want one or both gaming systems.

I've heard of those DVD's that upconvert the signal - how are those?

I have one and I love it. I compared it to a regular DVD player and it does add a lot. Keep in mind some of the HD-DVD players (and maybe some of the Blu-Ray) upconvert, too, so you can play both standard DVDs at improved quality and get HD quality from the HD-DVD format, too.

It appears that your set has a built-in ATSC tuner, which along with an antenna, will allow you to receive over the air (OTA) HD broadcasts.

In addition, the set appears to have a built-in QAM tuner, which will allow you to receive unscrambled digital cable channels, which usually include HD network channels.

Have you performed a cable channel scan? If you already have, you may already have a few HD channels to view.

i did, i noticed some channels come in at like 110.15 or something...but its hard to view those. if i do receive them, they take a while to show on screen - kind of a pain, really.