Right now we have an 11-year-old TV that we use about 75% to watch DVDs, 15% to watch analog cable, much of it time shifted with a VHS VCR, and 10% to watch home video (DV).
We're in NW Philadelphia where there are about six OTA DTV broadcasters, and my location should be in a great spot to snag their signals, maybe even with an indoor antenna. My cable provider is Comcast, and there are posts here that when their HDTV boxes become available (soon) the network DTV signals that are now live at the cable heads will be viewable, and that by September HBO and another movie channel will be available on Comcast in HD. So, I have content available now or soon to be that I might actually watch. We will certainly still watch DVDs.
We're looking for a 16x9 display that will make the DVDs really nice, and that can handle the HD content that we might watch, too. A plasma display like the Panasonic 42" or a direct view CRT, rather than a RPTV or projector, seems to make sense because we read or knit while "watching" TV. I'm concerned, though, that a 42" plasma cannot do real 720p/1080i resolution, only 480p. I guess it's not much better on the direct view CRTs, either. Maybe if we really watch mostly DVDs that doesn't matter much, but could it be so expensive to get a display with native 1080i resolution?
Time shifting is important so I think an AccessDTV card in a PC might be better than another source. That way I can copy DTV content to hard disk for later viewing. A HTPC will also give me a good progressive source.
I think my only real requirement is that it be 16x9, though. I cannot see buying a 4x3.....
We're in NW Philadelphia where there are about six OTA DTV broadcasters, and my location should be in a great spot to snag their signals, maybe even with an indoor antenna. My cable provider is Comcast, and there are posts here that when their HDTV boxes become available (soon) the network DTV signals that are now live at the cable heads will be viewable, and that by September HBO and another movie channel will be available on Comcast in HD. So, I have content available now or soon to be that I might actually watch. We will certainly still watch DVDs.
We're looking for a 16x9 display that will make the DVDs really nice, and that can handle the HD content that we might watch, too. A plasma display like the Panasonic 42" or a direct view CRT, rather than a RPTV or projector, seems to make sense because we read or knit while "watching" TV. I'm concerned, though, that a 42" plasma cannot do real 720p/1080i resolution, only 480p. I guess it's not much better on the direct view CRTs, either. Maybe if we really watch mostly DVDs that doesn't matter much, but could it be so expensive to get a display with native 1080i resolution?
Time shifting is important so I think an AccessDTV card in a PC might be better than another source. That way I can copy DTV content to hard disk for later viewing. A HTPC will also give me a good progressive source.
I think my only real requirement is that it be 16x9, though. I cannot see buying a 4x3.....
