Slightly dissapointed watching HDTV

Not to over state the obvious but you were watching one particular movie on
a particular set with a particular cableco and its hardware which suggests
that such a unique set of circumstances should not be used to wisely accept
or reject any technology.
YMMV

"Anon" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit
'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the
box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

Well lets face it. There are an awful lot of gotcha's with hdtv reception.

1. While a movie may be transmitted in hd, the original source may not have
been real hd.

2. The set may have been upconverting 480i to 1080i

3. The hdtv set may need adjustment.

4. What input was being used for the cable box. If it was s-video then true
hd would have been impossible.

I do agree though that just because you have an expensive hdtv set, you may
not get get better looking results than say a conventional good quality sd
set. Many people have reported dvd actually looking worse on an hdtv
becasue all of the imperfections will show up.

Its all in the details of your equipment and how well the components work
together.

1. Is everything adjusted properly

2. Are you using the best quality input

3. Does your set do 3:2 pulldown and anti-alias

4. How well does the mpeg decoder work. etc....

Any weak link can make for a lousy picture and frankly there are a lot a
questionable quality units (the price does not mean quality).

Richard R.


"Anon" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit
'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the
box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

Anon wrote:

Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit 'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

=======

If the cable company carried them, you should
have caught some of the live football
Thanksgiving--or other live 1080i or 720p
shows at any time. They're typical of the
best that HD can deliver at the moment.
Telecined films (copied to tape or other
media) vary widely in HD quality, and the
original film print may have been too 'soft'
to start with, or the director may have aimed
for a softer look by using camera filters.

Also, catch some programming that offers more
HD 'impact' because it's taped directly at
1080/60i (60 fields per second), not at the
24 frames per second of films or 1080/24p
tape of most TV productions; these are
converted to 1080/60i to make them compatible
with 1080i HD broadcasts. NBC's late-night
Leno is taped at 1080/60i, and so are many
PBS productions such as their nearly
continuous 'loop' or Rudy Maxa travelogues.
Most HDNet (DirecTV and some cable) or
Discovery Theater productions are also
1080/60i tapes. The 60 field-per-second
capture of this direct taping makes images
smoother and usually 'crisper' than 24 fps
capture with 3:2 pulldown, the technique that
repeats 24p frames to achieve 1080/60i
compatability.
John

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:58:36 -0500, "MrMike"
wrote:

Not to over state the obvious but you were watching one particular movie on
a particular set with a particular cableco and its hardware which suggests
that such a unique set of circumstances should not be used to wisely accept
or reject any technology.
YMMV


This is exactly what I have been saying about HDTV. Many people's
first exposure to HD is similar to this. Movie quality varies all
over the place and many times gives the viewer a less than exciting
first look at HD. The best example of what HDTV can be are some of
the programs on INHD like "space" yesterday or better still are HD
football games on ESPNHD.
Thumper
"Anon" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit
'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the
box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--





To reply drop XYZ in address

You think YOU have it bad, I bought my Toshiba Widescreen HDTV 18-months ago
and there's STILL nothing to watch unless you like endless reruns of "C"
movies on HBO, SHOW, and HDNET.

ESPNHD has maybe 2 HD games a week. CBS primetime is a horrid non-watchable
mess that caters to the uneducated masses. They have one game of the week.

DISCHD is endless reruns. If I see one more HD iguana, I'm going to puke.

18-months later and the programming is no better than it was then. My set is
18-months old and getting older everyday. It's $$ down the drain.



on" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit
'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the
box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

Anon wrote:
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time.
I was at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55"
Mitsubishi rear projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a
channel called INHD. I noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV
cable box. When I hit 'info' on the remote, it indicated that the
input was 1080I so I know that the box was sending out the movie in
High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly
not worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

It depends. I have a 55" mits and my INHD 1 and 2 from Comcast are crystal,
as well as any OTA offerings.
It could be the set is out of calibration, a poor signal, bad cables or
connections, using the wrong input, etc.

Why are you watching this "non-watchable" stuff? To get your money's worth?
Why not sell the set and move on with your life. Or maybe get a life.

Bearman

"Stan" wrote in message
hlink.net...
You think YOU have it bad, I bought my Toshiba Widescreen HDTV 18-months
ago
and there's STILL nothing to watch unless you like endless reruns of "C"
movies on HBO, SHOW, and HDNET.

ESPNHD has maybe 2 HD games a week. CBS primetime is a horrid
non-watchable
mess that caters to the uneducated masses. They have one game of the week.

DISCHD is endless reruns. If I see one more HD iguana, I'm going to puke.

18-months later and the programming is no better than it was then. My set
is
18-months old and getting older everyday. It's $$ down the drain.



on" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I
was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit
'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the
box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

within these hallowed halls Anon of added the following
to the collective concience:
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time.
I was at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55"
Mitsubishi rear projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a
channel called INHD. I noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV
cable box. When I hit 'info' on the remote, it indicated that the
input was 1080I so I know that the box was sending out the movie in
High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good put certainly
not worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

I'd seen the same argument years ago about Laserdisc. High quality sources
are only as good as the weakest link, which may be the source material or a
piece in the production chain.

As to your concerns, *YES* it is worth that much.

Perhaps the set wasn't calibrated? Or perhaps the movie was upsampled
from a DVD (could happen).

HDTV's do look better than regular TV's, but I'm guessing the average
person (not a hobbyist or early adopter) won't pay 5-10 times as much for
one, over a regular TV. Even if they can see the improvement. When they
get down to less than twice what a regular TV costs, then maybe people will
start snapping them up.

"Anon" wrote in message news:[email protected]_s53...
Yesterday I had the opportunity of watching HDTV for the first time. I was
at a friends house for Thanksgiving and they had a 55" Mitsubishi rear
projection TV. The movie Home alone 2 was on a channel called INHD. I
noticed that it was coming from a Comcast HDTV cable box. When I hit 'info'
on the remote, it indicated that the input was 1080I so I know that the box
was sending out the movie in High Definition.

Is there something I'm missing?? The picture was good but certainly not
worth paying 4-6K dollars. --Greg--

If necessary, email me privately at this address:
GREG DOT CA AT ATTBI DOT COM

Thanks --Greg--

Yes, movies are about the worst examples of HDTV you can find. If they were ever photographed
in the degree of resolution that HDTV is capable of displaying, by the time they reach the
airwaves, most have been filtered and softened to fit within the bandwidth of DVD or worse.
There is one place you'll easily recognize full HD bandwidth pictures on network shows - - the
"showoff" aerial shots of Miami or Las Vegas that open segments of "CSI Miami" and "CSI" - - and
they are truly astounding. If they don't look that exceptional, then there's something else
wrong in the electronic or optical path to your screen. It's too bad these beautifully detailed
pictures only last a few seconds before "getting on with the story".

Sports like football and tennis in HD are usually very good (except as done by FOX, usually
baseball, where the poorer resolution is termed ED, or Extended Definition - - their choice to
send, your choice to switch to something better). The PBS HD demo travelogues as photographed
from helicopters are always impressive, too.

We are all looking forward to the day when movies in full HD will be available on electronic
media - - for network or personal use. That day hasn't arrived.