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is anyone else confused as CRAP with all of this HD stuff?

I mean theres about a million different terms-
HD-ready, HDTV, HD component cables, HD-DVD, HD Service, 480i, 480p, 720p, etc.

I really have no idea what all exactly i need to get the best hd quality there is. anyone wanna help me out

Sure. How much do you want to spend, and what do you want to do with it?

the best HD Quality is 1080p with Deep Colour and HDMI1.3.

Now you'll need to make some choices...

Screen Size (32", 40", 45", 50", 60") they're probably the only sizes you'll want to concern yourself with, HD is pointless on a TV smaller than 32"

Screen Technology (LCD, Plasma, DLP, Projector) I personally prefer LCDs as plasmas tend to burn out after 7years. But there are lots of people that prefer plasmas for the picture.

Resolution (720p, 1080i, 1080p) 720p is bare minimum for HD, personally I don't think its that great but you can judge for yourself, 1080i is great for sports as it offers a greater frame rate, Also most US TV is transmitted in 1080i (I think), 1080p is the mother of all HD resolutions, But you'll need an expensive games console or movie player to get the most out of it, because it is just too big to transmit effectively.

DVD Player (DVD Upscaler, HDDVD, Blu-Ray) A DVD upscaler is probably the cheapest of the three costing about $400, It takes a regular DVD and converts it so that the resoulution is higher. They also try and get rid of jaggies and blocking that occurs when something is upscaled. Next is HDDVD, which is the backwards compatible with DVD version of the next gen disk storage. Each disk can hold up to 60GB (at the moment) and the two ways of getting it at the moment are an Xbox 360 with HDDVD or the toshiba HD-*1 STB range. BluRay is sony's version, it isn't backward compatible with DVD and each disk can hold up to 80GB (at the moment). There are a few ways of getting it at the moment, the PS3, one of the few emerging STBs and there is also a 5.25" drive for computers. Currently I believe the best choice to be an xbox360 with HDDVD because its quite cheap, you get a kickass games console and the standard that has the most movie titles at the moment.


hope that helped

isn't it normally the old people that have trouble with this stuff?
or maybe you live a normal life, unlike the rest of us.
good for you! your daily life isn't plagued by computers!

I have a good 61 inch DLP screen, you going to want to connect anything HDMI capable(especially a cable box) to the HDMI for best possible picture. Second best is VGA... and then component.

Oops forgot connections

Yeah the ranking order for quality is as follows

HDMI
DVI
VGA
Component
SCART
S-Video
Composite
RF


and for audio

TOSLINK S/PDIF (Optical)
HDMI
Coaxial Digital
Analogue 6 cable
Analogue Stereo Cable
Analogue Mono Cable
RF

Well when I get my wii this is what im going to have.

a 20" flat tube tv (sorry im not rich enough for the million inch flatscreen)

what cables do I need to buy? and for like HD service from my cable provider, would that make any difference on a flat tube? thanks

A note about sizes. You may not want to get a huge TV if you have a small apartment. Also, 37" is a popular size for LCD HDTV's here. In fact, you can often find very attractive prices on 32" and 37" LCD's (though you may only get 720p/768p as opposed to 1080i/p). OD has a 32" LCD for $650, 37" LCD for $750, and 40ish" Plasma for $1000 right now.

I assumed most sports are broadcast in 720, as most HDTVs support 720p/1080i, and thus the progressive mode of 720 allows for less ghosting during fast framerates. Again, I'm assuming on this one as I don't make use of HD programming.

DVD upconverters are less than $100 USD nowadays dark

Most likely, just the cables that come with the Wii will be adequate, and you can get HD service from your cable company, but will not be able to watch it in HD format (if at all, not sure).

Check the back of your TV. If you have three plugs in a line that are BLUE, GREEN, and RED, you may be able to play the Wii in progressive mode with component cables. YELLOW, RED, WHITE does not count.

That's the same as what I have. It doesn't support HD (and I assume yours doesn't either). The composite cables (the red, white, and yellow video cables) that came with the Wii work fine. But I've been looking for S-Video cables. S-Video is the best picture you can get on a non-HD TV. TVs like these normally output in 480i (I don't want to get too far into it but 480p is better), but with S-Video you'll display in 480p. S-Video has the same audio inputs (red and white) but the video end is larger and black.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDTV

I used to be just as confused as you and it took me a little while to get a grip on it all. But once you've got it, it's an easy concept to understand.

Thing about LCD and Plasma,
LCD does last a while and on my LCD monitor ive left it on all night sitting on 1 screen with no burn in.(multiple times) Problem is if you use it a lot over time the screen is going to begin dimming a bit and its also harder to find a great LCD screen. I would say a middle sized LCD would be the best picture quality for your money. Plasma just like LCD, everyone says better picture quality but to say the truth you wont notice unless you are super sharp to detail.

If you want size an quality though this generation of DLP are actually really good imo, best thing about DLP is when you get the dreaded dim you can just replace the bulb for $300. All HDTV's are going to look almost equally good though, with DLP though your going to get better contrast though(good thing) and price wise its much cheaper then LCD/Plasma.

Best way to test a tv is to bring your game console to the store and ask them if you can hook it up to a few tv's to test the quality of the TV... lets face it the tv's in the stores have a single split signal so the picture quality is garbage. If they are serious about selling you the TV they will have no problem letting you hook up your game console to a few tv's to test them out. If they dont, jsut move on to another store because they arent worth your time and money. Especially since all of our eyes are different and in the end its what looks the best for us. When you test the TV you really dont have to worry about specs long as you get one that supports the standard HD resolutions, and has the HDMI inputs and the such, standard features.

You could also wait, normal tv's right now are run on CRT technology and they cant get very large(standard definition tv's and special HD crt tv's). Overall these will last the longest and provide you with the best possible picture. There coming out with a technology that uses the old CRT standards to make a super HDTV(about the size of an DLP TV). It might be good to wait the year and see how those turn out considering they will probally be much much much better picture quality wise.

isn't this why they play the same tv station on, like, 50 different tv's?

Not over here I took a UK price and just did a rought conversion.

You guys don't know how lucky you are. It costs £200 for a basic upconverter over here (works out at about $400)

The split signal is horrible, it really degrades the picture quality to the point that its really tough to determine whether the tv is good or bad. They use one direct tv line for like 50+ tv's go figure lol so you definately wont get any good comparisoons besides basic brightness considering even that is usually messed up due to graininess.

got i saw the mother of all tv's today, it wasa at future shop. it was a sony HDtv.. im taking a wild guess but i think it was anyhwere between 90" -110" GOD DAMMIT i want it!, they were showcasing nba and zomg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!