[PCWorld]

Post your comments for 10 Things to Do When You're Ready to Buy an HDTV here

[ushere]

no mention at all about screen resolution!

[BeckyWaring]

Yes, we deliberately did not mention anything about resolution or other tech specs. For those you are referred to the three articles mentioned in the second paragraph. This article was designed to focus on shopping tips only: how to evaluate HDTVs in the store, get the best price, choose a delivery method, etc. Hope that clarifies things a little.

[jmgweb01]

Fatal flaw in my case, was I didn't check in advance to make sure my satellite TV provider could find a location on my house/property had a spot with a clear view of the five satellites required to get HDTV. The installer crawled all over my roof and half-acre property, but there were two many trees around the area (on other people's properties) to get a line-of-sight that would be acceptable. So now I have a $3K HD-capable TV, but no way to get the signal. Unless the provider switches the signals to a single satellite in the future (part of their current plan), then I'll have to switch my service to cable at additional expense. - jmg

[jmgweb01]

Great article! On the "Consider installation Service" point, I'd say it's not worth the money. I paid $350 to Best Buy for installation/setup which they contracted out to Geek Squad. After taking time off-work so I could be present during the 0730-1200 "window" offered, the guy didn't show. Next available appointment was 8 days away. I opened and installed the $3K Samsung system myself (it was about as complicated as a DVD player). After following the brochure instructions, I had it up and running - but no sound. I called the manufacturer (Samsung), got immediately through to a tech support guy who instantly diagnosed my problem (RF cables switched), and I was done -20 minutes total from box to completion. I took my receipt back to Best Buy, who refunded my $350.

[Adama]

Hi, JMG and welcome to PCWorld. Good job on the self-installation, I'm glad to know it's not hard to do.

In your first post you mentioned that you had the system but could not get HD reception - were you able to get reception after all? If your Samsung has HD built-in, then all you need is to connect to your regular cable and you should be ok.

Sounds like you got a pretty cool system. Hope you enjoy it. :)

[jmgweb01]

Thanks for reaching out... Haven't made the conversion to cable yet, because Quest/DirecTV claims they will be done with their HD channel roll-out by April 08. After that, they are supposedly going to reassign all their channels to a single satellite; at which time I'll be able to find a good look-angle to receive. If this turns out to be just hype or their "plan" gets extended, I will cancel Quest/DirecTV and switch to our local cable provider, COMCAST. As with everything, there are pros and cons. For example, switching to cable - I have to buy the unscrambler box to get the sports channels I'm getting now under DirecTV. The other thing is currently I have my entire package "TV, Internet, Phone, Cell" under a single service bill with Quest; so I will either have to pay a higher monthly fee for the remaining bundle under Quest or pay start-up fees for switching the whole kit & caboodle to COMCAST to get their "bundle" of discounts. Finally, the program schedule under COMCAST is not as logical/convenient as it is under Quest/DirecTV; for example, under Quest/DirecTV my wife gets seven quilt/sewing shows in a row every Saturday morning from 8 - 11:30am. Under COMCAST cable, you only get four of the seven programs offered by Quest, and they're spread all over the week at odd hours, like 2am; so we'd have to get TIVO and pre-record them all ourselves to watch them at a convenient time. Same problem with sports programs/games.... pros & cons. Someday Verizon will come in and replace them all with user-select-and-pay scheduling in HD via cable. Can't wait.... jmg

[Adama]

My goodness, I hope that your Quest/Direct TV gets it all together for you. Because if you have to switch to Comcast, I think you'll have to put out a huge expense outfront, just to be able to get close to what you have now.

I myself do not like those "boxes" to be able to watch the Digital package from Comcast. I like to record one show while I watch another, but the box won't allow you to do that.

I do think that Verizon is getting ready to make some changes, but don't know too much about it yet.

I feel that as subscribers to Cable, we should be able to choose what channels we want to watch. I've had Comcast for years and years, and out of 82 channels, I only watch maybe 14, 20 at the most. C'est la vie. :( And they increased their prices for Standard Cable (which is what I have) from $56.80 per month, to $59+.

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

Grrrrrr!!

[baksdad]

I was looking at a Sony Blu-Ray machine yesterday and noticed that one of the requirements was that it be connected to a 1080p TV. My TV (also a Sony) is 1080i. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else and I'm wondering if that means that I won't be able to play Blu-Ray discs through my TV.

[BeckyWaring]

Hi Baksdad -- There is no problem viewing 1080p Blu-ray discs on a 1080i TV, or even a 720p or standard-definition TV, for that matter. However, you will only see the highest video resolution your TV is capable of, in this case 1080i. Some information will be lost in anything less than a 1080p TV. If you want to see what you'll be missing, go to a big electronics store and do a side-by-side comparison. The larger your screen, the more apparent the difference will be. It's not huge, though.

[baksdad]

Becky,

First off, thanks for your very prompt reply. Yes, I know that 1080i will not give me as smooth of a picture as 1080p. I'm willing to live with that considering that I was able to get my 60" Sony LCOS TV for less than 1/2 the original price due to it's having been an end-of-model sale.