Electronics & Gadgets

Readers Respond: Are You Happy With Your HDTV?

Responses: 7

By Robert Silva, About.com Guide

From the article: What You Need To See High Definition on an HDTV

Many consumers, after they purchase their HDTV, assume that everything they will watch on it is in High Definition. Needless to say, many are disappointed when they find out that their VHS videos and analog cable channels many times actually look worse on their new HDTV than they did on their old analog set. In order to get the most out an HDTV, you need High Definition signal sources, such as HD Cable, HD Satellite, Upscaling DVD, or Blu-ray Disc. Are you using your HDTV to its fullest potential? Share your HDTV viewing experiences. Share Your Experience

HDTV and Audio

For great Home Theater, you MUST have a big screen! In Feb. 2011, I got a new Mitsubisihi 65" DLP HD set, viewing from 7-8 ft. away and feeding the audio to an audio receiver/Klipsch speaker system. Awesome in HD and full-spectrum audio! You cannot beat the combo of big-screen DLP TV at reasonable prices and excellent picture quality. Plasma cannot match it! Trust me, if you want Home Theater, get a big screen. In HD, you will not regret it. And up-scaled DVDs are almost as good, which is a pleasant surprise; that includes recording HD programs onto regular DVD and then playing it up-scaled to the HD TV! Blu-Ray will be my next purchase. But, If you truly want Home Theater, do NOT use any TV set's audio; there are NONE that compare to a separate audio system. A great example of HDTV benefits is watching an NHL hockey game vs. watching a non-HDTV broadcast.
—Darv

QAM Tuner

I have a 46" Sharp HDTV with a qam tuner built in. My Time Warner basic cable is plugged right into the TV and the pictures are great. I also pick up all the locals in HD and the regular channels are all very sharp and clear. The sound is great. Some of it is in stereo and all go through my Onkyo receiver by using an optical cable from the TV to the receiver. I bought the Sharp 13 months ago because of the QAM tuner. Great TV set. No problems at all. Marty
—Guest Marty

I love it

Yes we have comcast HD cable box, and an HD 60 inch plasma from best buy and it is great
—Guest David

HDTV AND BLU RAY PLAYERS

MY HDTV WONT ALLOW ME TO PLAY BLU RAY DISCS AND COMES UP WITH UNSUPPORTED MESSAGE. IT WILL PLAY BLU RAY GAMES. ANY IDEAS PLEASE.
—Guest SLAYMAKER

It’s a Love-Hate Relationship

I absolutely LOVE my new HDTV (Samsung LN52A850) when watching HD channels with HD programming. The picture quality is amazing and blows away my old Sony Wega XBR! And Sports in HD are INSANE! I can’t wait for Football season to start!!! With that said, I HATE how poor my VHS videos look on this TV. Even my DVDs don’t look half as good as they did on the old Wega. My VHS/DVD combo is a Samsung with HDMI output for upconverting so it’s not junk. I plan to upgrade to the new Samsung HT-BD1250 Blu-ray home theater system and I am hoping this Blu-ray player will do a lot better job upconverting than my current unit. Another thing I HATE is watching non-HD channels and HD channels that have non-HD programming. The picture quality is obviously not HD and its looks terrible. I also absolutely HATE when some HD channels play stretched programming! All and all, I wouldn’t go back to the old non-HD TVs period. My new HDTV with a Blu-ray home theater system will be MIND BLOWING!
—Guest Sean

BDP-S350

This blu-ray player is for the pits, it does not have slow motion, all the blu-ray discs when you press stop,and want to continue, starts from the beginning, an annoying issue, but the audio is superb, Dolby TrueHD. Editor note: The stop, resume, issue is a result of the BD-Java instructions on Blu-ray Discs containing Bonus View or BD-Live content.
—Guest voorhees