New HDTV

I find myself needing a new TV set for the living room. We've got $300 to work with. I'm way out of touch when it comes to TV sets, so I have like, 13 questions I'm hoping you guys can answer. We're planning on getting an HD one.

-What are the common input types now? I see some HDTV sets that come with S-Video input, and that's weird to me because I thought that input form was older than dirt. I know HDMI is common though.
-I don't have HD Cable. Will regular cable look bad on an HDTV set?
-What's that input type that's also HD, but not HDMI? Y'know, the one with the colored input cords, but instead of yellow and red and white, they're like, green and blue and something else?
-Those blu-ray players that come built-in in some HDTV sets - are those any good?
-Should I go for the 1080p, or is 720p alright? I plan to use my Xbox on this thing at some point.
-Do HDTV sets adjust to different input sizes, or will 4:3 input look distorted on one? Like, can it do that thing where it puts black bars on both sides of a fullscreen input so it still looks 4:3?
-Are HDTV sets generally 16:9? Will they adjust properly to films as well?
-In other words, how do I avoid ending up with a distorted picture in anything I watch?
-What kind of size should I seek?
-What brands should I seek? Reliability and low cost are important.
-How long can I expect an HDTV to last?
-CRT and LCD are the leading ones now, but what was that third one I heard about recently, that isn't plasma and is better than the others?
-What are some good alternatives to Time Warner cable? We were also thinking of getting rid of our cable (because the bills are too damn high) and replacing it with something else, like that netflix/hulu Roku box, or something similar.

Thanks for any and all help.

Spoiler for Some background:

So for the longest time I've been behind the times. With my fullscreen CRT TV sets and whatnot. I have one in my room, and I had a big one in the living room. Both hooked up to a VHS/DVD player combination, and the one in the living room had cable. The one in my room ain't goin' nowhere for a while. But the one in the living room is a different story.

So for the longest time, the one downstairs did this thing where the fullscreen picture would get squished in tighter, and I'd have to jiggle the A/V cord and mess with it until the picture was nice again. This could also cause it to go grainy. I mean that cord had to be just right, and it was a new cord too. So I figured it might've been the TV's input itself that was causing the problems. Anyway, one night my dad was watching a movie, and it shorted out. The picture just went blank, and the TV was making this bzzzzzt noise in the back. If I tapped the side of the TV with my hand, sometimes it would make the turning-on sound for a split second, but then stay off and continue bzzzzt-ing. Sometimes it would make the turning-on sound repeatedly, but still not turn on.

Anyway, I unplugged the thing, but whenever I plug it in it does that, and doesn't turn on. I'm fairly certain there's nothing we can do to fix this, because I heard if you take apart a CRT screen, there's a certain something inside that can electrocute you and send you flying if you touch it. So now we need a new one.

Component Cables are higher than SD but are not HD.
HDMI is your best bet, built in blu ray players are fine. If you're using it for your xbox just go with 720p because most console games aren't even made for 1080 anyways. 4:3 will not look distorted, it'll just have black boxes on the side. I've never once heard of a CRT HDTV, but personally I've had DLP, Plasma and LCD. DLPs are pretty thick but have great quality and lifetime, the bulb may burn out but it's usually covered under warranty. Plasma have amazing picture but aren't the best for gaming as the HUD can burn into the screen. LCD is a jack of all trades and usually the cheapest too, probably your best bet. They are almost always 16:9 and movies look fine. Size is personal, I've got two 32 inch screens that are perfect for me, my father prefers his massive 65 inch screen. I use Verizon FIOS for internet and TV, no problems whatsoever, but it's a bit expensive. And brandwise, I've stuck with 3.

Vizio - Eh quality, low price
Toshiba - Good quality, good price
Samsung - "Dear god it's beautiful" quality, "holy fuck did I really just spend 5grand on that" price

I'd say if you can afford it go for Toshiba, otherwise Vizio is your best bet.

Edit: Sorry for the random order
DoubleEdit: Oh yeah LED TVs are coming out now, but those are crazy expensive so don't worry about them.

We don't have Verizon FIOS around here. The only options seem to be Direct TV or Time Warner, and Time Warner's the only broadband internet option around. I'm hoping to just get broadband from them and then replace phone with something, and cable with something else.

Is 1080p a lot more expensive than 720p? Do blu-ray movies play in 1080? Does 720 look fine on a 1080 set?

I don't really need a TV with built-in internet capabilities or anything. Are there still TVs available that don't have that?

When I play a widescreen film on my fullscreen TV set, it appears with the black bars alright, but there's a tiny amount of the image still lost off-screen on both sides of it. Like, in that Starship Troppers "Do you want to know more?" message at the bottom of each propaganda advert, you can't see the ? mark at the end. Will I have any problems similar this on an HDTV?

Who should I buy from? Our only options right now are brick and mortar places, and we've got Best Buy, Walmart, and Sears off the top of my head.

What about manufacturer warranties?

Uh, 1080p does affect bluray, and yes 720 looks fine on 1080. The black bars are only there in 4:3 because the show retains its aspect ratio, it doesn't block off anything. Where you buy from doesn't really matter, as warranty options vary on location. Also a lot of TVs don't have internet options, they're a gimmick anyways don't worry about them.

If you're going from SD to HD, I wouldn't worry about making the perfect decision. Whatever you get is going to seem 100,000,000x better.

Dovahkiin has two "i"s. Unless I'm missing a joke.

Yeah, I'll make a topic with the whole comic.

Uh, 1080p does affect bluray, and yes 720 looks fine on 1080. The black bars are only there in 4:3 because the show retains its aspect ratio, it doesn't block off anything. Where you buy from doesn't really matter, as warranty options vary on location. Also a lot of TVs don't have internet options, they're a gimmick anyways don't worry about them.

If you're going from SD to HD, I wouldn't worry about making the perfect decision. Whatever you get is going to seem 100,000,000x better.

Ok, I'm sorry but I'm a little confused here.
-I wasn't referring to the black bars. I mean, on my fullscreen tv, widescreen movies have the correct black bars top and bottom, but on the left and right some of the image is lost. See my example. I'm just wondering, then, if any part of the image is lost on a widescreen TV too, like from the top and bottom if I were to put a fullscreen movie on there.
-The fact that warranty options vary on location is exactly why where I buy from DOES matter. I was basically asking if anybody knew anything about what those warranty options are. Not to mention, sometimes things are cheaper at one store than another.
-I don't use SD video. Right now my broken TV set is connected via A/V to the DVD player (which in turn is connected to the cable source.) My DVD player does appear to have composite and component options on the back, not HDMI though, but I want to get something that does use that at some point.

So basically, I guess what I'm looking for is a 1080p 32 inch LCD HDTV, with composite, component, and HDMI options. Perhaps a blu-ray player built in if that is available. Does that sound affordable at $300?

Yeah that sounds reasonableish, maybe not with the blu-ray. Also by location I meant State. And component cables can display signals from 480i(SD) to 1080i(HD), it just depends on the TV.

Is the room where you'll place the bright or dark?
The rule of thumb is that plasma screens are better for dark rooms while lcd/led/oled are better for bright rooms.
While you may get some led-lcd screen in your price class it will probably not be worth it and oled is definitely more expensive.
It is true that plasma screens is not as good for games, but the image burn problem is not as big anymore.

As for 1080p versus 720p it doesn't really matter that much. You can set the xbox up to which format you choose. Just make sure that the xbox, blu-ray player, etc. output in the right format as converting from 1080p to 720p or vice versa can affect quality. I tried for example to play both a dvd and blu-ray version of the same movie on an old crt with my ps3. The blu-ray version looked worse than the dvd version.

As for the aspect ratio you typically have different options where you can choose to cut off the sides, strecth, etc.

*hugs*

I would go for 1920x1080 simply for longevity. You could also end up connecting a computer to it down the line and use it as a giant monitor. 1280x720 is cramped for a PC, 1920x1080 is fine.

Don't worry much about brand. All the panels only come from a few manufactuers, you're essentially choosing between cases / logos.

Just make sure it does 1080i as well as 1080p. My new HDTV does 1080p, but not 1080i. Which means I can watch Netflix on my PS3 in glorious 1080p, but have to play games in 720p, because (the) games (I have) are in 1080I, NOT 1080p.


FOR EXAMPLE:

Final Fantasy XII does 1080i AND 1080p, which means I get to play it in glorious 1080p.
Skyrim does 1080i, but NOT 1080p, which means I get to play it in not as glorious 720p.

Seriously, what the fuck, Bethesda? And what the fuck, my tv?

Most pc-console games do that because more people are likely to have 1280x720 than 1920x1080.
But yeah it makes me too

So just an update. I ended up getting a 720p 32-inch Samsung for about $320. It's got two HDMI ports, two sets of component video inputs, one input for USB devices, one input for old fashioned cable signals, and a couple other inputs I don't understand. The video looks pretty amazing and the sound sounds nice enough. There are lots of decent resizing options and many color and brightness options. It's an LCD. I traded in our old cable box for a new one from our provider and went over the steps to get us an HD picture. Now pretty much everything is as it should be. (Except our DVD player is still from 1963. But at least it has component output so DVDs can still look good enough on this set.)

You reckon I got enough for my cash? I sure hope so. That was the best they had available for my price range.

It's hard to say if you bought the best TV you could for the money, but figuring out something like that will just drive you nuts. It's very likely about as good a TV you'll get within your price range, though. Samsung make nice LCD TVs.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Final Fantasy XII does 1080i AND 1080p, which means I get to play it in glorious 1080p.
Skyrim does 1080i, but NOT 1080p, which means I get to play it in not as glorious 720p.

Seriously, what the fuck, Bethesda? And what the fuck, my tv?

I assume you mean FF13? FF13 still renders at 720p, it's just upscaled by the PS3 before it's sent to your TV. In the case of Skyrim, it renders out at 720p but is upscaled by your TV instead. In terms of image quality, I can't see there being a huge difference. It all depends how well your TV can handle the job - some do it well, some are pretty terrible at it. The PS3 does an okay job at upscaling, but it's not necessarily better at it than any decent modern TV. The PS3, unlike the 360, doesn't have a piece of hardware inside of it dedicated to upscaling. This means developers have to use a piece of the PS3's processing power to do the job and occasionally they can't do this without making too many sacrifices. This also means that the PS3 tends to be worse at upscaling than the 360, because the 360's dedicated chip (called ANA or something, I dunno) can perform some tricks to "anti-alias" the upscaled image it produces.

The biggest difference I can imagine it making is how the HUD is handled maybe, because sometimes HUDs will be rendered at a different resolution to the rest of the game. I don't think that's the case with Skyrim though, since it looks identical on both platforms.

I'm saying my TV doesn't upscale Skyrim. It just plays it at 720p. It does that resolution reset thing when I start Skyrim up, and then tells me it switched down to 720p. If I start up FF13, that doesn't happen, it stays in 1080p. Same with Netflix. Netflix plays in 1080p.

You're probably right about PS3 upscales on one game, TV would normally upscale the other, but what I'm saying is that my TV doesn't upscale, it just runs at 720p for Skyrim.


I'll add this for shits and giggles. Playing Skyrim on the PS3 gives me a wicked headache. It's the only PS3 game that does it, and I have no problem with the PC version. :\

Yeah, I get that. If the game wasn't upscaled at all though, there'd be a black border around the game. I'm sayin' in the case of Skyrim it's the TV that's doing the upscaling, rather than the PS3. A 720p image is still being stretched out to the 1080p resolution of your TV in either case, though.

Edit: You could test which of the two upscales better, but you'd need some screen recording equipment to do it well. Forcing the PS3 to run at 720p instead of 1080p or Auto will have it always spit out a 720p image to your TV without ever upscaling it first.

If the game gives you a headache, your TV might just do a rotten job at resizing the image. Maybe. The PS3 version of Skyrim has some problems, I think. Just judging by what I've read on digital foundry, I know the PS3 version is a little blurry because of the anti-aliasing method it uses. I know its framerate dips constantly below 30FPS as well, which will obviously cause stuttering but it'll cause some latency in your controller input as well (which I remember reading gets worse as your save file gets larger, for some reason). There's some other visual issues the game has on PS3, but I don't know if they would strain your eyes any.

Did you ever play the original Assassin's Creed on the PS3? That game gave me a really bad headache.

Edit2: There's also the argument of whether 1080i or 720p is better, but I don't really know that stuff very well.