I purchased a Sony 40″ BRAVIA V-Series HDTV (KDL-40V2500) at Circuit City a couple of Sundays ago, but decided not to write about it until I actually got to see some real HDTV. It took Charter almost two weeks to schedule me for an install, and while I am not going to go into the shity Charter customer service I received, I will say that the technicians (apparently it takes two guys to change a light bulb) did not connect the set correctly. Seriously, why would you connect a blue component cable to a green component input?
The good news is that the picture quality is absolutely phenomenal! The viewing pleasure while watching a praying mantis documentary on Discovery HD last night was fabulous. I just wish it was still season because I have no desire to watch the NBA on ESPN HD. Braves HD broadcast cannot start soon enough, or maybe some soccer action in HD. Maybe I will get into some college basketball this year as a tribute to my late father. It is going to be along haul until September.
I need to figure out if I am getting the best picture quality possible; I assume I at this point I am not, but the picture still looks damn good. The HD receiver does not have an HDMI output, but it does support DVI, which of course explains why the technicians decided to set me up with an analog component connection. Did I mention that they set this up incorrectly, and did not stick around to make sure it was working correctly?
The avs forum has been extremely helpful with info on my new TV, calibration suggestions, and an assortment of other useful information. I was worried about the “cloudiness problem” until I came across a post that convinced me that this is not a show stopper.
“The so called cloudiness problem is a non-issue unless you want to be super critical or like to watch a blank screen. It is not something you would ever notice during normal viewing.
There is some faint unevenness across an unused input, but who wants to watch nothing. If you are watching TV with bars at the sides or top/bottom there is no trace of cloudiness in the dark bands.”
Now I am jonesing for some HD gaming action, but I want to wait for a while before picking a system.
I am not really an AV expert; probably apparent from this post. I do not understand why the cables matter so much if the signal is coming from plain-jane coaxial cable. That has to be analog, right? So maybe the box does some type of up-convert, and then it is up to the signal carried in the cables to the TV to provide the best picture quality possible. Ignorant. Certainly, but the HD broadcasts are clearly superior to my old stand-by Sony 32″ Trinitron.
Sports are really the killer app. for HDTV. Also some shows like Lost look great. So does Rome on HBO.
In the early days, HDTV owners would watch anything as long as it was on HDTV. When I first got mine, I watched some Discovery HD. Some cable systems have InHD channels which also shows documentaries and such. Local PBS stations sometimes have gorgeous looking shows, if they’re not constricting the bitrate for subchannels.
But the eye candy effect of nature, travel, aerial documentaries wear off a bit and you want to watch shows and movies you’d normally watch. Lot of people say CBS has best-looking shows but I just can’t get myself to watch CSI.
As for gaming, Madden on the PS3 is not one of the best-looking games. However, I would swear I see more around the line of scrimmage when your trying to run up the middle (or trying to defend the run) than on the current gen. I could see defenders pursue and those not on the point of attack flowing to the ball carrier.
Of course, it’s going to look a lot better than playing PS2 on an HDTV (even in 16:9 mode).
BTW, I saw an older entry about Direct TV.
You do not require a phone line. I got their new HD DVR installed back in the fall. I didn’t bother to hook up the phone line. They use that so you can order PPV from your remote rather than call it in. I think you may also be able to do it on the web site.
NFL Network is available on cable systems as well as Direct TV. It’s NFL Sunday Ticket which is exclusive to Direct TV but you have to pay like $300 or more a season.
Direct TV is suppose to put up two more satellites this year, which will give them 150 national HD channels later this year. They put up two last year, which provided local HD channels to a lot of the big markets.
As for indoor antennas, you can search for Silver Sensor. I think it’s under a Zenith brand now with some other name. But that should tell you what it’s called now.