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Questions about buying my first HDTV?

I recently was at Wal-Mart and noticed that HDTVs have come down to a price I think I can afford. However I am verry much a noob when it comes to HDTVs, could someone please help me? First of all, is 1080p that much better than 1080i? What's even the difference, aren't they the same resolution? Also, some TVs only output at 720p. I know it's not as high of a resolution, but does it really matter when the screen isn't HUGE anyway? Will I be sorry if I get less than 1080, in other words. Secondly, I will be using my HDTV mainly with my PlayStation 3, for Blu-Ray movies and games. I've heard about a “burn-in” effect that I most certainly don't want. I will go with LCD, rather than Plasma, but are there any downsides to LCD? Upsides to Plasma? And third, are some brands better than others, because on the shelves at Wal-Mart, the SONY looks exactly the same as the VIZIO, but runs about $1000 more. My best friend and step-dad both have VIZIOs, and have had no complaints.

look absolutely beautiful. If I get VIZIO or any other brand, will I be sorry I didn't pay for “the name-brand” like SONY or TOSHIBA or SAMSUNG? Thanks! Any answers are greatly appreciated and the one with the most information will get BA!

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One Response »

1. mikedamirault on September 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 am:

   Let me break some things down for you, therefore you can figure it out yourself 1.

   number in the resolution explains how many vertical pixels there are, for example, on the computer, you may of heard of the resolution 800×600, at that resolution 600 is the vertical resolution The letter after the resolution indicates if it is Interlaced (i) or progressive (p), the difference between the two is, imagine that your screen is nothing more than a whole bunch of multicolored lines, one under the other, as an example 1- 2- 3- 4- so on and so forth Interlaced takes one frame and splits it in half, it displays the first half of the frame with the odd numbered lines (1, 3, 5 and so on), and the even numbers are part of the frame before it, like so 1- 2 3- 4 So as the first half of a frame is halfway loaded, the second half of the frame, or the even numbered lines are displayed, like so 1 2- 3 4- so on and so forth This happens so fast, and the lines are so thin (gets thinner per resolution increase), that it fools the eyes/brain into thinking it's all one frame, the exception is fast motion, like sports, this makes fast motion look sort of zig zagish, this is also what can give you headaches if you look at a screen for too long, it kind of makes you dizzy in a way, if you have a VCR connected to an HDTV and you play a VHS tape, you can see the interlaced image really easily, it will look as if you are looking at the screen though blinds Progressive on the other hand takes the entire frame, and displays it all at once, no half frame to worry about, no choppyness, and no zig zaggyness, just smooth fluid motion, great for fast motion like sports, and is easier on your eyes and head, a good example of a progressive image is film, as the film goes through a projector or rear projection splice test screen, as you watch a movie on film, the whole frame is displayed You put both of those together, and you will come out on your video quality, 480i (SD) is 480 lines if vertical resolution interlaced, 1080p is 1080 lines of vertical resolution in progressive 2. Yes, unless you have a big HDTV, 1080 lines of resolution is kind of pointless, as a matter of fact, most small HDTVs don't even support 1080p, but you don't really want to get a small HDTV anyway if you want to get the most out of an HD setup 3. It depends what you want to do with it, since you plan to use a PS3 on it, and use it for Blu-Ray movies and PS3 games, then yes, you do want to get an HDTV that supports 1080p, and this would mean getting a large television 4.

   television has the potential to get burn-in, LCDs are less susceptable though, and I think I heard of a way to unburn an LCD by playing a looping video clip of white for a couple of hours, the chances of getting burn in are rare though, even with playing games, as long as you have constant motion on screen, and with the new players and cable/satellite set top boxes of today, if you pause it, it has a screen movement (screensaver) option in order to prevent burn-in, that is exactly how screensavers got their name, they save your screen from burn-in 5.

   is fine, there are some people out there that will say that Plasma is better, but in my experience (I have both), LCD has a better image quality, the only thing that is better than an LCD HDTV is a 3 DLP HDTV, and those are pretty pricey (3 DLP HDTVs have 3 different DLP chips in them, one for red, one for green, and one for blue, basically an RGB DLP, 1 chip DLPs are also nice, but their colors rely on a color wheel, and if the color wheel is shot, you will have messed up colors), so you will be fine with LCD 6. I have never had a problem with an off brand television, but that's just me, I have used an Olevia and a Vizio, and I haven't had a problem with neither of them, I find Vizios to be quite nice, though some people will say that off brand televisions break a lot and have a higher DOA and return rate, those are lies to get people to shell out more money for a Sony or Toshiba Everything you have decided should work fine, don't let anybody tell you different

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