HD is a minefield, not helped by the misinformed and sometimes deliberately misleading "advisors" in High Street Stores.
One of the main drawbacks to an HDTV, is the fact, that even if you have one of the HD Services (SKY or NTL/Telewest), the majority of what you watch, will be SD (Standard Definition).
The problem with that, is that there are around 4 or 5 times the amount of pixels, on an HDTV, compared to the SD signal you are feeding it with...so the TV has to fill in the gaps.
If the TV isn't very good at this **cough** (Sony Bravia) **Cough**, at times...then the image you get will be ****e..combine that with a crap scart lead, and the screen that looked so fantastic in the store...now seems somewhat worse, than the TV you replaced.
More misdirection...is that Joe Public, will buy something, like a DVD recorder and believe that it is HD-DVD Player, because it has HDD in the title...when of course what they are buying, just has a Hard Disk Drive.
Or...they may be sold a DVD player, for between £40 and £1500, that "upscales", an SD DVD, to "HD Quality"...not true.
A cheap Upscaling player, will maybe produce a crisper, smoother image by adding content that isn't there on the disc, where it thinks it should, in either 720p or 1080i (HD resolutions)...and expensive upscaler...with expensive processors, will do a better job...but neither...will be anything like a true HD image..
True HD...what is that then?
Is HD, only TRUE...when it is displayed at 1920x1080 lines?
Well..maybe, as this is what will give you a proper 16:9 image...however...nobody produces films, in this resolution...nobody records programmes in this resolution...and there is nothing in "the rules", which says anybody has to.
So going out and buying a 50inch plus, 1920x1080 flat-screen...is a bit like buying a Ferrari, to drive around a farm in...yeah, its better than your last car..yeah it looks great and yeah, your mates are gonna be impressed....until they realise, that the only time you can actually use it, sort of properly is on the 100m tarmac road on your farm...the rest of the time, all it does is spray mud every where and looks ****e...because you have all that power, but nothing to let it loose with.
LCD or Plasma? Hmm...well....LCD is the latest technology and Plasma is older technology.
Plasma, can "burn" LCD wont.
Plasmas only last 60,000 hours...that's not long is it...or is it...actually its around 25 years with moderate viewing...or around 15 to 20 if you use it lots...and LCD are the same.
LCD's, cant display fast moving objects as well as a Plasma....that's because they have a refresh rate...like LCD PC Screens....so, watching footie, or racing or action films...means you get blur behind objects, like mouse trails...not good!
Also...LCD's look very bright and vivid...that's because they have a real bright bulb, always on, behind the screen...but it cant be dimmed...and you cant fully close an LCD pixel...which means...you don't get full, rich, deep blacks...not a good thing.
However...if you want to play Games on your big TV..LCD are great...because they don't suffer from Image Retention...sometimes called screen burn...these two things are actually different....an image can be retained on a plasma, for a while, if a static image has been on there for some time...but after a while, it will fade....only if the static image, is displayed, for a real long time...will it be burnt on...although...this isn't burn, or even a defect...it is just uneven degradation of the plasma gas in the pixels...usually its bright images that burn.
If you have 6 hours a day to play games on a big screen...you don't deserve to have a decent "movie" screen, so LCD is your best bet....
If you like to watch films, as they are meant to be...Plasma is King...and a 103inch Projection Screen and digital HD projector (about £9k) is God.
Here endeth the lesson....
... because it make's already awesome graphics even better... i see what your saying that the old games are classics, but what your saying is bollocks...
