And lo on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:54:18 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> OK, so I had a look around, and it seems that HD-ready TVs have  
> experienced a 10x price reduction since the last time I looked. In other  
> words, they no longer cost more than a second-hand car, and it's  
> actually feasible for ordinary people to buy them.
>
> My mum's TV is... shagged. Both of the SCART sockets are defective, so  
> you don't get any sound. (One of them only produces B/W pictures  
> sometimes.) So I figured I might buy my mum a new TV for Christmas.
>
> The existing TV is roughly 50cm x 50cm. (Obviously the *screen* has a  
> 4:3 aspect - but the *casing* doesn't!) After playing with my measuring  
> stick, it appears that a device with a width of 70cm or even 80cm might  
> plausibly fit into the gap. Depending on the aspect ratio and the  
> styling of the casing, that gives me a 20" - 30" screen size.


Not forgetting that a lot of the TV's now have speakers situated below or  
behind the screen and not by the side, that can make a big difference in  
width. Give me the diagonal of the current one and I'll tell you the size  
of a 16:9 to match either current height or width.

> It seems that LCD TVs go up to absurd sizes,

Nah that's plasma's which can hit wall size

> - I _presume_ (since I haven't found one yet) that it is impossible to  
> get a TV with full 1080 resolution that is only 30" across. Is that the  
> case? (What, they figure you can't see details that small except on a  
> larger device?)

As mentioned by me elsewhere [cough see signature] you're unlikely to find  
any TVs below 32" at 1080.

> - Trying to figure out which TV is going to give me a decent picture is  
> maddeningly difficult. If you shop online, you can't *see* anything at  
> all, so you just have the luminance, constrast ratio and response time  
> to go at. (And the viewing angle - if that actually means anything.) If  
> you go to a physical shop things are not much improved; all the TVs I've  
> seen look terrible, most of them being driven by a simple RF signal over  
> cheap coax cable. (!!) How the *hell* am I supposed to tell which ones  
> are any good?

You can't, the HD-feed is reserved for the 42" plus ones with extra  
gubbins. On the other hand if all you're going to feed it is an SD source  
then it's actually a reasonable comparision method

> - What are the best brands to go for? (I have a Samsung computer monitor  
> at home that works very well, so I've been tending to look mostly at  
> Samsung. But I don't know if they're really the best.)

Sony tend to have the quality, Panasonic the black levels, LG more extras,  
and Philips all three ;-)

> - Gotta love the way websites tell you a TV has audio connectors, but  
> neglects to specify whether these are inputs or outputs! :-P

As Scott said ignore the web-dumbdown and go straight for the manual.

> - What is HDMI?

Essentially the HD equivalent of SCART in that in carries both video and  
audio in one cable

> Does anything use it yet?

Yes pretty much every HD source

> Is there a specific reason why the leads are £80 each?

Some are better then others, some just say they are.

> And of course, the million-dollar question:
>
> - Are there any ways to obtain HD signals yet? (I gather BluRay players  
> are actually on sale now, but still prohibitively expensive. Are there  
> any other possible sources?)
>
> (So, that'd be, what, a £650,000 question then? ;-) )

Scott's covered this too. Freesat is the only free main-stream source of  
HD signals, though from my last tally there's only about two set-top boxes  
and built-in televisions available (may well have jumped in the last  
month). SkyHD with its monthly subscription, or FreeView after the big  
switchover in 20xx is set to deallocate two muxes for HD broadcasting only  
- except I doubt any older freeview receivers will be able to decode the  
signals.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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