for those who don't have 720p

[jondiehl]

Quote: Originally Posted by ExtremeGamer

I own 2 HDTV CRT sets, and wouldn't trade them for any other tv in the world.

Oh, come on now. You mean you wouldn't swap one of them out for a 71" 1080p DLP? hehe

http://www.tvauthority.com/DLP-TV-HD...-HL-R7178W.asp

That's the ultimate right now IMO (for big box store products anyway, which doesn't include high end front projection and FP CRT's and FP 3-chip DLP's that cost more than some cars).

1080p is the perfect solution. 720p and 1080i are BOTH upconverted with this resolution. 1080i is effectively doubled, kinda like your progressive scan DVD player takes a 480i source (the DVD) and outputs it at 480p to your HDTV. 720p is already progressive, so it just increases the resolution from 1280 x 720p up to the native 1920 x 1080p.

Analog CRT HDTV's need to figure out a way to break through that 1080i glass ceiling or they're going to get left in the dust. NHK of Japan has a new video standard called "Super Hi-Vision." It's still in the laboratory stage, but they have footage at a resolution of 7680 x 4320, which is a resolution 16 times higher than 1080i.

Link: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=173402762

[jondiehl]

Quote: Originally Posted by ExtremeGamer

but ALL HDTV looks beautiful no matter what format your tv is native to.

Amen. It all looks good, compared to SDTV's.

[DereckM]

So what you guys are saying is just get a HDTV and your XBox 360 will look great. And that 720p and 1080i are both really good.

[jondiehl]

Quote: Originally Posted by DereckM

So what you guys are saying is just get a HDTV and your XBox 360 will look great. And that 720p and 1080i are both really good.

In a nutshell, yes.

With the Xbox, it wasn't this way, because the Xbox couldn't convert 720p games to 1080i for people that had 480p/1080i only CRT's (that didn't convert the signal itself).

With the 360, the console will do that for you if your CRT HDTV will not.

It really doesn't matter what flavor of HDTV you have, just have one and you'll be good to go for the 360, one way or the other. Personally, I'd rather not have the console do any more work than it has to, so I'll have it send out whatever the native signal of the game is (720p for everything right now I believe). Plus, we don't know how good of a decoder it has for such processing, so in many cases the HDTV's processor might do a better job on that 720p to 1080i conversion. Of course, with those HDTV's that can't input 720p, they'll be forced to let the 360 do it for them, but that's still better than playing it at non-HD resolutions like 480p (which is what we were stuck with on the original Xbox).

PS. For those of you just entering the world of gaming on a rear projection CRT based big screen.... be very very careful with burn-in. CRT tubes don't really have that problem, but the rear projection ones do. DLP's are immune, as are LCD's... but you can get a health meter/speedometer/score burned into your set in no time if you don't mix up the content that you're viewing and/or play with the brightness/contrast levels too high (ie. how most of them ship from the factory).

[toychri]

johndiehl,

You seem to know what you are talking about, I have a question since I am a HDTV noob.

Which HDTV would you get to meet these requirements:

$1500.00 or less
at least 32'
I play alot of XBOX/XBOX360, watch DVD's, and watch football.

[jondiehl]

Quote: Originally Posted by toychri

johndiehl, You seem to know what you are talking about, I have a question since I am a HDTV noob. Which HDTV would you get to meet these requirements: $1500.00 or less at least 32' I play alot of XBOX/XBOX360, watch DVD's, and watch football.

In that price range, you're going to be looking at a big direct view tube or a smaller LCD panel display.

In either case, I would suggest a 16:9 display since you'll be using it alot with widescreen material.

For tube HDTV's, 16:9, you're looking at either 30" or 34" in size. The problem with them (I have one) is that they are VERY heavy, but they're great for what you're wanting to do. Sony makes terrific models of this size, as does Toshiba if you want to save a few bucks. Samsung's are a little cheaper on their tubes, but they do have a new slim-CRT design that's making waves because it's much lighter with a smaller footprint.

For LCD's, the quality can vary alot. In most cases, you do really get what you pay for, especially in that price range. Unfortunately, you'd need to spend a little more than $1500 to get a LCD HDTV that's 32"+. You can get LCD's for under $1500, but they aren't very big.

Given your size and price requirements, I'd say a CRT based direct view HDTV is the logical choice. Sony has a 34" widescreen model, the KV-34HS420 that retails for $1499 in your local B&M stores (sometimes you can find a sale and/or coupon/rebate) but you can find it much cheaper if you shop around online:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=316811

Of course, shipping a 200lb TV is not an easy thing, and if there's a problem with it, it's not the easiest thing to send back. Because of that, I'd try and buy it locally from a major B&M store, but only one that will wheel and deal to get your business (ie. not Best Buy).

Correction, I just did a search, and apparently Best Buy has lowered the retail price of this TV... and it's on sale! Wow, only $1138.99, that is a fantastic deal on a 34" widescreen HDTV:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....ref=25&loc=PGR

[colkilla]

jon, i have a rear projection rca and a tube samsung (both hd). my question is am i taking a risk playing on the rear projection and if so what can i do to avoid burn-in? sorry if this has turned into a question and answer session about hdtv's but you appear to be a reliable source for answers bro!
thanks

[jondiehl]

Quote: Originally Posted by colkilla

jon, i have a rear projection rca and a tube samsung (both hd). my question is am i taking a risk playing on the rear projection and if so what can i do to avoid burn-in? sorry if this has turned into a question and answer session about hdtv's but you appear to be a reliable source for answers bro! thanks

Your tube isn't in much danger, it's the rear projection CRT's that can get burn in damage the easiest.

My first HDTV (a 65" rear projector) from 5yrs ago, I played PS2 and then XBox on it frequently. I had it for 3yrs before selling my home and then getting a front projection DLP for my next house. In those 3 years, I didn't really have any issues with burn-in even though I used it daily to play games, but I was very very careful with it. I had gaming buddies with similar HDTV's that did have major issues, so it can happen.

1st, make sure it's properly calibrated. The best way to do that is to hire an ISF calibration tech, but they're pricey and for many that's not a reasonable suggestion. Short of that, you can get a calibration DVD and do most of it yourself. It won't be as accurate, and you can't calibrate the grayscale without proper equipment, but it will look much better than factory settings. AVIA makes a good calibration DVD, as does Digital Video Essentials (DVE). Google and you shall find, they are well worth the investment. For a quick, do it now fix, some DVD's have a THX optimizer as a bonus feature. Use that for a quicky adjustment of brightness and contrast levels. Those two adjustments are what's going to cause damage due to burn-in anyway, so you need them set correctly before anything else. Most TV's ship with both at 100% (aka "torch mode"), although many have a built in "cinema" setting. While it will seem dark and hard to see with ambient light in the room, that's what your HDTV is supposed to look like. Not the "vivid" or "standard" settings. Play games on either of those, and you're sure to damage it in no time. Usually, those cinema settings are going to be fairly close to properly calibrated levels. Start there, for all inputs and sources, and then fine tune it with a calibration DVD. You really don't need the TV to be terribly bright, especially in a dark room. Darker is better because you have truer blacks that way, and your eyes will adjust to the dimmer picture after a minute and it will seem very bright. If you're playing games with the lights on, or with alot of sunlight, don't be tempted to crank up the brightness settings, even for a short gaming session. Burn-in is permanent damage.

2nd, try and mix up what you're watching/playing. If a game has a health meter with alot of contrast, try to limit your gaming sessions to an hour at a time and then switch to something else to give your CRT's guns a break. What burn-in actually is has nothing to do with the screen itself, it's the phosphor coating on the three CRT guns inside the unit. If a static and opaque image is displayed too long, that image will wear out that part of the phosphor coating much quicker than the rest of the surface of the gun. It's not just for gaming either... watch out for those ESPN2/CNN scroll bars at the bottom, and network logos (although many are more transparent now, and some even shift around ever so slightly to help with this issue).

3rd, if you pause the game, switch the input back to the television signal so you have something moving on the screen. That way, you can leave the game running, and paused, but not have to worry about burn in if the TV is displaying something else.

4th, if the game gives you the option, try either turning the HUD off, or make it dimmer. The less fixed/static images on the screen, the better.

Hope that helps.