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Poll: What medium delivers your HDTV programming?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 8th 2008 at 12:00PM


After examining which carrier actually offered up the most HD programming regardless of price and investigating whether you were actually satisfied with your level of service, we began to wonder what the split was on mediums. If we had to guess, we'd say cable will likely rule the roost, but particularly among HD junkies, satellite is looking more attractive all the time. So, what kind of provider dishes out your HD content? You know the drill, toss in your answer below.

What medium delivers your HDTV programming?

Calling the shot: mounting / not mounting flat-panel above fireplace

by Darren Murph posted May 20th 2007 at 4:09PM


While the question of hanging your new flat-panel above the fireplace or mantel has been around for years, it's about time the issue was actually tackled and looked at from a safety and feasibility standpoint. Admittedly, there are literally dozens of factors that can go into making said decision, and while no answer will be right for everyone, hopefully the following will lend a hand in easing your frantic mind. Granted, the more affluent homes that are often showcased in marketing promos make hanging a TV look like child's play, and while you may be able to cough up enough dough to let an experience installer come in and handle the dirty work for you, there's quite a few things (and alternatives) to consider. Of course, safety concerns surrounding recalled TV mounts, heat generated from a raging fireplace, and the actual wall material should be inspected first and foremost. Additionally, you should certainly consider just how difficult running every last cable (present and future) from your components below through the wall will actually (not) be, and for those working sans an AV cabinet, you might want to ponder just where you'll be placing those game consoles, receivers, and media players without ruining the overall allure. Still, there's no denying the attractiveness of a flat-panel HDTV hung neatly on a living room wall, but be sure and hit the links below and do a little planning of your own before pulling the trigger.

Read - HDInstallers - Safety Concerns
Read - Audio / Video Interiors mounting walkthrough

Popular Mechanics cranks out another ten HDTV myths

by Darren Murph posted May 20th 2007 at 2:33PM


Truthfully, it's quite sad that these top ten lists of HDTV myths keep popping up, as it just reinforces the sad truth that many folks are still mystified by the prospect of HDTV. Nevertheless, Popular Mechanics has doled out its own version of the woefully popular rundown, and making the cut are the ever popular tall-tales that an HD set-top-box is somehow required to receive any HD programming, a 1080p TV is unquestionably superior to a 720p counterpart, and that an HDTV will magically convert all programming to stunning high-definition. Additionally, we shed a tear just thinking of those who still believed that all flat-panels are indeed HD-ready and that pristine video quality is only channeled through stupendously overpriced cabling. A few newcomers to the list involved 1080p panels that actually can't accept 1080p signals from a scaling player, and the unbelief that HD video can't be recorded onto standard DVD-Rs. Of course, there's no shame in being duped by a unintelligible big box employee or just not being up to speed on the HDTV minutia, so take a few and hit the read link if you're looking to clear up any lingering HD haze.

[Photo courtesy of Chris Eckert/Studio D, thanks Matt]

Sony & Panasonic understand HDTV is confusing and want to help

by Matt Burns posted Aug 18th 2006 at 2:39PM

High-definition is one of the most overwhelming and confusing new consumer electronic products the public has ever seen. There are so many different options and decisions to make that it overwhelms consumers to the point that that they simply give up and don't buy anything. Sony and Panasonic has recognized this and recently stated at the fourth annual DisplaySearch HDTV conference that they are going to try to help. What they are going to do is still up in the air but anything, even if it means teaching the general public about their products, would help. We here at HDBeat feel that a more general marketing strategy that will target mainstream media is one of the best ways in educate, and yes, sell their products. Even retail level hand-outs is rather nice to have but many large brick and mortar stores do not allow this, but some do. Really, anything they can do will be appreciated. You know, we do get tired of doing all the work sometimes.

Ask HDBeat: err, we are stumped with this one

by Matt Burns posted Aug 17th 2006 at 1:39PM

Whenever someone sends a question over to us, we research it in depth and then post our best answer. Some of these questions are tough, but we can usually come up with it though, but this is the first time we have been stumped -- we are hoping our readers can help us out on this one. SJ sent over this question that we just cannot come up with a solid answer for.

I am planning to get an Xbox 360 soon, and an HDTV to go along with it. I decided to look for CRT HDTV's first since they provide the best picture and are cheaper, but I noticed that there are no CRT HDTV's with a native resolution of 720p (which is the 360's native resolution). All the CRTs have a res of 1080i...why is that? Is it some kind of industry standard or are there some technical issues related to it?

Does anyone know for sure (read: give sources) why there isn't any 720p CRT HDTVS?

Question: How much non-HD content do you watch?

by Matt Burns posted Jun 5th 2006 at 12:22PM


One of our writers, Ben Drawbaugh, has been gone on record numerous times during our weekly podcast saying he doesn't watch something if it isn't in HD. (period) Now we were wondering about how much non-HD content you watch. Sure there are some great show in HD but there are also some amazing shows that are not. Scrubs (up until the last episode), any F/X show (Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Rescue Me), The Simpsons, Myth Busters and Survivor.

Are you as vain as Ben? Or do you sit back and enjoy the show (Surviver is a bad example for that one) even though it is only 480i/p. I know I sure do.




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