Your Next TV-720p vs 1080i

If you are going High Definition there are a lot of options as far as resolutions… 480p isn’t really High Definition… (See EDTV)  But there is a lot of arguments about 720p vs 1080i.  The number is the horizontal lines used in signal. 

720 is actually 1,280 lines wide, by 720 lines tall.  Compare that to 1,920 lines wide by 1,080 lines tall. 

1080 sounds like the obvious winner, and all things equal it would be.  The difference is that 720p is  a Progressive signal, which means that all of the lines are drawn in with each refresh (it starts with line one, moves to two, three, and so on.)  1080i is an interlaced signal–meaning that it only refreshes half of the lines each time (for example 1, 3, 5, 7…. then 2, 4, 6, 8)  Now all of this happens really fast, so you can’t see the difference in most cases, but in some instances… especially scenes with a lot of motion, you can start to see the interlacing.

Another factor in the progressive vs interlaced argument, is that (currently) only CRT TV’s are fast enough to show a true interlaced signal.  All of the other types (plasma, LCD, DLP etc) would show some flicker, so they have a hardware de-interlacer.  That will essentially try to guess what the missing lines would be.  There are several approaches to deinterlacing, but all of them will show a signal decrease.  Especially with a lot of motion.

A lot of people will choose the resolution based on the content.  If you want the picture to be the focus, go with 1080i.  If you are willing to sacrifice some resolution to keep action smooth, crisp and clear, choose 720p.  (If you want the best of both worlds, read my post about 1080p)

Your Next TV–HDTV vs HD Ready TV

Most places in America now have access to over-the-air HD programming.  The same way you can pick up local network channels with an antenna, you can pick them up now in HD.   But you have to have an HD tuner in your TV. 

A true HDTV will have an ATSC tuner, which is able to pick up, decode and maintain the HD channels available over the air.  Some HDTVs will have both and ATSC and an NTSC (standard TV) tuner, to accommodate either signal, or picture in picture support.

An HD ready TV can display HD resolutions, (through Component, DVI, or HDMI) but not from an antenna.   You will have to have an HD receiver (which are still hard to find) or order HD programming through your cable/satellite TV provider and use a set top box.

Of course, if you want any of the ‘cable’ or premium channels in HD, you will have to get them from your provider, regardless of the tuner you have.

Your Next TV–HD vs ED vs SD

HDTV High Definition is becoming the “craze,” and I have to admit, I’m becoming enamored.  I think you’d be happy if you switched over, but I might be wrong.  I suggested it to my dad, and he brought up a valid point.  His eyes “aren’t what they used to be”–some people really might not be able to see a difference. 

The difference is, the resolution.  they pack more pixels, more lines, more picture, into the TV.  That means sharper clearer image.  Less blur, and usually more colors.  It just looks better.

EDTV Enhanced Definition TV is essentially a digital, widescreen version of traditional TV  It is not high enough resolution to be called HD, but it will probably for most people be noticeably better.  I have actually seen in store displays EDTVs that looked better than HDTVs.  They are usually cheaper, but make sure that you are getting what you pay for.

SDTV Standard Definition TV is the good old (square) TV that we all know and love.  It’s what we grew up with. Not much to write home about on this one.

Your Next TV–Flat Screen vs Flat Panel

Watch out for a flat “screen” TV.  That just means that the glass in front of the TV is…flat (not curved).  It does have some advantages: you maintain a better picture from a wider viewing angle, and it supposedly puts less strain on your eyes if you are sitting close.  But most people want a flat “panel” TV though, and might not notice the distinction. 

Flat panel TV’s are the kind that you can hang on a wall.  They are generally lighter and of course thinner than a standard tube TV.  (oh, and the glass in front is flat too)  

Tube TV’s still have (arguably) some advantages picture wise.  Without getting to gory, they can show more colors more easily, and in some cases (for example HD 1080i) they can show a crisper image.  I personally don’t think that the size warrants the difference however.  I don’t think I will ever buy another tube (CRT) TV again, just because of the space issue.

Your Next TV–Digital vs Analog

In general, I would say go digital.  By about this time next year, all analog TV channels will be shut down, and force over-the-air viewers to get a digital TV, or a digital to analog conversion set top box.  If you are in the market for a new TV, you will be spending a significant chunk of change anyway, you might as well buy a TV that won’t be obsolete so quickly.

The flip side is that analog TV’s will be getting a lot cheaper–because they are going obsolete.  If you are getting cable, satellite TV, or only watching movies, the broadcast change won’t really affect you.  If you aren’t going to go HD, then you might be able to find a great deal on a standard TV.  (but if you regret it in a year or two… don’t say I didn’t warn you)

Your Next TV–Opener

I’ve been thinking a lot about TV’s lately.  (I know, I’m a nerd)  Part of it is because of my work.  There I have to think about it because we sell a lot of AV equipment.  I have a friend who upgraded his Hybrid TV/Monitor, and I bought his old one from him.  My parent’s TV is going out in their bedroom, so my dad was asking what he should look for.  There are a lot of factors to consider in what to get for your next TV.  I was going to put it all into one behemoth post, but I decided to break it down into bite sized pieces and present it as a series.

 So here is a breakdown of the features, options, and my humble assessment of the new TV technology.

Humans: Born compassionate

(I couldn’t think of a good antonym for manipulator)

So, maybe I was a little too quick to pull out my cynical side.   

It had been a long week, and when I got home from work yesterday, I just sprawled out on the couch.  I was lying there with my eyes closed, not yet asleep, and my daughter toddled around the couch. 

“Kai kwi, be kwi” (translation: Be quiet) in her little whisper voice.  She leaned in and gave me a kiss, then wandered away again.  A minute or two later, she came back, said the same thing, gave me another kiss, then shoved a teddy bear under my neck.  She likes to sleep with  a teddy bear or a doll, and so I’m sure she wanted to help me go to sleep too.

 You hear, and expect, that children that young are pretty self centered–just that they only think of their needs.  But she obviously cares for me, and was trying to do something to make my life better.

I’m impressed.

Humans–Born manipulators

I have a 16 month old daughter Julia.  She doesn’t like to go to bed.  The other night, my wife Emily was trying to put her to bed.  We have tried to teach Julia a little baby sign language, and it has really helped her to communicate early with us, so you get a window into the mind of a pre-toddler.

 On her way to bed, Julia signed for shoes.  She tapped her little fists together and said “shoo, shoo.”  (My daughter isn’t a year and a half old and she has a shoe fetish)  Emily looked to see if there were shoes in view, or maybe in the bed… “No, you don’t need any shoes, it’s time for bed”  A moment later Julia brought her hand to her mouth “Fooh, fooh.” 

“No, you don’t need any food, you just need to go to bed.”

“Gawh-djee, Gawh-djee.”  With her finger tapping her lips.  (That is how Julia says, and signs, water)

 ”No, you just need to go to sleep”

Julia lied there thinking for a moment….

“Shour, Shour!”  Her little hand was pumping the air like a shower head.  Emily couldn’t help but laugh.

 She was puling out every excuse she could think of to try to get out of bed!  It’s so funny that at that age she will try all of that.

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She will usually go to sleep for me pretty well.  She doesn’t try all those tricks on me–I guess I’m just not sympathetic enough.  Tonight I was putting her to bed and she was having a really hard time.  She was tired, she could barely keep her eyes open, but she would just lie there barely awake.  After 20 minutes of trying to sneak out quietly, I finally decided to just leave.  Sometimes she will cry for a moment, then fall asleep–but, not this time.  I went back in after a few minutes, and still couldn’t get her calm.  Finally the cavalry came in.  Emily came in after me and took over.  Julia was more than willing to go to Mom. (For some reason, dad’s just aren’t as good) 

As I left the room, I heard Julia saying “Fooh, fooh”

Update on Why Girls can’t date.

Related to my insightful dating advice…I think Jonathan proves the phenomenon in his blog.  He is apparently invisible.  (If anyone thinks that he is a category one,  they’re wrong.  But he probably wouldn’t fit category two.)  Girls literally look right past him.  Even when he makes an effort. 

Then note the first comment.  If I had to guess, I’d say the commenter was a category two’er.  (lucky guy, he probably gets all the girls)  The difference is just a nuance, but it is there.  Same intentions, just a little different in…agressiveness.

 Now I don’t know if the category differences are peronality things, or if the category one guys are the only ones who have it figured out. 

Xbox 360: Media Center Extender

I always thought one of the best features for Windows Media Center was the idea of having a media center extender.  This would let you stream all of your media from your computer to a TV in another room of the house.  Either as a standalone box, through an Xbox (with optional add-on) or through an Xbox 360.  The idea has real promise.

Unfortunately I haven’t really been impressed with media center, The program itself is pretty weak, poor codec support, it is slow, it crashes a lot, and has a lot of annoyances (for instance it is one of the most aggravating applications to run in a dual screen setup) Without a tv tuner, it isn’t worth it, and there are only a few tuners that are compatible with MCE, so it narrows the small list of tuners that have the reliability vs price ratio I look for. So I never really did anything with it.  Obviously I wasn’t big on running out and spending a lot of money on an extender (Ok so the xbox version is only like $30 I think, but I’d still rather buy a game)

I did get an Xbox 360 recently, which has the extender built in.  Plus the allure of an extender is back because of the apartment I’m in.  It isn’t a bad setup, we have iProvo internet (which is amazing) and their digital TV (which isn’t) included in our rent.  The problem is that we have one cable jack, and one ethernet jack, side by side in the living room.  Since it is a rental, it isn’t really my place to tear up the walls and install a bunch of wiring (as much as I would like to).  I thought I might be able to get away with running one wire across the floor, over the door frame, across the hall ceiling and down into the bedroom somehow… but two cables would be to much (even for someone as lacking in aesthetics as me).  So I was debating…Do I run an internet line, and stream video through a computer to the tv, or do I run the cable, and leave out the computer all together  

I was reading an interview on the internet, where someone asked the perplexing question:  what is the point of a “core” xbox360.  I still think it is mostly a sucker punch, because the customer will most likely have to pay more than the difference before they can play a game, but the interviewee (someone from “The Xbox team”) mentioned the media player possibilities.  And I started thinking about it.

 

Assuming everything worked (which it really doesn’t) that would be a perfect solution.  I could connect the xbox to the TV, have a built in DVD/CD player, plus access to all the music movies, pictures and TV programming on my computer in the living room–besides the gaming possibilities.  I could use the xbox interface to do everything!  It might even be worth springing for one of their remotes.  I could even feasibly run it all over a wireless connection (although I probably would get a wireless bridge rather than buying the $100 Xbox wifi adapter) So there would be no unsightly wires.

 

So, just to see how it worked, I set up my Xbox360 as a media center extender.  (Which is a little silly since right now both the xbox and the media center computer are connected to the same TV)  It took me longer than it should have, I got a bad download (the exe wouldn’t run) and I thought it was another glitch in the media center saga, I started reading around to see what if anything other people had done…No one had reported the same “bug” so I cleared my internet cache and downloaded again and it was pretty smooth from there on out.  (So I guess I am also culpable for blaming Microsoft anytime something electronic goes wrong)  The software runs essentially the same on the Xbox as on the computer (aside from “Play DVD” option) and again I was wishing that it worked as well as it ought to.

 

I was impatient and tried to play one of the old bmwfilms that I had formatted to play on my palm, but the media center was still finalizing the setup and I got a message I had been disconnected.  I tried later to play back a full lenth movie that I have stored on the media center HDD, but that was taking too long and I gave up. (I think my daughter was vying for some attention)

 

………………………………………………………………………

 

Its now a day or two later, and I went with the easy stuff first. Pictures come right up, music played without a problem.  I still haven’t set up a tuner so I don’t know how that works but the “My Videos”

 just isn’t going to cut it. Admittedly I have a lot of video files, I think somewhere around 150 or 200 gigs on a 250 gig hard drive, but the MCE extender takes WAY too long to play.  Right now I’ve been trying to play a downloaded episode of 24 (burger king for some reason gave a free download of a few episodes) it should be pretty straigt forward as far as encoding and format goes.   No Go.  I’ve waited longer probably than it would take to haul the VCR into the other room and get it set up on the other TV.   (Technology isn’t really convenient if it isn’t easier, faster, better, or at least two of the three)

 

Kind of a disappointment.  I was hoping that would be an excuse to buy one of the rumored next-gen xbox360 with integrated HDMI and HDDVD support.  But maybe not.

 

(Of course there is still hope… maybe Vista’s media center works)

 

UPDATE:  I have a laptop with MCE as well, so I connected the xbox extender to that machine.  (As a note, it looks like you can only extend one Media Center Computer at a time)  The laptop came with a sample HD video from National Geographic.  It is encoded as a WMV and about 120 MB.  That played fine.  It loaded quick and played well…. even with the laptop running wirelessly (802.11g)  it wouldn’t play any of my other video files, complaining about the codecs.  So that might have been a problem with the desktop–but even so, it should have told me.