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What about picture quality?
When it comes to Home Theatre, picture size is usually the most important part of the television. Usually, the smallest size for a TV is 27" for it to be considered a home theatre television. However, as expected, as the picture size goes up, so does the cost. There are basically three different types of televisions: tube, rear-projection, and front-projection. Tube televisions are generally the smallest and cheapest. However, there are some 36" or 38" flat screen tube televisions out there that are absolutely beautiful and pretty expensive. Next comes rear-projection televisions. These usually range from 36" to 80" (Wow!). Some of these sets are also in a "widescreen" ratio of 16:9 (that's approximately 1.78 times as wide as it is high). These TV's will show a flat-screen movie in its entirety without the black bars on the top and bottom (letterboxing), but a film shot with anamorphic lenses (2.35:1) will still be slightly letterboxed. This is a complicated issue in itself. Email me if you have questions about widescreen movies and letterboxing. Plasma sets are probably the brightest and the most stylish. They are coming down in price, but are still very expensive. People will tell you that parts and gases need to be replaced after a few years, but the manufacturers (and some experts) say that's not true. I guess we'll find out soon enough. Finally, and most costly, is front-projection. This is like rear-projection, except the "TV" is a projector that throws the picture on a screen or a wall. I guess these sizes can be as large as you want them.
Tube televisions tend to be the sharpest because they can condense the scan lines in their relatively small screen size. Rear-projection sets are large, but are not as sharp due to their size. One ancient complaint about rear-projections is their brightness. However, in the last five years or so, these sets have made great strides in improving their brightness. Front projection is television at its most opulent. If done correctly, and with the best equipment, you can have a 100" picture that has the sharpness of a 27" tube. Also (and what I love), is that you can get a perforated screen and put the front speakers behind the screen like a real movie theatre. There are two downsides though. One, well, they are expensive, and two, they need constant maintenance and that maintenance in itself is expensive.
Bottom line: I think audio quality comes first. Then, depending on your finances, upgrade your TV. Go to a TV store and check out what they have in your price-range. Then, depending on your taste and living conditions (an 81" rear-projection may not fit in most peoples living rooms) make your choice!
HDTV- A few years ago, the U.S. government said that all broadcast networks must send a high-definition digital signal by the year 2006. Now, very few people believe this will actually happen, but high-definition television (HDTV) will definitely stick around. Digital televisions (DTV) are capable of displaying a high resolution, HDTV signal, and they come in all the same ways analog TV's do.
HDTV comes in a variety of formats. One is the 1080i (1080 horizontal interlaced lines) and the 720p (720 horizontal progressive scanned (non-interlaced) lines). A bit lower on the HDTV ladder is 480p (used for progressive scan DVD's) format. All broadcast networks and satellite stations use at least one of these formats, so it's important that the DTV you're looking at is capable of displaying all of these formats.
DTVs are available in direct view (smaller), rear-projection (larger), plasma (large, very thin, very expensive), and front projection (eye-popping large, eye-popping expensive). I've read that one setback of the direct view is that it's not as high-res as the others because it is not capable of displaying all 1,920 pixels per scan line in the 1080i format. However, the direct-views are smaller and very good with standard NTSC signals (non HD 480i). DTVs are available in 16:9 widescreen and in 4:3 as well.
Right now, most major cities have stations that broadcast in HD and both major satellite providers (DirecTV and DISH Network) and major digital cable providers carry a few HD stations as well. This is important when considering built in HDTV tuners. HDTV tuners for off-air signals are generally much more expensive than the satellite or cable tuners. Therefore, when considering a DTV, you may want to get one with a built-in tuner if you're going to use it mostly for off-air signals.
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