Forums | MacLife

MacBoy4139 wrote:

Is the Westinghouse 40" LCD TV a HDTV?

Umm... yes. Pretty much any LCD TV over 24" or so will be HD. It even supports 1080p (but no consumer devices yet do, except computers, I think).

Last edited by mo' ron (2006-05-04 3:33 pm)

Found it - her are the specs:

Toshiba HD DVD High-Definition DVD Player with Standard-DVD Upconversion
Model: HD-A1


Prepare to be blown away by the new standard in home entertainment! Thrill to movies in eye-popping, true high definition with Toshiba's first player for the next-generation HD DVD format. This model also plays standard DVDs in near-HD resolution for improved picture quality.
•    Next-generation HD DVD format compatible, for true HDTV video with amazing color and incredible high-resolution surround sound
•    Delivers greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs by upconverting their video resolution to HDTV-compliant 720p or 1080i via the HDMI interface
•    Built-in decoders for next-generation Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD high-resolution surround, plus lossless Dolby TrueHD (2-channel)



Plays HD DVD, HD DVD-R, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD, CD-R/-RW, MP3 and WMA formats 


Letterbox and pan-and-scan TV aspect ratio selection 


Built-in Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD (2-Channel) and DTS-HD decoders, plus standard Dolby Digital and DTS; 32-bit floating-point DSPs for improved audio performance 


HDMI output provides an uncompressed all-digital audio/video link for the highest-quality connection and supports copy-protected HD broadcast content 


ColorStream Pro progressive-scan component video outputs deliver extraordinarily colorful images to compatible TVs and virtually eliminate dot crawl and flicker 


Network compatible with a built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port 


54MHz/11-bit video digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion 


192kHz/24-bit PCM audio compatibility delivers warmer, more natural-sounding audio from many types of discs 


Enhanced black level (0IRE/7.5IRE selection) and 3D noise reduction for improved picture quality 


Functions include slow play, step play, fast forward, fast reverse, time search, A-B repeat and more 


2 USB ports for connection to digital devices 


Outputs: component video, optical digital audio, coaxial digital audio, S-video, composite video, stereo audio, HDMI and 5.1 multichannel audio 


Parental lock controls keep children from being exposed to undesirable material 


Trilingual on-screen display allows you to choose from English, French and Japanese 


Preprogrammed remote with TV controls included

Oh, and it lists for $499 not $400. That sends it over to the expensive realm especially considering PS3 will be around this price point, probably less.

NOBODY CAR---

Oh, wait.

{logs out}

MacBoy4139 wrote:

mo' ron wrote:

MacBoy4139 wrote:

Is the Westinghouse 40" LCD TV a HDTV?

Umm... yes. Pretty much any LCD TV over 24" or so will be HD. It even supports 1080p (but no consumer devices yet do, except computers, I think).

I've seen EDTVs up to 50", so not always true.

Yeah, but "pretty much" doesn't mean "always"

AAPL Shareholder wrote:

mo' ron wrote:

The picture quality is significantly better than a regular DVDs, but not breathtakingly so. Also, even though the movies support it, the current unit can't output 1080p (and 95% of the TVs on the market can't display 1080p). Basically, someone that is looking for it will notice the subtleties of the increased picture quality, but the typical person won't see anything too significant over a decent regular DVD. I think this is partially due to lower-quality mastering on the HD-DVDs than they could be as well as the mediocre Westinghouse 40" LCD they have it hooked up to. Also, the software on the unit is kinda pudgy, it is slow to load movies, and it doesn't offer any visual feedback after pressing play (the screen blacks out, and you don't know if it's turn off, or just "thinking")..

Remember, you'll probably need and HDTV which supports HDCP. If you don't have HDCP many videos will down sample to 960×540.

Yet another reason why market penetration will be very slow for this new technology.  Let's see:  get a $2500 TV and $400 DVD player, so you can watch movies at 960x540 instread of 720x480.  Yeah, right.

I think it would be good to see a major release of a new product like this fall flat on it's face to send the message that people are not going to pay huge dollars for DRM controlled content.

resedit wrote:

G5Addict wrote:

I'll wait for Blu-ray.

I'll wait until I have something better than a 20" tube TV that only has an F-Jack for video in. That TV is only 7 years old though, so it still has some life left.

Which one is which again?  Isn't one 50 GB and the other 25, and one is H264 and the other mpeg2 at a higher bit rate?  I can't remember.  (and I am lazy)

AAPL Shareholder wrote:

mo' ron wrote:

The picture quality is significantly better than a regular DVDs, but not breathtakingly so. Also, even though the movies support it, the current unit can't output 1080p (and 95% of the TVs on the market can't display 1080p). Basically, someone that is looking for it will notice the subtleties of the increased picture quality, but the typical person won't see anything too significant over a decent regular DVD. I think this is partially due to lower-quality mastering on the HD-DVDs than they could be as well as the mediocre Westinghouse 40" LCD they have it hooked up to. Also, the software on the unit is kinda pudgy, it is slow to load movies, and it doesn't offer any visual feedback after pressing play (the screen blacks out, and you don't know if it's turn off, or just "thinking")..

Remember, you'll probably need and HDTV which supports HDCP. If you don't have HDCP many videos will down sample to 960×540.

edit:

Note HDDVD maxes out at 1080i. BluRay will do 1080p.
However, you should try that player on a newer HDTV with HDCP. I bet that's why it doesn't look much better to you.

Most studios said they won't introduce the downsampling thing for the first few generation of HD DVD titles. Plus, the DVD being used is a demo DVD, which likely has no restrictions on it.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp … 8084694260

That's the TV they're using. It DOES support HDCP (which most middle and high-ends and probably a lot of the low-end ones out now with HDMI do too).

Last edited by mo' ron (2006-05-04 8:13 pm)

resedit wrote:

F-jack is a coax cable jack.
It has cable input - that's it.

Man, I thought I had a cheap-ass TV. Well, I do actually. Open-box 26" Apex. It does have coax, S-vid, and RCA inputs though.

Check RadioShack every time there's a sale, too. Sometimes the Apex and Presidians are sold below cost.

wellfleation wrote:

You get what you pay for, especially with tvs. What ever you do, stay away from RCA.

My TV is cheap and is still going strong.
I know several people with RCA televisions that work quite well.

I had bought two expensive DVD players in the past - I only buy cheap now, because the expensive ones failed rather quickly. The cheap ones - if they fail quickly, who cares.

wellfleation wrote:

Phydeaux wrote:

Check RadioShack every time there's a sale, too. Sometimes the Apex and Presidians are sold below cost.

Those sets should last you a year or two.

You get what you pay for, especially with tvs. What ever you do, stay away from RCA.

I get a year manufacturer's warranty with whatever set I get. If I'm paying more for a Samsung set, I should get a longer warranty then, right?

Then again, regardless of the brand, we sold extended 3rd party warranties. Doesn't matter if it was RCA, Samsung, AKAI (which was made in the same plant as the Samsungs as far as big screens went, just rebadged and sold for a lot less), whatever.