Did I see Real HD TV at Best Buy? (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

I was in BB today, in Little Rock, and they had several wide-screen, HD tv sets going. A 56" wide, rear projection toshiba really caught my eye. Might be a bit off on the inches, not sure.
Several different pieces of content were shown, a concert video, part of an episode of Jag, some outdoor activities obviously produced for this purpose.
Well the picture is better than anything I've seen, but...After all the build-up for HD, I expected the images to 'knock my socks off' and that didn't happen.
I asked an employee if they were showing a true HD source, and he said 'yes, its a DVD.' Well unless there are some prototypes out there, or I'm behind the times (very possible), a DVD source would not be HD. He was not very well informed at all.
When I walked up close to the set, I could see the vertical scan lines. Would I be able to see them on HD?
Lest you think I thought the picture was terrible, I really liked it. In fact, if I could buy a complete system of that screen size that would display my DVDs that well, I'd gladly pay $1500 for it (they're asking $3500 or so) and that is for what is basically a monitor. It would still require some sort of digital converter.
I digress, does any one know if BB is showing true HD TV in their stores?
thanx.
------------------
Johnny

 

[Drew Eckhardt]

No.
If it's a DVD, it's not HD.
My current job as a professional geek involves disk based digital video recorders for broadcast and post production. We support both Panasonic's 360Mbps HDP and Sony HDCAM at 270Mbps. Scan lines and individual pixels are NOT visible, even on a cinema sized screen at normal viewing distances, or on smaller screens (say a 19" computer monitor 2 feet away) freeze-framed.
Unfortunately, I've never seen OTA HD and therefore can't make a comparison. The data rate is much lower (about 19Mbps), although where the professional standards compress on field or frame boundaries (to facilitate editing) although over-the-air ATSC HD compresses across multiple frames which greatly reduces the data rate without a noticeable reduction in quality so you'd probably draw the same conclusions.

 

[Chip E]

It's a recorded HD demo loop...
- Chip

 

[Johnny Angell]

When I saw the vertical scan lines I was about a foot, maybe two away from the screen. They were definitely not visible from a normal viewing distance.
Chip, are you saying you're familiar with this particular loop? If so, what are your impressions of its quality?
thanx.
------------------
Johnny

 

[Rich Kraus]

another thought that should be added here is that the sets on display are generally poorly calibrated (if at all), and are sometimes mis calibrated by folks playing with the sets. it is dificult to analise the picture output on a display for this and another reason. the other reason is that they split their HD feed several times, sometimes through less than perfect switching networks. all this, of course, will degerade the picture you see.
weather or not it will knock your socks off will depend on your point of view/background. folks who are used to a 27 inch emerson fed with analog cable split 5 ways into their home will be simply floored by the picture even a good dvd setup can provide.
one final note, i believe that beyond a certan point the extra resolution of hd is wasted on small displays. the bigger the set, the bigger the impact hd material has "the picture cant possibly be that clear on that size diasplay..." ---at least thats what i said when i first viewed the 72in mits in the store. i bought a 46in mits hd set and it dosnt have quite the impact. (but it didnt have the impact on my wallet either )
------------------
'Till next time,
Rich (the kite guy)

 

[Gary Rhine]

Did you see vertical scan lines or horizontal scan lines?
------------------
Gary J. Rhine
My Home Theater

 

[Nathan A]

Wait....a Best Buy employee didn't know what he was talking about?

 

[Jeremy Little]

Wait, go easy on Best Buy employees. If you found one that knows what they are talking about, listen because that means they went and learned on their own. The company as a whole does very little training. I know, I work at Best Buy Store 220 in North Oklahoma City.
To answer the question regarding HDTV at Best Buy. The signal is a native 1080I, but in my store we have to run the HDTV's at 480P. According to our tech guy, we split our component signal running off of the TU-DST50 Panasonic HDTV box. That split signal causes many problems with the 55H70 and 61H70 Televisions (Toshiba). They blink in and out with a picture. Maybe all the stores do something different, but we only get to show 480P at our store.
------------------
Heal a Million, Kill a Million

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'm asking myself, 'what's wrong with this picture?'. Pun intended. Here we a format capable of over a 1000 lines of resolution, and BB commonly demonstrates it at less than half that?
At the prices that HD is going for, you'd better show the customer the full potential of the product, which BB is probably not doing in Little Rock. I'm going to take a guess that that I haven't seen HD at anywhere near its full potential.
I guess the point is moot anyway, since a $3500 monitor is not in my budget.
And the scan lines I saw were vertical.
thanx for all the replies.
------------------
Johnny

 

[Ruben Zamora]

At my BEST BUY i always get blown away at the HD set they have. Its a RCA widescreen. Its a small one though, I think its 32 or 36. Its a small Widescreen TV but the picture just KICKS major ASSSSSSSSs.
------------------
Ruben Zamora
Onkyo TX-575X
Pioneer DV-333

 

[Robert_J]

Johnny,
Go to Custom Audio Video on Rodney Parham. They have the DirecTV HD demo running through Mitsubishi TVs. Also, there is a place on the north east corner of Cantrel and University. They have the Dish HD demo running through Panasonic TVs. Either of these places will have a correctly set up HD demo.
-Robert

 

[Jack Gilvey]

At my BEST BUY i always get blown away at the HD set they have. Its a RCA widescreen.

The RCA's have the best HD direct-view picture I've seen.

 

[ShanonS]

The key here is "normal viewing distance". I've had my Mits 55807 for about 3 weeks now. It was a tough choice between the Tosh and Mits. I'm sitting at about 10' and running non-progressive DVD on component cable, and I'm more impressed every day. You shouldn't expect it to look perfect from 2 feet. Now, if it didn't look good from 6-20 feet, that's a totally different story. You really don't need anything much bigger than a 20" for 1-2' viewing;-)

 

[Jeremy Little]

The RCA 38" t.v. is running off its own set top in most locations. You are seeing 1080I on that particular set.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I guess I didn't make it clear that when I saw the scan lines I was about a foot away from the screen. I was trying to see if they were visible.
When I was evaluating the picture, I was about 10-15 feet away. That's the distance from which my socks were not knocked off.
------------------
Johnny

 

[Rachael B]

Johnny, when you see real HDTV, your jaw will drop some and you'll say, yea(!). I've seen Busted Buy's display and real HDTV elsewhere this very week. The dealer showed me the HBO feed with and without. It was with it, and you could get up close and have a hard time finding, Waldo, I mean scan lines. This was on an Elite RP set. Obvious isn't a strong enough word to describe the difference on HBO's high-def feed... Best wishes!
------------------
Rachael, the big disc cat! Remember, actual mileage may vary....
AFI Film Challenge, hey I've only got 3 to go!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Moved to TV & Projectors

 

[Harold A]

If it is anything like the BB out here they say they are showing HDTV. What they mean is that they have an HDTV signal be it from a STB or Hard Drive that is being fed to the tvs through coax. So is it HDTV I don't think so. It is not even close. Is the picutre better then regular NTSC yeah a little but no where near HDTV quality.

 

[JoanPablo_T]

Hey what's up!
Having worked at Best Buy, and I actually know my stuff!
your are and are not watching HD. Per the NTSC or ATSC any signal not 'native' HDTV can be upgraded to 1080i or 720p and still be considered HDTV. The problem with this is, you get digital artifacts and not a very good picture as compared to a program actually recorded in HD originally. Best Buy gets the information from satalite and gets downloaded (on to a Sencore HD Drive) every few months with new programs. It is cheaper to upgrade than to film in HD originally. So this is what Best Buy does. As compared to other stores who have original recorded programing which looks 10 times better! So once again, Best Buy drops the ball.......and, the TV's are not calibrated at ALL!!
During my time there I took my own copy of Video Essentials and calibrated the TV's, but Best Buy really didn't care. (as long as they sold)
See ya!!
JP