New TV for grandparents (1 Viewer)

[JeffTodd]

Hey everyone,
My grandparents called me up this morning saying that their current TV is on the fritz and about to go. They are in the market for a new 36" TV. Their concern of course is all the talk of the broadcast stations going to an all digital format. They don't want to purchase a TV and then 3-5 years down the road its not worth a darn because of the all digital format.

I wanted to get some opinions on what they should purchase and what the differences are in the features. My grandpa was asking me specifically what the comb filter is. I have not researched digital sets yet because I cannot afford one yet.

They watch alot of TV. They are not into movies and don't even own a DVD player. They have a Toshiba set now, but I don't know how brand loyal they are.

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bill Slack]

Do they have cable or satellitle, or just get OTA signals? Unless they're just getting everything OTA, the whole digital thing means basically nothing to them. If they do watch stuff OTA, they'll always be able to buy a set-top-box in the future to decode it. It won't be as good quality as a real HD set, but it will work fine.

The comb filter seperates chroma (color) and luma (black/white) portions of the picture. To them, I doubt it's too big of a deal. If they have a satellite dish, the output will likely be S-Video anyway, which already seperates chroma/luma. The comb filter only comes into play on composite and RF connections.

 

[JeffTodd]

As far as I know they get all their stuff OTA. So they would be safe going with any basic set then? I am sure they will be happy to hear that. Thanks.

Anybody else have anything on the topic?