Opinions needed ASAP on an RPTV! Have to buy tomorrow! Please help me forum! (1 Viewer)

[Brian Price]

I have an interesting situation and I really need some opinions/help from the forum. My sister is buying an HD RPTV tomorrow. She went to best buy and they have the Toshiba 50H72 for $1499. She also got them down to $1600 on the widescreen 50H82 (I think this is a really good price?). Both are HD compatible. She talked the store manager into letting her think about it overnight and he said he will honor the same prices tomorrow when she comes in. So this is the dillema. Does she buy the 50" 4:3 or the 50" 16x9? I know what the next question would be....what kind of viewing does she do? She mainly watches broadcast tv but will be getting an HD box from time warner after this purchase so most of the prime time shows will be in HD here in Cincinnati. She does watch dvd's although maybe one a week or so. Does the stretch function on widescreen tv's distort the picture a lot? If you watch regular tv in the 4:3 format on a widescreen I believe it has grey bars on the sides?? Does this cause burn in if you watch the 4:3 ratio on a 16:9 a lot? Also, there will be no tech guys coming in to calibrate the tv but I have heard the Toshiba's are pretty good out of the box. She can't afford teh calibration, etc. Probably the only calibration that will be done is me using one of the setup discs, i.e. avia, etc (think that's what it's called). So what do you guys think? Is the widescreen price almost to good to pass up? All opinions welcomed and needed!! Thanks in advance for everyone who takes the time to read this post.

Brian Price

 

[Patrick Sun]

Heh heh, I recently choose the 4:3 HDTV set because I figured that I wanted to enjoy 4:3 TV material more than 16x9 enhanced DVDs (my viewing ratio is around 4:1 on 4:3 TV over DVD content). Sounds like your sister would be happier with a 4:3 set. Plus you'll get roughly the viewing area of a 40" wide 16x9 set (when she does watch letterboxed DVDs) with the 50" 4:3 set. Just one guy's opinion.

 

[Brent_H]

I would say go with the 16x9....other than the obvious reasons of DVD's looking SPECTACULAR, it will be more useful in the future....I get kind of annoyed with some 4:3 sourced stuff but hey, when I put in Monsters Inc. or even Shallow Hal, its all WORTH IT!

 

[DougR]

I would go with the 16x9 also ! Toshiba has one of the better Stretch Modes for 4:3 Viewing (Theater Wide 1).

 

[Jan Strnad]

Widescreen. It's the future. There will be more and more 16:9 material, less and less 4:3, as we race toward 2006.

Turn down the contrast, do an Avia calibration, and you shouldn't have to worry about burn-in. She should minimize her watching of channels with bright network "bugs" in the corner, like the History Channel and Women's Entertainment, though (whichever set she buys).

Toshiba has an excellent stretch mode for casual viewing of 4:3 material over the whole 16:9 screen.

Enjoy!

Jan

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yes, if you watch 4:3 material in the stretch mode, the people will be stubby looking, and appear 25-50 pounds heavier.

 

[Evan Hartnett]

Yes, if you watch 4:3 material in the stretch mode, the people will be stubby looking, and appear 25-50 pounds heavier.

Widescreen sets have stretch modes that just stretch the edge of the picture. If you use the mode that stretches the whole thing people will look short and fat, if you use the other mode people toward the center of the screen look fine.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Let's have some levity here please. Even though I finally decided to go w/ widescreen, there is plenty of merit to a 4x3 set.
Brian, IF your sister watches mostly prime time TV, then the HD cable service should take care of the 4x3 issue. And she should probably go w/ the 50H82. However, if she still watches lots of other 4x3 content, then she really should take a good look and decide if she can live w/ either the grey side bars OR one of the stretch modes on the Toshiba. This should be simple enough.
Also, even if she doesn't like the side bars AND any of the stretch modes, she should realize that she'll have to live w/ significant black bars above and below for all widescreen content--and that is the wave of the future even though old TV content and very old movies will always be 4x3.
In the end, it might just boil down to which she can live w/ more.
Now, I think if I were in her position, I would go w/ the 50H82--that's a steal(!) of a price at $1600(!). Hmmm... Makes me want to go out and haggle for that price sticking w/ the Panny 53". :p
BTW, I'm not 100% sure, but the 50H72 might not offer DVI upgradeability while the H82 does, so that's one more PLUS for the H82. Hmmm... Maybe just for that, I really should go haggle(!) instead of staying w/ the Panny 53"...
FYI, I was going to get the 50H72 from BB for $1500--I found out the price ahead of time--but have decided to go widescreen and sacrifice my 4x3 viewing somewhat afterall.
Happy shopping!
_Man_

 

[Hanson]

I went with a widescreen set a long time ago. Yes, there are some compromises to be made when viewing 4:3 material (cropping the top and bottom of the picture works well 90% of the time). And this was with a SD set, which created huge scanlines. With a HD set, the scan lines aren't much of an issue.

When I went shopping for a new set, I didn't even hesitate to go widescreen. You will not get a better DVD picture than with a widescreen set. Period. Even with 16:9 squeeze, there are distracting grey bars on top and bottom. In any case, a 50" widescreen set will give you a larger movie veiwing area than a 50" 4:3 set. Even though I watch 90% broadcast, I'd never go back to 4:3.

 

[Brian Price]

Thanks for all the replys on this. It definitely helped. My sister is now the proud owner of a Toshiba 50H82 50" widescreen tv (at least she will be Friday when it's delivered). She got it for $1600 and they threw in free delivery and a free recliner with ottoman! She looked at both sets many times and finally decided that she liked the widescreen better. She felt the stretch modes of the Toshiba were great and she didn't mind the very minor distortion of the 4:3 picture.

Not that it was an easy choice as they closed at 7pm and we were not out of there until after 7:30! It's hard to NOT influence someone who isn't "into" home theater when they go to purchase things, but I did my best and she came to this conclusion on her own. The only downfall......for her....I am already planning days to come over and watch my widescreen dvd's so I'm sure she will be sick of me very soon!...and since we live in Ohio and our beloved Buckeyes are in the national championship game, her place will be THE place to view the game! (she just doesn't know it yet!) Hopefully the game will be in HD! So I just wanted to thank all who posted and read this thread. I wanted to make sure to post the conclusion to this purchase since everyone was kind enough to help out. The opinions and help I received just reinforces my faith in the quality of this forum and those who are members.

Brian Price

 

[Patrick Sun]

So, Brian, are you helping your sister shop for HDTV OTA/SAT receivers? (if so, hop over the Audio/Video area).