There’s lots of talk these days about HDTV this and 1080p that and with the prevailing Blu-Ray format this has got some users worried about their aging technology.  A reader wrote in asking a question about his seven-year old TV and a collection of DVDs.  Well, hopefully this will answer your question and help some others as well.

Mr. White wrote in asking,

“Will the latest TVs which are digital-ready (I assume this means to take digital signals like ABC2?) be able to play the DVDs I have now, or do I have to buy something else entirely? For me this is an important item, especially on a pension.I hope you have someone there who can help, since I have grown cynical over the years and don’t trust any salesperson (Ric Hart/Retravision/pick a store). My current TV is an ordinary Panasonic, heading for 7 years old. I don’t have the space/inclination/money to buy something that would take up most of a wall!”

Don’t panic and don’t let the techno-jargon confuse you.  He’s right not to trust sales people at any electronics retailer, their job is to sell, not necessarily to understand what it is they’re selling.  Though, some stores are better than others at educating shoppers but in general, that’s not the case.

If your 7 year old TV plays DVDs then most certainly a new set will play them and with better image quality.  If the only reason you want to get a new TV is to get digital channels you may want to think about this for a bit.  Digital Transition is to be completed by the start of 2009 for the United States; this means analog signals will cease.  TVs that aren’t digital ready will need a converter box in order to receive the digital signal, albeit with reduced quality.

This may be one case where Comcast is doing the right thing, if you have an older TV and have Comcast cable service, you WILL NOT need a converter box to continue receiving channels.

It’s true that with a digital ready set you will be able to receive most over-the-air digital broadcasts (NBC HD, ABC HD) and some additional channels that come with having a digital receiver.  The problem is that not all sets that advertise “digital ready” or “built-in HDTV tuner” may not actually be capable of receiving the digital broadcast.  For example, this TV at Best Buy requires an external HD-antenna in order to receive digital broadcasts, hardly ideal.

In order to get an HDTV that is actually HD-capable you need to make sure it has a QAM tuner.  QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) is “the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted via cable.”  The QAM tuner feature of an HDTV will enable it to recieve over-the-air digital broadcasts that are put out by most local stations.

Most sets with the QAM feature will have in the spec list “NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner;” just avoid those that don’t.  The FCC currently has no requirement that HDTVs actually have a QAM tuner built-in.

The ease of finding such a set depends on the retailer’s website; it was nearly impossible at Best Buy, it does sell them but the search feature (or lack thereof) made them impossible to find.  Circuit City was able to find QAM enabled HDTVs just by typing “QAM” in the search field.  Several other online stores made it even easier.

Then it just comes down to the size of TV you want and budget.  There are some rather cheap LCDs out there that do have a QAM tuner but may be lacking in other areas (fewer input/outputs for example).

If you want a 1080p set you may have to get one as large as 40-inches.  Anything less than that will likely be 720p which is still considered high-def and most people can’t even tell the difference.  If all you’re doing is watching the local HD broadcasts and your DVD collection then a 32″ to 36″ 720p HDTV should be perfectly fine but is really down to what you prefer.  I’ve found that 26″ is just a bit too small and I certainly wouldn’t buy anything smaller than that.

As far as brand, LG, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony are all great.  I would stay clear of off-brands like Vizio and Olivia/Syntax because support from those companies is questionable but 9 times out of 10 the TV is just fine (but you don’t want to be the odd man out) and it’s not worth the risk if something goes wrong.  LG, Samsung, Toshiba or Sony are more likely to stand behind their product and may provide on-site service during the warranty period (varies by location).

You may have to consider a DVD player upgrade as well.  Most new HDTVs will come with several HDMI ports which will provide the best image from your DVD player.  In addition to the new DVD player you will have to buy an HDMI cable but maybe not.  Component cables provide a nice image too and it’s possible your current player will have that.  Look for color-coded connectors that are green, blue and red (labeled Y, Pb/Cb, Pr/Cr).

A component connection will carry the video only, a separate audio connection must be made.  An HDMI cable will carry both the digital image and audio to the TV.  If the TV has digital (optical) audio out then that can be used to carry the audio to a home theater/stereo or surround sound system.  RCA connections can do the same but some would say at reduced quality (certainly in the case of video but maybe not so much in the case of audio).

All these extras require you to purchase additional cables (Component video cables, HDMI cables and if you wish, optical audio cables) will cost extra in addition to the TV and DVD player.  Usually manufactures will package the worst (composite) cables as your only means of out-of-the-box functionality.

Mr. White, I hope that answered your question as well as helping others out there who might have had the same question.

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 3:27 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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