Indecisions, indecisions! The fun bit about not having taken the big bite and actually bought the “dream TV”, is that I don’t have to regret any glaring weaknesses for that particular product… On the other hand, I also don’t get to enjoy the glaring glory of my “dream TV” either!
My latest reason not to get the big rear projection flat screen: processing delay. Many DVR victims are familiar with those instances when the sound and picture don’t sync up and while you can’t always tell which of the two is lagging the other, you can tell that something just isn’t right. This problem can be turned into a constant time warp by new HDTVs by way of too much video processing taking too long to put the finished pictures on the screen, thus the processing delay. Most decent Audio/Video Receivers perform some amount of processing and also incorporate delays to account for different speaker distances. Audio processing is pretty much cake compared to some video processing at this point. With the newest TVs displaying images at 1920x1080 (progressive “scan”) and most programming being presented in (some number)x480 (interlaced), there are a lot of picture to be pulled out of nowhere so it can look it’s best on the big screen. It’s no wonder the TV picture lags a little. There’s so many techniques involved, and many of them done on top of each other, that I am left rather amazed at what we are asking these magical machines to do. Some folks use a device which delays the audio before it gets to the receiver. I don't want to add this complication, or spend extra money to fix a "feature" of the TV I already spent so much on. Here's the one my wife won't like: it'll make video games suck.
My solution? Find the TVs that don’t have too many people complaining about sync problems, then feed it only 1080i signals so that the biggest job, short of minor picture tweaks, is to de-interlace the signal. This will require source devices that can supply video signals that are pre-scaled to 1080i. I’ve got the temporary measures in place. Our DVD player is a Samsung HD850, which is MUCH better than the 1st generation JVC player we had previously. It has what I’ve heard is an acceptable HDMI output, which is the key to making current DVD’s sing visually. The other temporary measure is the Comcast provided Motorola 6412 DVR. This one has a DVI output, and I have cables for each one to connect to the two HDMI inputs on whichever TV we get.
In near future, these boxes will be replaced by more capable hardware. The ideal machine would be a series 3 Tivo, and some sort of universal Blue-Ray/HD-DVD transport/changer. Even better: Have the Tivo control the disc player. There is a Sony media PC that comes with a similar 200 DVD transport/changer, which is connected via Fire wire to the PC. Can someone say Linux drivers? That shouldn’t be too hard right? I know. I shouldn’t be dreaming so much when I can’t even pick out the right TV.
Long story shortened, I am thinking about the one of the JVC models at this point now. DLP has too many moving parts and seems expensive to keep up (replacement lamps), so LCOS looks really good, but Sony has too much processing delay for its wonderful picture. JVC looks good, has cheap lamps, and doesn’t seem to induce too much processing delay.
Of course you know, the 2006 models are just around the corner. I’ll keep wiping the drool off my chin and tell you when I need another towel.
