It's Time to Take a Look at HDTV
Jim Zirkel had heard the hype about high-definition television. So when the old TV in his Antioch, Calif., living room began emitting a high-pitched whine, he took the plunge and bought one of the fancy, next-generation sets. A few weeks later, he's happy to say it has lived up to the hype. "The image really pops," he says. "It almost adds an extra dimension--it's got a 3-D look to it."
The prize possession of rich, home theater enthusiasts for years now, HDTV appears to be at the crossover point, where it's worthwhile for ordinary households. The sale of HDTV sets is gaining momentum, and more programming, like sports and prime-time shows, is available in the impressive format. New video-game machines, including Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3, are designed to be played on HDTV s. And next year also promises new DVD players--the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats--that will deliver high-resolution movies.
The sets, meanwhile, are free-falling in price. Zirkel plunked down $3,000 for a 40-inch LCD panel from Sony that might have cost nearly twice that just a year ago. In fact, most stores carry several HDTV models for less than $2,000, and sale prices dip even below $1,000 (though that's for a rear-projection set that's bulkier than Zirkel's flat panel).
While still a princely sum, the cost to join this television revolution is about the same as it was for the last major shift: A color tube ran about $2,000 (after adjusting for inflation) in the late 1960s, when color went mainstream.
Alphabet soup. But even amid the plummeting prices, it can still be intimidating to shop for an HDTV. Sorting out the options is like looking at some bizarre periodic table of the elements with entries including LCD, DLP LC oS, CRT, and plasma. But you don't need to decipher those options. Just decide what your budget is and head to the store, says Michael Miller, author of the new book How Home Theater and HDTV Work. "Within that price range, pick the set that looks best to you." As long as it's HDTV, it will still blow away the standard broadcasts you've been watching.
Likewise, don't get stumped by the debate over different HDTV technical standards: There are 18, if you need to know. The two most common are called "720p" and "1080i," and religiouslike wars rage over their importance. From my experience, it doesn't matter much. I've been watching a 50-inch Samsung HL-R5067W ($1,900) that displays the 720p standard and a $20,000 Sim2 Grand Cinema C3X projector that handles 1080i. Both look great--though only the projector can fill an entire wall with jaw-dropping images
Tuning in. One thing still worth considering is how you'll get your HD shows, whether by cable, satellite, or--in a retro touch--by antenna. Free HD broadcasts are available in almost every city, often at a higher picture quality than either cable or satellite offers. If you choose that option, make sure you get a set with a built-in tuner.
If you decide on the satellite or cable route, check in advance for which high-definition channels the carrier provides. Neither cable nor satellite companies carry them all, and the offerings can vary from city to city. The good news: "Competition between cable and satellite is forcing each to carry more HD channels," says Myra Moore, a market analyst at Digital Tech Consulting in Dallas.
Not all of us have a dying TV to justify the leap to HDTV, and it's hard to chuck a working set. But don't worry--that old tube still has a place in your home, if for nothing else than watching those old family videos. If those gatherings (and your hairstyles) were embarrassing enough to watch on the old set, you certainly don't want to see them on a big HDTV.
This story appears in the December 26, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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