HDTV and the land of 1080p
Have been really craving a new HDTV for the last year or so. Specifically, some of the new rear projection DLP4 1080p style TV's. Well, HP has entered the consumer electronics TV market with great plasma and DLP TV's, and have a pretty good DLP4 1080p version in both a 58" and 65" model (MD5880n and MD6580n). Most importantly, it beats all the current competetors, by actually recognizing 1080p input sources (most of the Mitsubishi and Samsung only upconvert 480p/720p/1080i to the internal 1080p display, but don't actually allow 1080p content to be put in).

Well, finally broke down and ordered one of the 58" ones at a pretty hefty discount on one of the online forum "special purchase" deals (through TV Authority). It should be here sometime next week. Now, I have to figure out what to do with the old Mitsubishi WS-55411 and probably find a nice new expensive entertainment stand for this new one. I also have to get my HTPC set back up with DVI->HDMI out ready to display awesome 1920x1080 windows desktop (and ready for the new HD-DVD players). For now, the Xbox is proving to be an AWESOME media center, and it should do very well with 1080i content that can be de-interlaced and displayed very well on the 1080p display.

There is a good "owners" forum thread on AVS Forums.

Here is a temporary picture of the new cabinet I got from a local furniture store. We have small children with curious fingers, so I needed an enclosed cabinet for the components. After searching and being frustrated with what was available (at even exhorbant $5000 price tags), I was glad to find this. It is higher than I wanted it to be (at around 26") and would have liked something closer to 20", but I think it will be ok. Now, if I could just get the dang TV...

Update (1/28/2006): I cancelled my order with TV Authority as it has now been almost 20 days with no expectation of it even being shipped yet. HP has dropped the price by $500, and I'm not sure when I will be able to get the TV. Looks like it is going to be an HD-less Superbowl. Actually, I have my 30" Vizio LCD...



Update (2/3/2006): convinced me to keep my order, and offered to air ship the new TV to get it here before super bowl weekend. Well, it got here and it is huge. I got the new firmware updated on it, which fixes a LOT of problems, but there are still some small nuances (audio over HDMI is a bit flakey...fortunately I don't care too much about that, as I normally have the TV speakers off and use the stereo). Also, the color wheel is pretty loud. It is a high pitched whine that is just at the edge of audible range (sort of like a monitor running at 60Hz). Anyway, it is sort of driving me nuts. I wasn't tremendously impressed with the picture quality of standard def or even Showtime HD broadcast, after all the rave reviews. And I can actually see some nasty bright sparkling random patterns in the broadcast shows. But then I put in Ice Age to take a look at some DVD content and a good digital original source. This movie has some great color saturations and very detailed fine lines. Well, the content was simply amazing. This isn't even HD content, and yet it was as pretty as anything I'd seen. Very nice. Star Wars Episode II was also very crisp and clear and rendered well on the display. I'm going to try to hook up my HTPC tomorrow and check out some actual 1080p HD WMV content on it. It should be impressive.

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- posted by Jeff @ 5:32 PM | 6 comments