Dumb Question

[Lou]

Although I may embarrass myself......

I'm finally going to make the change from giant, fat old-style TV to a LCD-HDTV. I mean I have one of those TV's that weighs about 100 pounds & is about 3 feet thick!

So, here comes the dumb question: Will my DS9 & other DVD's be stretched into odd contortions? Will it along with my DVD movies look "normal"?

[Henry J]

Your guess is as good as mine.

[lswot]

Mine didn't.....I mean they look the same to me....... (and it took a long time for me to up grade, too.

Besides.....there aren't any dumb questions only dumb answers......depending on the person answering...that is.

[Henry J]

depending on the person answering...that is.

Say what?

[lswot]

depending on the person answering...that is.

Say what?

My point exactly.....

[Xjmt]

My recent upgrade to a Samsung screen has some stations in both regular and HD. I'm not sure how to set it up for a VCR because the connections are the same for my Wii Sport+. There doesn't seem to be a "control" channel for DVD/VCR. My old TV used channel "3". However the remote allows one to switch between "sources" such as either TV or Games which the Wii uses. There is no setting there for VCR/DVD and as I said it didn't work no matter how I set it up.

The instructions say I need an HDMI cable and I haven't taken the time to look for that. I assume the DVD/VCR will show up once connected.

OH, my new Samsung is also WiFi adaptable. It has found the connection but so far only works when it wants to. ie The screen has connected to Wii Sport online but I haven't been able to get through to my computer or the internet with it. Something no one told me about.

It's only about 24" wide.

[Lou]

Thanks for your info, Iswot. I was worried that the wide screen instead of the square screen would make the movies & other DVD stuff look odd.

And Xjmt, your last entry here seems very techno-savy compared to what you usually say about technology topics. You've jumped way ahead on the techno IQ scale. I'm impressed

[lswot]

Ditto.........

[Xjmt]

It was a real learning process. I didn't know anything about these wide/flat screened TVs until I was trying to set it up. I just wanted to give everyone a "heads-up" that purchasing the newer TV screens will be:
1. supplying you with more ability then you originally may think &
2. the "set-ups" are not the same as with the older TVs.
Are they worth it? Yeah, I think so. Just so long as you don't go overboard by buying a movie theater sized screen just to watch your favorite TV show.

[AnneB]

I know this is not exactly what you asked but it may be relevant.

We have a 53-inch projection TV that is HD-ready, meaning it needs a cable box. All the stations filled the screen, but DVD's depended on whether we bought letterbox format of not. They either filled the screen or had black bars at the top and bottom.

However, we recently got the cable box for HD and it presents some interesting challenges. There are several ways to set it up. Full HD is 1080 but the installer set it up for 720. The HD channels as well as the non-HD channels still fill the screen but the HD channels have the sides cut off - meaning some text is not showing. I went to the controller and changed to full HD - 1080 - which makes all the HD channels appear in letterbox format, and the picture is awesome. But the non-HD channels have black bars on the top and bottom and on both sides. And my husband insists that he can't see the HD channels as well with the widescreen format and he thinks he's being cheated out of something with the non-HD channels.

This big TV, although being only 6 years old, has a problem. It won't come back on when it's cold without a great deal of trouble pushing buttons, and having the lights flicker when the TV is trying to come on. So pretty soon we will have to get a new TV and they don't sell the big square ones any more. I don't know how long it will last being left on all the time; we jsut turn it to one of the auxillary inputs that has nothing coming into it.

BTW, the HD box came with an HDMI cable and it looks more like a computer connector than a TV cable; is flat and has about 5 plugs on the end. It uses auxillary 4 on the TV and the VCR is still plugged in with the round cable and still works on channel 3.

[Xjmt]

It uses auxillary 4 on the TV and the VCR is still plugged in with the round cable and still works on channel 3.

Really? My VCR is still hooked into the TV with the round cable but so far the TV doesn't recognize it as existing. The connection, HDMI, comes in a number of formats (or so it seems) none of which fit my VCR.* So that means I'm in the market for a new VCR/DVD player. Somewhat.

I've seen some DVD recorders for around $300 and under but I can't give up my VHS unit because of all the VHS tapes I have. It seems to me these manufacturers are in the process of voting themselves out of business.

*See? I told you I have crappy VCRs.

[AnneB]

I'm in the process of converting my VHS tapes to DVD with the computer, but it's very slow going. Has to be done in real time, so I'm doing the tapes that I bought first. Some of the ones I taped from the TV have been bought on DVD, and the others are not real good quality.

[Xjmt]

Just about all the first VHS tapes I made of TV shows and movies have been thrown out. The reception stunk and as the tapes stretched they became unwatchable.
But I do know a couple who had some company "do over" their entire record collection and converted to MP3 (I think it was). Neat set up. They insist it wasn't expensive but they've never quoted me a price.

[AnneB]

Converting vinyl to MP3 also has to be done in real time, then have to be cleaned up if you want to get rid of the pops and crackles; would be very expensive for a lot of albums. I did one, and a bunch of 45's. Stopped that and started looking for downloads. One day I'll go back and start over with the songs that are too old to be online. I did record and clean most of my audio casettes to MP3.

[Xjmt]

I'm afraid if I do that then still another tech breakthrough will rear its ugly head and I'll still be stuck behind in the tech race.