do HD TV'S matter?

[Sparrow]

Watching TV? Nopers.

Playing your 360/PS3? Yup.

No idea why, but it makes everything look much sharper and more alive when playing on a console. I don't really notice it with regular TV programs though.

 

[JWAN]

you then have to pay a whole lot more money for HD TV channels

Where I live, it's about $3 more per month than regular cable. Hardly a "whole lot".

-- Alex

it depends on where you live, if you live out in the boonies its going to cost you more

 

[Same River New Water]

A better picture and a bigger screen makes whatever you're watching better, but how much better is subjective. Maybe you don't really care, in which case, save your money. Anything animated, including games, usually looks much better in HD.

There are a few games that are difficult to play without an HDTV, simply because the visuals are designed to be blown up at a larger resolution. Some of the text in Viva Pinata, for example, was nearly impossible to read on my very large CRT TV, but is quite clear on my HDTV. Same for Gears of War.

you then have to pay a whole lot more money for HD TV channels

Where I live, it's about $3 more per month than regular cable.

Geeze where do you guys live? Where I live my provider says "If you have 1 of our services, and upgrade to cable TV you get HDTV for free."

I get HDTV channels for free right alongside the normal free-to-air channels. Cable is the same.

 

[zerzxes]

If it has a big screen that I can hook my pc too it's perfect.

any TV that i can hook my ps2 will go as i tv, i almost never watch TV and even use consoles less!

(even though I will use my ps2 a lot after i get my hands on guitar hero metallica since i'm a fanboy of 'tallica and like guitar hero games)

 

[traceur_]

They improve picture quality, that's all, what more could one desire from a television besides interactive porn.

 

[DragunovHUN]

me and my freind have been arguing for a while on if it matters or not
i think they dont as all they do is improve picture quality and nothing much else and he says that it does more than that
and when ever i ask what else it does he doesnt answer
what are your thoughts on it?

For console gaming, absoloutely. 640x480 vs 1280x720. Quite a difference. For TV and movies i could care less.

 

[Overlord_Dave]

As TVs get bigger, standard definition will start looking awful.

When you see two same-size TVs with one HD and one SD the difference is incredible.

So if you have a TV over 30", then HD is a must. In my opinion

 

[jj90]

they do give a better picture etc. however, you cant keep up with technology these days, as now HD 3D tvs are almost in production

 

[Anarchemitis]

Pink is Standard Resolution Televisions, and a little larger than your YouTube video player.
1080p is around the same size as medium-nice gaming monitors.

 

[DarkRyter]

It makes everything very pretty, definition wise.

Except actors. Everyone has alot more acne in high definition.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

No one who has an HDTV would even ask this question...

I was in the middle of playing Mass Effect when I got my first HDTV. When I started playing it in HD, I realized that what I thought were little orange blobs on my radar were really crystal-clear orbs with question marks, or piles of raw materials, or radar outposts, etc.

So yes, as far as gaming is concerned, the difference between SD and HD is the difference between blurry blobs of color and perfectly detailed icons.

 

[Sewer Rat]

it doesnt really matter to me, its nice but its not really a selling point for me.

 

[caz105]

HDTV's are worth it for gaming, but in my opinion, there is no real difference between 1080p and 1080i. Also is it me, or are HD cables so expensive for a tiny length of fibre-optics?

 

[Lopunny]

me and my freind have been arguing for a while on if it matters or not
i think they dont as all they do is improve picture quality and nothing much else and he says that it does more than that
and when ever i ask what else it does he doesnt answer
what are your thoughts on it?

For console gaming, absoloutely. 640x480 vs 1280x720. Quite a difference. For TV and movies i could care less.

yeah, certainly makes a difference with games, I can't really see what the fuss is about HD TV though...

 

[l33tabix]

I own a rediculous amount of them and let me tell you, playing a recent game on let's say, a 40" in HD is great.
Also, if you are playing a hudless fps like you know, CoD WaW on Hardcore online, as long as you have a DECENT HDTV it is really absorbing.

 

[GackleBlax]

1080p 60inch pioneer TV
7000$
I would have paid 8000$
It was worth every penny

 

[l33tabix]

No one who has an HDTV would even ask this question...

I was in the middle of playing Mass Effect when I got my first HDTV. When I started playing it in HD, I realized that what I thought were little orange blobs on my radar were really crystal-clear orbs with question marks, or piles of raw materials, or radar outposts, etc.

So yes, as far as gaming is concerned, the difference between SD and HD is the difference between blurry blobs of color and perfectly detailed icons.

same thing happened in Crackdown, the health bar or something, i played it on a HD and i was like HOLY SHIT THOSE WERE SQUARES? there are tonnes of things you can't see the detail in without a hdtv.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

HD and normal are same except HD is REALLY REALLY SHINY!

and as you know shiny=good

 

[CuddlyCombine]

HD is just a clearer, sharper picture. With larger screens, it becomes almost a necessity (stretching a mere 480 pixels horizontally across a 40" might do some bad things). There's no improvement on audio, as those are dependent on whatever stereo system you have, and no improvement on just about any other aspect. The only thing that will difference in all televisions, which he may have mistakened to be caused by the HD tv is the television latency (the time it takes for the signal to reach the screen). Many less-expensive televisions will have a latency from 8-10ms (dependent on model), while newer models tend to have 5-6ms latency. Not a HUGE difference.
So HD only affects the picture quality and nothing else. Any other difference is dependent on the television model and whatever you use along with it.

All you'll ever need to know about HDTV, basically. A smaller HD-compatible TV (which is hard to come by) will have an incredibly detailed picture; a larger one will need HDTV, or, as RapidCrash aptly puts it, bad things will happen to the picture.

 

[bimbley]

Also is it me, or are HD cables so expensive for a tiny length of fibre-optics?

They can be. Some companies just stick a huge price tag on them hoping, (often successfully) that the gullible masses will pay up thinking that they're worth it or that the more expensive ones will perform better. Bullshit, of course, a HDMI cable is a HDMI cable.

Back to the topic- yes, they matter. As someone has said, they might well *only* improve picture and sound quality, but what the hell else do you want from a TV? When I first got my PS3 I had an LCD screen but no HDMI cable, so I played MGS4 in SD and couldn't read a lot of the writing on screen. HD might not be essential right now, but it's going in that direction.

-Bimbley