Originally posted by: OrlandoTiger
Wait til DestruyaUR or some of the more experienced members with hdtv than I drop by to comment on that.From my area it looks like several of the stations are broadcasting in 16:9 all the time.Of course not much of that is hdtv im sure you know.
You probably want to edit the colorful language out of your post and throw in a few @$# instead since this is a policed forum
Local stations don't broadcast in HD all the time simply because they can't. Reruns of MASH or Married With Children aren't available in HDTV formats and quite frankly couldn't be remastered because of the sheer cost involved. The stations in the Metro DC area broadcast in 1080i during the day for news programs and shows like (ugh) Oprah, but having a widescreen TV watching regular broadcast programs will not be an overly pleasurable viewing experience. I think these Samsungs have circuitry which boosts regular programming to a higher res, but can't be sure since you never ever see these TVs playing anything else except HDTV demos in places like Best Buy. Word to the wise is to go to someplace like Circuit City and ask to see what regular non-HDTV broadcasts look like on a widescreen direct-view TV like this Samsung. Chances are they're going to play stupid since they don't want you to see the "bar effect" and that 30" screen will turn into a 22" 4:3. Other than that, with the proper service and equipment, primetime TV and DVDs will certainly never look the same to you ever again.
Digital Cable (what I think you're calling "DTV," Darkstar) is NOT HDTV. Digital TV is simply the use of fiber optic conveyance in the place of coaxial cable. They don't run fiber into your house - the RG-6 they used before stays. The only difference between analog and digital cable is just that - the way in which the signals are transmitted. Analog transmits through the use of sine waves, and digital uses bits. I know for a fact that our cable provider is launching HDTV service in digitally-upgraded areas, so you might want to check your own provider. But even with Cox's HDTV service, only a FEW channels are HDTV. It's not 2007 yet, so networks are taking their sweet time in putting out content. It never fails - if you give an industry a deadline, they'll work up until the absolute last minute.
Lastly, these televisions are HD-ready, which means they're only "HD-capable" until you hook up an external decoder box which is then connected to an input capable of giving you HD signals. Cable companies with HDTV capability will most likely carry them, but if not, you're looking at ANOTHER 400-700 dollars for a decoder. Sets with HDTV decoding built into the television typically run 800-1000 dollars higher than their "-ready" counterparts and I don't know of a single chain-store (such as CC, BB, or for you lucky SOBs out West, Fry's) that carries purchasable direct-view decoder-equipped HDTVs. They seem to be more commonplace on the plasma, LCD, and newer gigantic rear-projection TVs which have so much space in the cabinets that it'd be a shame NOT to stick a decoder in there.