HDTV: Buying Guide, Part Two

In my last article I wrote how there's never been acables that I connected to the Samsung. Most DVD
better time to buy a high definition (HD) television, and Iplayers sold in the last three years can output a
had just preordered the Samsung HLS-5087W 50 inchprogressive signal (the "p" in 480p) over component
rear projection DLP unit. The Samsung was deliveredcables instead of the normal interlaced picture
last Thursday and here's a summary of my initialtransmitted on composite and S-video connections.
reaction.First let me give some background on480p is a big visible improvement over 480i and you'll
preparing for the new HD television. I'm a satellite TVwant to make sure you are watching all of you DVDs
subscriber and needed to upgrade my DirecTVon a HD television using 480p.I chose Shrek as the first
hardware to be HD-compatible. So last month I loggedDVD to showcase on the Samsung. Dreamworks did
on to and ordered the HD upgrade package. For $200an amazing job with the animation quality of Shrek and
DirecTV came out and replaced my old satellite dishthought the DVD would be a good test of the picture
with a new 5-LNB oval HD dish. The HD packagequality of a standard definition DVD on a HD television.
included the lease of DirecTV's new H20 HD receiver,So how did it look? One word sums it up - amazing! I
and also included installing a new UHF antenna on mydon't expect I'll be going out to the movies much any
roof to receive other-the-air (OTA) HD localmore - I'll just wait for the DVD to come out.On
broadcasts. The new dish and receiver were requiredSaturday night I watched a broadcast of Steve
for HD reception since DirecTV is transmitting local HDWinwood in HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 on KQED, the
broadcasts in the new MPEG-4 compression formatlocal PBS affiliate. Being a huge Steve Winwood fan,
instead of the older MPEG-2 standard. Since HDand having seen Winwood on this tour at a local
material requires much more bandwidth than standardvenue in 2005, I was eager to see what kind of audio
definition video, satellite and cable providers will bevideo experience the new HD unit could deliver via a
migrating to the new MPEG-4 standard over time andlocal, OTA HD broadcast. Once again, I was just
DirecTV is leading the way for now.I was now all setstunned by the picture quality and quickly went to
to receive HD programming as soon as SamsungKQED's web site to see what future Soundstage
HLS-5087W arrived with one exception - an HDMIbroadcasts are scheduled. I'm now eagerly awaiting
cable to output the digital video/audio signal from theGarbage's performance premiering next month.There
H20 to the Samsung. I'm a big believer in investing inwas one more thing left to do though before I could
high quality cables for analog connections betweenexperience the maximum picture quality from the new
audio/video components. But HDMI is a digital interfaceSamsung - I needed to calibrate the picture for
that transmits a stream of 0's and 1's. So either itmaximum video quality. Virtually all televisions sold
works or it doesn't. I therefore bought a $20 HDMItoday ship from the factory with video settings that
cable on the Web instead of investing $90 or more forare far from optimal. Colors are typically
a Monster cable that I thought would yield exactly theoversaturated, with too warm a tone, and sharpness,
same audio and video quality. One great thing aboutbrightness and contrast controls that are far from
HDMI is that it carries both video and audio signals (inoptimal as well. So I dug out my copy of "Video
uncompressed, digital form) so you can easily reduceEssentials: Optimizing Your Audio/Video System" DVD
the cable clutter behind your home theaterand spent a half hour adjusting the color, brightness,
system.Now everything was all set - I just needed thecontrast and sharpness controls. The HLS-5087W has
new Samsung to be delivered. I ordered the televisionnumeric display of each of these settings, which is a
from Crutchfield, which has a great reputation fornice touch for those of us who go through the trouble
customer service, is an authorized Samsung onlineof tweaking every setting possible for maximum
retailer, and offered the television with no tax orpicture quality. It was hard to believe that I could
shipping charges. The delivery guys brought theimprove upon the quality of the Samsung's picture out
television into my living room, took it out of the box andof the box, but fine-tuning the picture settings resulted
placed it on my home theater stand. I connected thein a much more "film-like" appearance of movies from
power cable, connected the HDMI cable form the H20both my DVD player and H20 receiver.I'm looking
to the Samsung, turned on the power, modified the TVforward to watching the season premiere of HBO's
display type on the H20 from 4:3 to 16:9 and amazinglyEntourage series in full HD glory tonight. It's also going
the new television just worked, right out of the box!Ito be difficult holding off purchasing a HD DVD source
was quickly in HD nirvana - watching local broadcastswith HD-DVD and Blu-ray players and titles now
in full 1080i and Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as premiumstarting to appear. But we'll talk about that in our next
services such as HBOHD and the various HD channelsposting on Tech Talk.James Ambras is a consumer
that are part of DirecTV's HD package. But howtechnology enthusiast of the highest degree, and his
would the 150 DVDs I own (most of which I trade via'Tech Talk' series appears each month at Jim's day
Peerflix) look on the new HD Samsung? I first had tojob is as the VP of Engineering for Peerflix, the leading
bring up the menu on my Panasonic DVD recorderonline destination to trade DVDs.
player and activate 480p output over the component