I have a Sony Grand Wega 60" with HD. I still need the HD box from the cable company(no charge from Optimum). For sports, HD cannot be beat, it's a HUGE difference. If I leave it in digital mode, the regular channels are not as clear as they normally are. To avoid this, I have the TV hooked up with both the RCA plugs and coax and when I find something I want to watch it HD, I just switch video mode to the one using the RCA plugs.
I would highly recommend against BB however, I'm not sure where in Jersey you are, but Eatontown TV is WAY better and will beat BB price.They delivered and hooked mine up with no problem.

BTW, I have LCD rear projection. One of my co workers brother hooks up home movie theaters for a living and recommended staying away from plasma.

 

I also use to install t.vs and my friend owns a major home theater installation company and depending on what you watch and how you use your t.v, Plasma can be a great purchase.

 

I have a Samsung1080 i high def projection tv, and love it (high def cable), my only complaint is some shows are in wide screen format so it looks distorted on a square screen, sweet for video games!!!!

 

Hey yellowstx if you don't wanna watch it in widescreen your t.v remote should have a zoom button, if not go into setting and your can adjust the zoom and aspect ratio. zooming doesn't actually lose that much quality but it is a little noticable.

 

I can't see how non-HD programming looks worse on an HD TV. Like has been said, maybe you are not interested in looking at non-HD programming after watching HD. Or, the other thing could be that non-HD shows are broadcast is the old 4:3 aspect ratio; not 16:9 widescreen like your HD TV. What this gives you is blank vertical bar on each side of the screen, where there is no piucture. This is by design. Your cable remote probably has a screen adjusting button to make the non-HD picture fill in the screen--choices are usually stretch 10801, Zoom1, and Zoom 2. And of course, this will degrade the picture somewhat, since the resolution is now a bit less under the stretch or zoom. Or, you can just leave the bars on the side. Most TV remotes have a feature to change the color of the bars--I like black. The caveat to this is that the Plasma TV manuals will tell you always make the picture fill in the screen.

Here's my setup. I went for a plasma and have been thrilled with the picture. You can count blades of grass on a football field or count the sparkles on the helmets. IMO, Pioneer is the best plasma set, and Panasonic or Samsung next-best--just my opinion.



LCDs are starting to get bigger screen sizes without breaking the bank recently and this might be the way I would go if I bought today; but I bought last year. For me, the primary difference between LCD and plasma is 1080p vs. 1080i, with plasma typically having the lower resolution 1080i. That is 1366 x 768 pixels. Most plasma sets are this standard, although some of the newer ones are 1080p. On the other hand almost all LCD sets are 1080p out of the box. 1080p is 1920 x 1080 resolution (approx.); obviously a higher resolution which will show better clarity. What is the practical implication? Right now TV is broadcast by the broadcasters at the 1080i standard. Will TV be broadcast at 1080p someday? Yes, certainly, but when? So, for right now, HD TV is broadcast at 1080i only. Someday it will be at the higher resolution p standard.

Why else does this matter? For the two new DVD standards, HD and Blu-ray. This standard for DVD is 1080p. And you are starting to see new DVD releases in HD, and of course the hardware is out already, but it is pricey and there are still two standards. So, if you watch a lot of DVD movies, you might care that your TV does the 1080p standard. Me, I didn't care that much; not a big movie-watcher.

 

What the function is that piece of equipment on the lower shelf? Media PC with built in mini-screen?

 

Yes, you are on the right track. I wanted a home-theatre PC to go with the TV; so I can use the remote to play music and record TV (which does not offer the quality of my cable-box DVR--another subject).

That is the Ahanix MCE-701, with a 7" touch-screen. The touch-screen does work, although I do not use it. I just thought it would be cool to have images on that screen, since it (the PC) is on all the time. For instance, if you set your Windows screen saver to use the My Pictures Premium Slideshow, then any colection of pictures you choose will be automatically cycled every few seconds on that scree. It kind of trips people out when we are in the Family Room watching TV and you see interesting cars like Cobra or Thunderbolts or my F-150 play on that screen. Or, if you look closely, you cam see the image on the screen in that picture is the Windows aquarium screen saver, which also looks pretty cool--like fish swimming around inside the PC.

I chose the Ahanix because it was quite a bit less cost than the Silverstone touch-screen case. It is also a thermally-efficient chassis and I only use two 80 mm exhaust fans (about 25 Dba) to cool the chassis. Combine that with an Asus heat-pipe design MB, and SFF 35 watt AMD x2 processor, and heat-sink design SLI video card instead of a fan design on the vide card and you wind up with a pretty silent system, which is a good thing for this application.

Every other PC I build, I water-cool, but not this one; using the above components and the low-profile Zalman CPU fan cooler, this system is very quiet, which is what I was after. Plenty powerful for this application.

 

Sweet. I don't see a surround receiver anywhere, are you running your surround through that?

 

I have the sharp Aquos 46" LCD tv and FTA SD satellite Going thru my Yamaha av receiver upverted to 480p and the picture is excellent. Took about 3 days to tweak the settings once you get the blacks set things seem to fall in place . i highly recommend this tv . Its not cheap but im very happy with it ww.sharpusa.com/products/AQUOS/

 

Kansas, yes, straight digital sound system. I know some will argue that you have to have an analog system...

It is the Logitech Z-5450 digital surround system. One of my requirements was wireless rear speakers and this system has that. The sub is on the floor and the control unit is next to the cable box. I am not disappointed with this choice. I take an optical digital cable right out of my cable box and feed it to the Logitech and then I feed an optical from the PC to the Logitech as well so I can listen to music from Windows Media Center Edition, running on the computer. There is actually one more input on the sound system; I am thinking of feeding Sirius into that.

As far as loudness and quality on the 5450 it is pretty darn good. If it is a small to medium-size room, it will be more than loud enough; on a big room like mine it could be a little louder. The surround aspect for TV is pretty darn good; can't complain at all.

Here are the specs for the 5450.
Total FTC power: 315 watts RMS
Sub-woofer: 116 watts RMS (into 8 ohms, @ 100Hz, @ 10% THD)
Satellites:
Left/Right: 38 watts RMS x 2 (into 8 ohms, @ 1khz, @ 10% THD)
Center: 42 watts RMS (into 8 ohms, @ 1kHz, @ 10% THD)
Rear Left & Right: 40.5 watts RMS x 2 (into 8 ohms, @ 1kHz, @ 10% THD)
Total Peak power: 630 watts
Maximum SPL: 103 dB
Frequency response: 35 Hz - 20 kHz
Input impedance: 9,500 ohms
Amplifier: Ultra-linear high-capacity analog
Drivers:
Satellites: 2 1/2” aluminum phase plug driver
Band-pass subwoofer: 6 1/2” high-excursion driver
Surround sound effects:
Hardware decoding for Dolby® Digital, DTS® and DTS® 96/24 soundtracks
Dolby® Pro Logic® II (Movie and Music modes)
6-channel direct
Stereo
Supported digital formats:
Dolby® Digital
DTS® and DTS® 96/24
PCM (uncompressed stereo): 44.1 kHz/16 bit through 96 kHz/24 bit
Source inputs:
(2) Digital optical for DVD or CD players, PlayStation®2, Xbox™*, or PC sound cards (requires optical cable, sold separately)
(1) Digital coaxial for DVD or CD players or PC sound cards (requires coaxial cable, sold separately)
(1) 6-channel direct (3 stereo-mini connectors) for 2, 4 or 6-channel PC sound cards OR
(3) stereo-mini connectors for 3 stereo analog audio sources, such as CD and DVD players, PlayStation®2, Xbox™*, or 2 channel PC sound cards (some devices may require stereo mini to dual RCA adapter, sold separately)
(1) Analog stereo-mini (on side panel of control center) for portable CD, MP3, or MiniDisc® players

Hope that helps.