frisby

Just got my new place and looking for a TV, I'm a bit confused

We've got

Dolby Digital
Integrated Deigital
Wide Screen
Dolby Pro-Logic
50hz
100hz


What features should I be getting to ensure its not going to be out of date in a week.


Help me.


stu

dsmith

Right....

Integrated Deigital: TV with integrated terrestial digital TV tuner. i.e. get BBC1,BBC2 etc in digital. trough your "normal" TV aerial

Wide Screen: 16:9 screen(1.85:1) . "Normal" TV is 4:3. Its wider . Lts of sky digital channles (inc BBC) now broadcast lots in widescreen. DVDs look better in wide screen.

Dolby Pro-Logic : Surround sound (i.e. Left,Rigth,Center and rear speakers. All speakes is derived from normal "encoded" data in normal stero soundtrack. Lots of Sky digital,BBS etc movies have Pro-Logic soundtracks. (also VHS tapes). Better than Stereo but only just (imho)

Dolby Digital : proper surrond sound. DVDs have all 5.1 (Left Front,Right Front, Centre, rear left, rear right, sub-woofer -'.1') encoded separately. Much Much better than pro-logic. Sky+ box also has some films in DD. (DTS is another 5.1 format which is slightly better than DD)


50hz : Frequency of normal TV
100hz : Some TVs guess the "missing" bits of 50 hz to give more updates/sec. Less flicker, arguably some distortion 'cos of digital processing. Can cause odd affects with low bandwidth digital channels. Games consle light guns dont work.



imho - buy your Tv for picture quality and picture alone. If you want surround sound buy a separet system -eithet all in one stylr job complete with DVD player or seperates to combine with exisiting stereo system. Beware of looking at TVs in big shops (currys etc) 'cos the picture is crap and no use to compare. Try to look at friends or smaller shops. Listen to surround sound (either Por-Logic or DD) before splashing the cash on it.

FWIW: I have 32" Sony Widescreen Nicam (i.e. Stereo Only) Widescreen TV, and full DD/DTS surround stereo.

Deano