thinking of buying a plasma but refusing DirecTV DVR...

[buncombe]

Okay, I have searched the forums and haven't seen an answer to this yet.

I am seriously considering plunking down the cash on a nice new HDTV plasma. I do not want to deal with the DirecTV HDTivo because I'd simply prefer to wait until the stand-alone HDTivo Series 3 comes out. Until then, I would presumably make do with my Series 2 Tivo and Time Warner Cable.

Here is my question. I know that it is possible to use my old Tivo with a new plasma, but that I would not be able to take full advantage of the beauty of HDTV. I am willing to give it a try but I am also aiming to get a 50 inch plasma. If I insist on using my Series 2 Tivo to watch and record tv shows on a screen that size, will it look terrible? Passable? Am I being too impatient and should I really wait til the Series 3 comes out? Or will the difference be-- ok, not wonderful, but still an upgrade over my regular old non-HDTV? In other words... wait and buy, or indulge myself now?

Any opinions are greatly appreciated. I wish I could test it out myself, but I will have to rely on any comments you guys could make.

Thanks in advance!

[litzdog911]

With proper adjustment of your new HDTV's video settings, your Series 2 Tivo standard-definition video should look OK. It won't be great, nowhere near HD quality. But it should be watchable. Of course, you'll want to use the highest quality recording settings.

Are you currently a DirecTV subscriber? Is so, you'll be very happy with the HR10-250 HiDef DVR.

[buncombe]

Wow, thanks for the quick response. I'm currently with Time Warner and am not planning on switching to DirecTV.

A couple of quick questions:

When you say the standard-def Series 2 Tivo will look "ok," does that mean, in your opinion, that it will still look better than the setup I have now? "Watchable" worries me. To someone who is not used to watching HDTV, will it look any better than standard definition on a non-plasma tv? Obviously not HDTV, but if you were to do the same thing-- would you think to yourself, "wow, I just wasted 4000 bucks on a plasma and nothing looks any better than on my old tv?"

I mean, if it'll look WORSE, then I'm ok waiting on buying the new tv when the Series 3 comes out. But in terms of sticker shock... well, somehow I think it'll be less painful to buy the plasma now, then the Series 3 much later on. Assuming, of course, that I won't regret buying the plasma and using it with a Series 2.

Thanks!

[dswallow]

It all depends on the quality of the electronics handling the upconversion in the plasma as to how a regular 480i SD picture will look. On my Fujitsu 50" plasma, it looks great; on some I've seen elsewhere and at stores, it looks pitiful. Of course, if you're far enough away, even "pitiful" won't look bad.

Of course, a standalone TiVo image always looks worse than the original, so you're going to have to factor that degradation in, but definitely see for yourself what a 480i SD picture looks like on whatever display you choose before you take it home.

[Luv2DrvFst]

I have DTV and upgraded from a 60" projection tv to a 50" plasma (ok that's a size downgrade but it was a huge picture upgrade). I don't have HD and the picture quality is excellent. I think you'll see an improvement.

[ChuckyBox]

The problem for you is that you are probably going to watch HD content live, and you'll most likely watch DVDs, both of which will make SD TV look rough, and then the degradation from the TiVo compression will be a bit worse than that. There is just no way to avoid those differences. I imagine you'll get used to it, but it won't have the "wow" factor that you'll want from your friends.

You do have the option of getting the Time Warner HD DVR while you wait for the S3, but if you already have TiVo you probably won't like it very much (except for the picture, which will be quite nice).

By the way, the other poster was right -- calibrate your new TV. The factory settings will almost certainly be terrible. Get a Home Theater set-up DVD and do it right, and do it for each of the inputs to the TV (unless you only have one set of display settings for all the inputs, in which case you should get another TV). It takes a bit of time, but is well worth the effort. Re-check the settings every few months.

[phox_mulder]

I recently bought my first HDTV, a 30" CRT, a bit smaller than what your going with, but HDTV nonetheless.

At first, quality of both my SA TiVo and DirecTiVo looked horrible, almost unwatchable.

Little tweaking here and there, and its not that bad now, I'm getting use to it.
I've found most stuff I have to watch in 480 mode, full screen just degrades it too much, but other show, particularly letterboxed SD programs I can fullscreen it and it looks pretty darn good.

Nothing compares to actual HD shows through my HR10-250, and I try to record as much as possible on that box, but since space is at a premium (30 hrs of HD), there's still stuff I have to record on one of the other two TiVo's.

Once the S3 comes out, I'll be dumping my SA TiVo (after a predertimined break in period for the S3 of course) and getting one of those and recording all OTA in HD, even the upconverted SD looks much better than OTA SD.


phox