Ishimaru Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Not sure if this is the right thread but I'm looking to get into the HD world of things. I'm thinking of buying a LCD monitor that supports HDMI and what not, any recommendations? People are telling the LCD monitors can do 1080p due to their resolution standards. Is this true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Not sure if this is the right thread but I'm looking to get into the HD world of things. I'm thinking of buying a LCD monitor that supports HDMI and what not, any recommendations? People are telling the LCD monitors can do 1080p due to their resolution standards. Is this true? pretty much all HD sets now will do HDMI and any that does 1080p will definitely support it. For LCDs, you can't go wrong with the big 2, Sony and Samsung but Sharp is also very good and more competetively priced than the other 2. you'll want to consider the benefits of 120 hz sets. Since film is shot at 24 FPS, the 120hz sets can reproduce 1080p at 24 FPS natively, instead of some odd FPS between 30 and 24fps which can create orphaned pixels or slow downs in certain areas of the picture. As far as I know, 120 hz isn't even a fully supported standard, so you're milleage may vary. I know people who swear by it and I know people who swear they can't see the difference. The newer Samsung sets have this shiny/glossy screen thing going on. Apparantly, they changed the way their back lighting was handled and the matte diffusion screen was no longer needed and hence dropped. This isn't a big deal if you're TV room can be darkened or you can control the lights, but if you have lots of windows or something, it's definitely something to consider. However, the samsung screens as a result, tend to have really good light distribution across the screen. The regular way, high intensity lamps with a diffusion screen tended to result in subtle "hot spots" where the back lighting was stronger in one area than in others. All lCDs really have this flaw except for the newly emerging LED backlit screens which have more even light distribution as well as better contrast ratios since specific regions of the screen can dynamically have their back light cut to 0, giving unheard of contrast ratios... like 1,000,000 to 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy Focker Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Last Night I watched Mchael Bay's Pearl Habor on Blu-Ray. It was one of the free movies I got for buying a PS3. Even on a old TV the blu-ray picture was good. Can't say the same about that movie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXO Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 I wanna know which type of player James Cameron bought... not Michael Bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangard Ace Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Anybody have any experience with buying HDMI 1.3a cables from monoprice.com? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 Are they Cat2 certified? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Almost all their stuff is. http://monoprice.com/products/subdepartmen...amp;cp_id=10240 I notice that many of the colors are selling out, I may have to wait until after XMas--I plan to color-code some of my new TV's connections once I get them. (PS3=blue, 360=green, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 Not to sound like an ass but are they really cat2 certified? I've seen a lot of cheapie cheap cables online claim a lot of things and then have them wind up being regular off the shelf crap cables from China. Call me suspicious but $10 for a 1.3 cat2 cable sounds really deceptively cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangard Ace Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Apparently the guys on gizmodo tested monoprice cables vs Monster cables and they claim there isn't any difference at least in the short distances. With longer cables they say to go with the brand names http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/monoprice/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 Well it's no real secret that Monster Cables are pretty much blah. It's always been my assumption that the English word "Monster" must mean "sucker" in some language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myk Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Apparently the guys on gizmodo tested monoprice cables vs Monster cables and they claim there isn't any difference at least in the short distances. With longer cables they say to go with the brand names http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/monoprice/ That's been known for a long time. The difference between the $100 Monster cable and even the $20 Radio Shack deal is neglible. The fact that Monster cables are still in business attests to the ignorance of the buying public... http://www.audioholics.com/education/cable...ects-and-cables Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaijin Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Monoprice has some of the highest quality cables around. NO fear in buying anything from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishimaru Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 pretty much all HD sets now will do HDMI and any that does 1080p will definitely support it. For LCDs, you can't go wrong with the big 2, Sony and Samsung but Sharp is also very good and more competetively priced than the other 2. you'll want to consider the benefits of 120 hz sets. Since film is shot at 24 FPS, the 120hz sets can reproduce 1080p at 24 FPS natively, instead of some odd FPS between 30 and 24fps which can create orphaned pixels or slow downs in certain areas of the picture. As far as I know, 120 hz isn't even a fully supported standard, so you're milleage may vary. I know people who swear by it and I know people who swear they can't see the difference. The newer Samsung sets have this shiny/glossy screen thing going on. Apparantly, they changed the way their back lighting was handled and the matte diffusion screen was no longer needed and hence dropped. This isn't a big deal if you're TV room can be darkened or you can control the lights, but if you have lots of windows or something, it's definitely something to consider. However, the samsung screens as a result, tend to have really good light distribution across the screen. The regular way, high intensity lamps with a diffusion screen tended to result in subtle "hot spots" where the back lighting was stronger in one area than in others. All lCDs really have this flaw except for the newly emerging LED backlit screens which have more even light distribution as well as better contrast ratios since specific regions of the screen can dynamically have their back light cut to 0, giving unheard of contrast ratios... like 1,000,000 to 1. Went to Frys to take a look at the TVs, and my are they noticeably the same. Sony seems to have the better quality on the much more expensive sets but Samsung looks pretty damn impressive, Sharp looked good too. Thing is, they are all out of my price range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 (edited) Went to Frys to take a look at the TVs, and my are they noticeably the same. Sony seems to have the better quality on the much more expensive sets but Samsung looks pretty damn impressive, Sharp looked good too. Thing is, they are all out of my price range. never trust the store displays unless you can verify the input and adjust the settings yourself. For example, at all the BB around my area, the HD demo units look like crap. The pictures are grainy and the sound is jacked compared to the BD display which always looks good. Thing is, I have a lot of those demo movies at home and they don't look anything like. And don't buy them at Fry's. Look on the net, I bought my samsung on amazon foe 30% less than retail and saved myself a grip on tax. or wait until CC has one of their crazy sales. Edited December 11, 2007 by eugimon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT 1010 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Not sure if this is the right thread but I'm looking to get into the HD world of things. I'm thinking of buying a LCD monitor that supports HDMI and what not, any recommendations? People are telling the LCD monitors can do 1080p due to their resolution standards. Is this true? LCD monitors (as well as LCD HDTVs) have one set resoultion. Any other resolution is either scaled or unsupported. Most LCD computer monitors that support 1080p, aren't true 1920x1080 displays. They often have a native resolution 1920x1200 (with an aspect ratio of 16:10 compared to HDTV's 16:9). This will often result in slight pillarboxing. What will be used with the monitor? Will it be a game console or HD player? you'll want to consider the benefits of 120 hz sets. Since film is shot at 24 FPS, the 120hz sets can reproduce 1080p at 24 FPS natively, instead of some odd FPS between 30 and 24fps which can create orphaned pixels or slow downs in certain areas of the picture. As far as I know, 120 hz isn't even a fully supported standard, so you're milleage may vary. I know people who swear by it and I know people who swear they can't see the difference. Please keep in mind that just because a set will accept a 24p signal, doesn't mean it will properly display it. The TV needs to display the signal without any 2:3 pulldown at a framerate that's a multiple of 24 (usually 48, 72, 96 and 120). Doing this allows the movie to be viewed judder-free without any 2:3 pulldown. Some TVs will apply 2:3 pulldown to a 24p signal and display it at 60hz. So, instead of having the player do 2:3 pulldown, the HDTV does it. This also applies to 120hz displays as well. 120 is a multiple of 24 and 60. What most 120hz displays will do is apply 2:3 pulldown to a 24hz signal, converting it to 60hz. It will then convert 60hz, to 120hz by doubling the framerate. Only a few 120hz HDTVs will display a 24hz signal properly at 120hz, without first converting it to 60hz. That said, I have heard that 120hz displays give film a video look. Some have said it makes it look very unnatural. I, however, haven't personally seen one in action. I wanna know which type of player James Cameron bought... not Michael Bay. I'd say Blu-ray. All of his movies that are currently released are on Blu-ray here in the US. All of his remaining movies are either from Fox or Disney, who are both Blu-ray exclusive studios. I'm not sure about Pirahna 2 though... Anybody have any experience with buying HDMI 1.3a cables from monoprice.com? A lot of AVS Forum members speak very highly of monoprice.com. I'll probably be ordering from them sometime this week (maybe today). The HDMI included with my 360 Elite is damaged, so I now have to get a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy Focker Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 I thinking of getting one after X-mas maybe more sales. Gonna window shop at the stores and then do online research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Wow. One heck of a receiver. (Denon) It costs more than I plan to spend on my TV, and has more connections than stuff I own: http://i16.tinypic.com/7wpbrkx.jpgp http://i9.tinypic.com/7xx4b2s.jpg 4 HDMI, 5 component, and too many others to count. It's the first receiver I've seen that really can eliminate a switchbox for us who own many game systems in addition to the standard VCR/DVD/HD-DVD stuff. ::edit:: Whoops, 4 component, one's an output. But 4 HDMI, plus an output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeszekely Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Wow. One heck of a receiver. (Denon) It costs more than I plan to spend on my TV, and has more connections than stuff I own: http://i16.tinypic.com/7wpbrkx.jpgp http://i9.tinypic.com/7xx4b2s.jpg 4 HDMI, 5 component, and too many others to count. It's the first receiver I've seen that really can eliminate a switchbox for us who own many game systems in addition to the standard VCR/DVD/HD-DVD stuff. ::edit:: Whoops, 4 component, one's an output. But 4 HDMI, plus an output. Ooh, sexy. Dammit, David, you're making me want to buy a new receiver, and I haven't even had mine for a year yet! Well... I'm actually OK for a little while. I've got my 360 hooked up with component/Toslink, and I've got the 360's HD-DVD player for that. I've got my PS3 on HDMI/Toslink for Blu-ray. I've got an upconverting DVD player with HDMI/coax for DVDs and DivX. My bases are really covered. Of course, now I can use the PS3 for upconverting DVDs, and the 360 for DivX, so the DVD player is actually redundant. So what I want to do now is build a Home Theater PC. My friend already gave me a HTPC case with a power supply. Newegg's got a Gigabit mobo that's HDCP-compliant with a HDMI out. If I match that with an LGA 775 Intel processor and some RAM, plus a DVD-ROM I pulled from my main computer, I'll have all the basics except the hard drive for under $200. I can grab a big hard drive when they're on sale cheap, maybe add a low-profile TV tuner card, and I'll be set on that, and since it's HDMI, it'll be as easy as pulling the DVD player and using it's hookups. Plus, after I save a bit more, I can replace the borrowed DVD-ROM with an LG DVD/CD burner Blu-ray/HD-DVD reader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoryHolmes Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 and has more connections than stuff I own: There's a very easy solution to this problem: BUY MORE STUFF!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeszekely Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 There's a very easy solution to this problem: BUY MORE STUFF!!! Sad, but true. Home theater electronics are like heroin. You think you'll just have a little taste, then you spend the rest of your life chasing the dragon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 OK, I just found out that it seems that due to HDCP etc, no HDTV will output DTS/5.1 from an HDMI source, via digital output. So how do you get surround sound from external speakers, from an HDMI source? Do you have to use composite connections? If so--what's the point of having a digital output on a HDTV, if they won't output anything good with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeszekely Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 OK, I just found out that it seems that due to HDCP etc, no HDTV will output DTS/5.1 from an HDMI source, via digital output. So how do you get surround sound from external speakers, from an HDMI source? Do you have to use composite connections? If so--what's the point of having a digital output on a HDTV, if they won't output anything good with it? We don't go source>TV>sound system. We go source>A/V receiver>TV. Sorry, David, but if you've just got a stereo and you connected your sources to your TV, and your TV to a free audio input (like my dad did) on that stereo, your audio setup is... dated, to put it politely. You don't split your sources' video and audio components among the TV and the receiver, you connect all your sources to the receiver first, then the receiver send video to the TV and audio to the surround speakers and, in some cases, the TV's speakers, depending on how the source is set up. And I honestly have no clue why they have a digital output on a television. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Dated, due to lack of caring/money when it comes to audio (as I've stated). It will probably be a year or more until I actually get a receiver etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Really? I use my samsung HTiB for my audio and I have my cable box and 360/HD running to the TV via HDMI and outputting to the HTiB via optical from the TV and I don't have a problem with getting 5.1 from it...? Did I missunderstand something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 The throughput in the television will not translate the audio right. He's talking about using the TV as a jumper between the source and the receiver. Edit: and Mike is right, the pecking order for modern HD electronics is source -> receiver -> TV... and usually your TV is only used as a monitor with it's own inboard sound disabled. In your situation Dave I'd just run an optical cable to the receiver and not even worry about throughput through the TV. Edit Edit: HD monitors have digital outs so you can string a bunch of them together running off of one source. My office has three LCD sets in our lobby all running off of one player. They are all just linked to each other, the output goes Nitris -> AV receiver -> TV1 -> TV2 -> TV3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myk Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Wait, how's this supposed to work? Let's say you've got the PS3 on HDMI, so you run that to the receiver and then run the receiver to the t.v., but...why would you want to carry the audio signal to the t.v. as well (since HDMI carries a/v)? I guess I'm out of it, but I always thought it was source audio to receiver and source video to t.v. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 well, in my case, I have a HTiB and the dvd/receiver decodes dolby digital and DTS. For inputs, it accepts optical/digital and 2x RCA.. I connect both my HD STB and 360/HD-DVD to the TV via HDMI and output the sound via optical back to the HTiB to decode and output the sound. I could route the STB and xbox directly to the HTiB and use a splitter on the optical but I'm just lazy like that. My HTiB has a display which tells me what the sound source is as well as what speakers are engaged and I haven't had a problem doing it this way. <shrug> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 Well, certain encodes of audio cannot travel over "lesser" connections like RCA jacks. They need a pure digital connection like optical or HDMI. HDMI is basically a "one stop shop" in that it carries full range digital video and audio, so if you have a setup like mine at home it goes PS3 HDMI -> AV Receiver -> Plasma. One cable going out of the PS3 and one cable going out of the Receiver, no muss no fuss. My freaking Xbox on the other hand is stuck with a VGA cable running straight to the TV and an optical cable going straight to the receiver. When "watching Blu Ray" all I have to do is press the "video" button on my remote and the receiver sets itself for the PS3 to the TV and bing, good to go. Whereas with the Xbox I have to change the TV setting and then change the receiver setting (which is a bunch of 'flip flip flip flip'-ing on two different remotes). I've been meaning to get a new Xbox with HDMI so I can route it through my receiver as well and have one button swiching for it as well... but alas my priority is getting this old 42" 1080i plasma out and a newer 50" 1080p set in it's place before I even think about getting new Xboxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myk Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 (edited) well, in my case, I have a HTiB and the dvd/receiver decodes dolby digital and DTS. For inputs, it accepts optical/digital and 2x RCA.. I connect both my HD STB and 360/HD-DVD to the TV via HDMI and output the sound via optical back to the HTiB to decode and output the sound. I could route the STB and xbox directly to the HTiB and use a splitter on the optical but I'm just lazy like that. My HTiB has a display which tells me what the sound source is as well as what speakers are engaged and I haven't had a problem doing it this way. <shrug> I've got my stuff set up in a similar same way: source audio to receiver with fiber optic and then source video to t.v. with HDMI. What I've never understood about HDMI is the need to carry an audio signal to the t.v., unless the internal speakers on the t.v. are being used in the speaker setup... Edited December 12, 2007 by myk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Question: for the time being (as in, not spending any money on audio) is there a way to hook up a TV's optical output to a minidisc optical input? That's the only optical input my stereo has. For "free audio" I can only currently use minidisc optical or RCA. (guess the brand and vintage of my stereo based on that statement) Though I wonder if optical from a TV to a "mere" stereo would even be worth it vs RCA, as my stereo speakers can't do surround or anything. Anything's better than a TV's own speakers though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 Is that minidisc optical a TOSlink? If it is then that is still optical to optical and should work. From what I understand of minidisc optical they are supposed to be regular TOSlink optical, just they named it "minidisc". Kind of like how my receiver has presets for VIDEO, DVD and MP3. I could plug whatever the heck I wanted into those slots as long as the connections were right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 my sony MD used a regular optical cable... I have no idea what an "MD optical cable" is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myk Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 I would guess that the mini-disc signal would be the same quality as RCA, because your receiver doesn't do any surround signal work anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hingtgen Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Found it! TOSlink optical to mini optical adapter. Right at the top--and a lot of other nifty adapters too: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Fiber_Optic_Hardware.html It is literally a very small optical connection. Headphone jack sized or thereabouts. Even more useful, they do seem to make optical cables with a TOSlink on one end and a mini on the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugimon Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 oh... now that you mention it... and have a pretty picture... my sony MD *did* use one of those adaptors... amazing what 7 years of being in a drawer somewhere will do to my memory of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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