Do we want HD???

Thenotsowyzewun

Notice how you're all talking about future-proofing and technologies like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD that aren't quite here yet?
And have you seen the cost of HDTV NTL or Sky? It's astronomical, and of the few channels that do work, well there's not enough shows so they just play stuff on loop.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD releases should *hopefully* come quickly though; "legacy" film recordings were shot at 35mm (even higher quality than HDTV) so it should soon be able to view them at almost the same quality they were filmed at.

Nonetheless, by *soon* I mean within about 5-8 years - some old film classics are only just being released on DVD (I've got a list of about 100 films I've been waiting out for since the mid 90s when DVDs starting coming out!).

So buying a HDTV now is a bad investment; you can pick up a second hand non-HDTV 42" Plasma on Loot / Gumtree for about £400 (I know this first-hand, it's very nice too ) - when you look at what shows you'll actually be able to watch, and then the price difference, you're better buying one of these in a few years when they've got even better, and more importantly they'll be enough content to justify them.
OK some people will say well if everyone did that then the better content wouldn't ever come out (like people waiting for more AutoGas pumps before they get their car converted) and that's true, but I'd rather be one who waits (unlike AutoGas, I think that technology is more than ready enough since I live in London (but I don't drive!).

Hope that helps

Idiophreak

I'd say it depends how long you plan to have the TV - if you're gonna get another one in two years, it probably isn't worth worrying about.

If you're gonna keep it for five years, however, I'd say you'd be foolish not to get a HD set.

In five years time, although I doubt there'll be free HD broadcasts, I expect there to be some quite good value HD content about.

And bluray/hd-dvd is the main thing for me.

Once the PS2 hits europe in march, things in next gen DVD are really going to kick off. So by next christmas, or certainly the year after, I can see people wanting to buy BluRay/DVD more than they wanna buy DVD. That being the case, if you've not bought HD, you're gonna be kicking yourself and either buying more DVDs knowing that you could get a high-def version if you'd spent more now, or not buying DVDs at all.

Of course, if you don't buy/watch dvds or play games anyway, then you're right, there's probably no reason to get HD for the time being.

Also, I'd expect resale values of non-HD dvds to be pathetic in a couple of years, so that's something to think about if you'd ever plan to sell.

crox

Doesn't it come to freeview soon after the analogue switch off?

espresso

crox wrote:

Doesn't it come to freeview soon after the analogue switch off?

Bandwidth - which channels will they kill off to allow HD?