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hdtv - questions answered
by Greg Gibson
August 11, 2004
 NextGenElectronics'
resident HDTV expert Greg Gibson answers your questions
about HDTV and what you should do about this exciting emerging technology.
If you have a question or comment you'd like Mr. Gibson to comment on,
please feel free to email him personally by clicking
here. All inquiries are subject to publication, however, no personal
information will be given away or published.
Kent B. : Thanks for your help. My Mitsubishi
1080 HD shuts itself off when a bright scene comes on. The Sears techies
don't know how to fix it. I have the extended warranty and they have been
out 5 times with no luck. Can you provide any solutions?
Greg Gibson: Go directly to Sears, talk
to the Store Manager, and get them to take the set back! You have an extended
warantee for this exact reason. You are protected under the lemon laws
and/or the provisions of the extended warantee - having them try to fix
this 5 times is not ok. They need to refund your money or provide you
with a comparable replacement HDTV. Based on your description, your set
is broken and they can't fix the problem -- Mitsubishi TVs do NOT operate
this way. Please forward this reply and your contact information to Mitsubishi
- you can contact them through their website www.mitsubishi-tv.com under
CONTACT US.
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Jan S. : A month ago I purchsed a Panasonic
53' HDTV with ATSC integrated. I call cablevision which is my cable company
in my area in NJ. I have a HD cable box with a DVI out put , but my HDTV
has a HDMI input, no problem so far! I did order the special cable at
panasonic and I got it 2 weeks later , but now every time I turn my TV
on comes an alert saying " DVI ALERT" Your HDTV does not support
HDCP, then 10 seconds later the picture appears and the sound afterwards!!!!
I also have a tivo DVR2 conected into the box and when I recorder anything
that same error message stays on the window for the entire lenght of the
movie or whatever am I recording! I'm lost on this one I called Panasonic
and they told me that is not the HDTV problem but from the cable company,
I have called cablevision and they don't have any idea what I'm talking
about specially when I mention the HDCP!!!! I hope you can help me on
the matter and give me some light what I have to ! do or God knows what's
going on.
Greg Gibson: have not heard of this before
and will try to research it with our people - please let me know the Panasonic
model number of the TV.
As a side note, if you use component video connectors, and
don't use the DVI, do you still get this situation? I hate to think that
you must use a "work around" but I believe that if you bypass
the DVI and use component cables instead, you will not have this problem.
Notwithstanding that, it is obviously NOT OK to have such a lemon!
Thank you VERY much for bringing this to our attention!
We will keep you and our readers posted!
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Zach J. : I just had a real quick question.
I recently bought a Mitsubishi WS-65413 HD-Ready TV but it has "Medallion
HD 1080" on the front. I can't find ANYTHING about this TV on the
net. I've searched for a few days with now luck. Any ideas about this
TV would be appriciated. I would like to find the info on the TV, ect!
Greg Gibson: Well, your question is a good
one. The Mitsubishi WS-65413 was the largest screen in the Mitsubishi
current generation HD-upgradable "Silver Plus Series". In April,
Mitsubishi changed their series designator to Medallion... at their website
www.mitsubishi-tv.com, under Press Releases, you can get this information,
and you can also download your product manual.
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JP S. : Hello, i am a frequent visitor
to your website, and have read all your question and answer sections.
They are not only interesting but very informative and helpfull for someone
like myself who is not that savy when it comes to the new technology of
HDTV.
I bought a high definition Television over a year ago, its
30' inch Widescreen Philips High Def TV. Model # 30PW850H and so far its
been a dream, i have dishnetwork with the high defintion package and reciever.
My question lies in the actual picture settings which i am unsure about.
I recently read that an hdtv must be calibrated to get the best possible
picture. I have visited many websites and have absorbed alot of information.
I was just wondering what proper video settings should be for an hdtv.
I know there are some dvd's to help in the calibration process, but those
are rather pricey and time consumi! ng as ive read. I have read there
are some dvd's with THX optimizers in the menus to help to calibrate colors
and such. Well i am growing quite antious in getting the best picture
my tv can offer. I understand that as long as im happy thats all that
matters. I dont know and i was wondering if maybe you could help me in
maybe giving me some tips that may help me in not having to purchase that
dvd. Also calibrating using the dvd player will only optimize the setting
for that input which leaves my satelite receiver, xbox and ps2 out in
the cold as far as optimum settings.
Greg Gibson: Calibration of HDTVs is an
important element of enjoying the picture quality. Almost all HDTVs have
a built in picture calibration program where you can adjust the convergence
of the picture at several points. For example, running the convergence
program on my Mitsubishi, brings up 64 dots on the screen - and I can
move the controls to particular areas and adjust the horizontal and vertical
convergence of the Red, Blue, Green. This ensures that across the entire
picture, the picture is properly aligned. This will get you the best reasonable
picture.
I tried to get into the Phillips website to pull up your
tv specs, but their site was "down for maintenance".
You also have a video control window in your setup menu
(where you access the convergence program)... where you can adjust the
color temperature and the particular color intensity settings (overall,
red, blue, green). Frankly, I would not adjust these unless you have a
specific problem... but I did want you to know that it exists.
I would close with some general words that there is, in
fact, a detailed convergence and color optimization that can be performed.
It requires a certified engineer to perform, and runs about $500... I
would stay away from the "do it yourself" since you are highly
likely to make things worse. It is likely that you purchased an extended
warantee - if so, you can call the company and ask for them to send a
service person to run the convergence and color checks for you for free...
this might be a good inexpensive solution for you, to give you piece of
mind (be sure they send someone who brings their own signal generator
for an external test pattern).
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Ted E. : I have a three year old 60"
RCA rear projection T.V. I
would like to hook my new Xbox system to it. The Xbox manual said some
rear projection T.V.'s are prone to image burning. Now I'm worried can
I hook my Xbox system up to this TV ? Thanks!
Greg Gibson: Yes - you can get "burn
in" on any tube projection TV... this occurs when the still image
is left on for a long period. If you "forget" to turn off your
XBOX and the image is on for a prolonged period, you could get the image
burn. If you turn off your XBOX and you don't keep the same image on the
set for a long time... then there is no problem.
I have a widescreen HDTV tube projection unit hooked to
my XBOX and have not had any problems - of course, I don't leave the same
image on for a long time (i.e., pause DVDs, pause XBOX, etc.).
There isn't a definite period to avoid, but leaving the
image on for 5 minutes should be ok... it is when yuou forget and leave
it on for hour(s) that you are definately risking problems!
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Torrey G. : I saw some of the questions
you were helping people with on the NextGen site and figured you might
be able to clear this up for me. I have just recently purchased the Toshiba
57H93 57" widescreen TV from the local BestBuy and will be picking
it up tomorrow as it was not in stock at purchase time. It has most of
the latest features I have read about when surfing sites with HDTV widescreen
information.
My question is this: I am buying this mainly for watching
widescreen format DVD movies; will these movies fill the entire display,
or will I have small black bars below and above the movie? I am aware
that this set probably has a few options for aspect ratio, but in the
16:9 mode, will the widescreen movies take advantage of the full display?
THANKS! I also saw a couple of comments leading me to believe that any
movie I watch in a mode which ! has either vertical or horizonatl bars
will eventually cause burn-in on the set. Is this true?
Oh, almost forgot. I may connect one of my computers to the set since
it has the DVI input which I am assuming works fine with the DVI-out on
the 3D accelerator card. I want to do this during LAN parties where one
computer will simply monitor a busy area in a network game so people getting
snacks and taking breaks can watch their buddies doing battle on the widescreen.
Will the display adapt it's output to conform to the resolution I have
the computer's accelerator card set to? Will it show black bars depending
on the resolution??
Greg Gibson: Bars above and below - that
is because while widescreen is 16x9, movies (unless they are cropped to
widescreen or standard (4x3)) are generally 2.42 to 1 (wider than 16x9)...
however, you will certainly be seeing more than had you gotten 4x3.
If all you watch are DVDs, you might have a burn-in problem
... but I bet you are like most people, and also watch regular HD TV or
standard TV in the stretch mode... so you shouldn't have a problem.
You will have to adjust the monitor on WINDOWS DISPLAY and
adjust your graphics card output (this is so card specific that I can
only advise you to contact the manufacturer). You should be able to run
in an expanded mode with no problems --- as a side note, you DO realize
that XBOX has 16x9 HD output capability?.
Commentary By: Greg Gibson - email
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