I have one concern with high definition, actually a few
1. Will one be able to still view older vhs and dvds?
2. Will it allow for close captioning and related technologies? Will it be integrated with the HI-FI or will one have to have a separate reader?
3. Will have ot have new peripherals to view anything with it?
4. Since analog broadcasts are going to the wayside... 2008 (praying my telly lasts that long before I have to breakdown and buy a new one) The cable companies will now hold us hostage... GRRR!! I refuse to pay 60 a month for basic, yes 60.... and that does nto include HBO or any premium channels....
While we wait for Matt to compose a very professional, thoughtful, multipage response, let me throw in my novice opinion.
For background, I recently purchased a 52" HDTV set and brought it home expecting to suffer through weeks of frustration getting the bugger to work properly. Since we live in the woods, both satellite and on-air reception are impossible, so cable it must be. I dropped in to the local cable office and they signed me up for HDTV for $10/month xtra and handed me a new converter box that included a Digital Video Recorder (which lets me record the channel I am watching plus one additonal channel simulatneously) - it holds 60 hours of stuff. I brought the box home, plugged it in, called the cable company to turn it on, and I was up and running within 15 minutes. I also hooked up my existing DVD player and a VHS tape deck to the TV . (The cable company even provided addtrional cables to hook up the set to a Home Theatre System.)
The on-air network HDTV shows were a whole new experience - the opening shots for shows like Law and Order and CSI are gorgeous mosaics of sparkling lights! All the usual closed captioning features are still available. All my exitisting DVDs look better, and the recent ones purchased as "enhanced for widescreen TV" are dramatically better viewed on the HDTV than they were on the old analog set. The Digital Video Recorder is a godsend - on screen listing of show names and recording date/time and very convenient fast forward and rewind features (skipping commercials is a snap) - and, all my TV selection and DVR manipulation is from one simple remote!
I have all the cable goodies including SHO and HBO and pay less than $100/month for the HDTV and two other regular TVs. Honestly, that $100 buys me more pleasure per month than anything else I could think of. Presently we get CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT, HBO, SHO and PBS in HDTV.
Hope that helps.
der Brucer
ADDED NOTE:
Obviously Matt types faster than I do
