 | | Parents falls in that 18% Most people don't understand anything about resolution. It is obvious when standard content is being played and stretched by the television BUT people think it's HD simply because it fills the entire widescreen. | |
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 |  Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | Re: Parents falls in that 18% You can blame that on the idiots at BB that push all content via Coax from one DVD player, and makes everyone that walks in as a Zombie, believe they are watching HD content. | |
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| |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by Greg_Z: the idiots at BB BB ?? | |
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| | | Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | Re: Parents falls in that 18% BB | |
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| | | | Lazlow
join:2006-08-07
Saint Louis, MO | Re: Parents falls in that 18% Greg
Do you mean Best Buy? | |
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| | | | | Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
1 edit | Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by Lazlow:Greg Do you mean Best Buy? Better watch out, there are some here that stand up for those crooks. | |
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| | | | | |  pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Parents falls in that 18% As a public service, I want to tell everyone NOT to buy any cables of any sort from Best Buy, they are a ripoff!
Get them from »www.monoprice.com instead. High quality and much cheaper prices.
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Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty | |
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| | | | | | |  fireflierCoffee. . .Need CoffeePremium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo | Re: Parents falls in that 18% I'll add to that, not just BB but many electronics stores. If you see "MONSTER" on the cable. Put it back and order from Monoprice.
Over the past year, I've probaly bought 10 HDMI/Component cables from Monoprice and paid in total what I would have for ONE Monster cable from BB.
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Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com | |
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approval from:
fireflier 
| Re: Parents falls in that 18% I use to have an electronics company that I sold and installed home theater stuff.
I can tell you right now that the markup on cables (much like extended warranties) is 100% (or very close to it). Monster is the BOSE of cables. In other words, people think they are good because of marketing and is far from the actual fact of whether or not they are any better then the product sitting right next to them for half the price. Bose did a great marketing campaign that made people think they were so great and thus charged a ridiculous amount of money for their products this giving "credit" to their quality as so many consumers associate price with quality. | |
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| | | | | | | | | | | Re: Parents falls in that 18% I just checked at Best Buy's website and the cheapest HDMI cables sell for $30. That's insane.
Do yourself a favor and buy one for $8 shipped from our good friends in China.
»www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11087
Probably comes from the same factory those $130 Monster cables do anyway... | |
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| | | | | | | | | ErikRP
join:2004-11-06
Winnipeg, MB | Between the manufacturer markup on the cables and the markup the store charges, I guarantee it is way beyond a 100% markup. A markup of 500% would not surprise me in the least, and I can see 1,000% being possible. | |
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| | | | | | | | |  dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI | Actually the Bose 701 and 801 series was absolutely the sh!t back in the day. But Bose never really developed a follow up. Instead of engineering, they went with marketing. Bose is no better than a Sparkomatic these days.
This is different from Monster. Monster was nothing more than a respectable cable from day one. They are not even high-end cables. There is nothing you can do to make a cable better for an in-house environment. Gold plating is a rip-off from any seller.
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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| | | | | | | | | | | Re: Parents falls in that 18% What happened to Monster is digital.
Now a $2 HDMI cable provides the same quality picture as a $200 one, and Monster has to hope that people are still brainwashed to believe otherwise.
Any many do believe that paying more for HDMI makes the picture better.
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OASAASLLS | |
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| | | | | | | | | fireflierCoffee. . .Need CoffeePremium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo | Re: Parents falls in that 18% Yup. As Sneskid pointed out, stamping your product with "digital" seems to instantly elevate its worth. You could probably stamp "digital" on a set of Goodyear tires and some dumbass would be willing to pay a premium for them because they're "better". 
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Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com | |
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| | | | | | | | | sneskid
join:2008-01-10
Arlington, VA | Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by fireflier:Yup. As Sneskid pointed out, stamping your product with "digital" seems to instantly elevate its worth. You could probably stamp "digital" on a set of Goodyear tires and some dumbass would be willing to pay a premium for them because they're "better". "Digital Ready" headphones, anyone? | |
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| | | | | | | | | fireflierCoffee. . .Need CoffeePremium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo | Re: Parents falls in that 18% I may buy a large stock of toasters, stamp them with "Digital Ready" and see how many I can sell at a 30% markup on eBay. . .
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Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com | |
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| | | | | | | | | sneskid
join:2008-01-10
Arlington, VA
1 edit | Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by fireflier:I may buy a large stock of toasters, stamp them with "Digital Ready" and see how many I can sell at a 30% markup on eBay. . .  | |
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| | | | | | | | sneskid
join:2008-01-10
Arlington, VA | said by fireflier:I'll add to that, not just BB but many electronics stores. If you see "MONSTER" on the cable. Put it back and order from Monoprice. Over the past year, I've probaly bought 10 HDMI/Component cables from Monoprice and paid in total what I would have for ONE Monster cable from BB. At a Target, I saw a pair of audio cables in a package with the Sony label on it. Underneath it, was another package with a single cable. That single cable was a couple more $.
Everything about the cable was exactly the same. Same length, same gauge wire, same everything else, except the package had one cable in it, and not two. What made it more expensive than the package with two cables in it? One word on the package: "Digital". | |
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| | | | | | |  antdudeA Ninja AntPremium,VIP
join:2001-03-25
kudos:2
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| said by pnh102:As a public service, I want to tell everyone NOT to buy any cables of any sort from Best Buy, they are a ripoff! Get them from » www.monoprice.com instead. High quality and much cheaper prices. How about from local stores and not online? 
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Ant @ »antfarm.ma.cx and »aqfl.net. Please do not IM/e-mail me for technical support. Use the forum! Disclaimer: The views expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer | |
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| | | | | | | | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by antdude:How about from local stores and not online? Most local stores won't match Mono Price.
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Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty | |
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| | | | | | |  JEJE 's BACK BABYPremium
join:2000-12-15
East Orange, NJ
1 edit | said by pnh102:As a public service, I want to tell everyone NOT to buy any cables of any sort from Best Buy, they are a ripoff! Get them from » www.monoprice.com instead. High quality and much cheaper prices. Yup...that's where I got my cables from. They were cheap. I got 1-6', 1-3', and 1-3' FLAT HDMI cable all for $18.60 from monoprice. | |
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| | | | | | |  JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | monoprice rocks... they're pretty hard to beat. | |
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| | | | | | | | said by Greg_Z:said by Lazlow:Greg Do you mean Best Buy? Better watch out, there are some here that stand up for those crooks. Oh hell - there was an ad this weekend for a Samsung 720p set and right next to it, as if it's the perfect companion piece, is an ad for a 1080p upconverting DVD player. Like it's going to make a difference on that set?
Went into that store last weekend to find someone who knew anything I didn't know about DTV - some girl there who said she knew "alot" about satellite TV couldn't tell me any more than I could find out from a Sunday flyer. Hate that place. | |
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| | | | said by Greg_Z:You can blame that on the idiots at BB that push all content via Coax from one DVD player, and makes everyone that walks in as a Zombie, believe they are watching HD content. High Def? I though all TV's are High Def. You know you can't tell the difference these days. Enjoying my Sony Wega with my coax. It looks High Def to me. | |
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| | | | said by Greg_Z:You can blame that on the idiots at BB that push all content via Coax from one DVD player, and makes everyone that walks in as a Zombie, believe they are watching HD content. You can blame no one. Well, we could technically blame our society. A normal distribution curve clearly tells us 15% of the population is on the retarded spectrum of normal and anything that is even of remote difficulty will in fact confuse them(that is why we have a special ed section in school, to baby them of course). The rest of the ~3% probably comes from people who are ignorant because they watch far below amounts of television compared with the average person or an unknown of other reasons. | |
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|  wifi4milezBig Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY | said by Vathral:Most people don't understand anything about resolution. It is obvious when standard content is being played and stretched by the television BUT people think it's HD simply because it fills the entire widescreen. I am surprised the number isnt higher actually. I would be willing to bet many people think they are watching 'HD' TV simply because they have an HD television.
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Комитет государственной безопасности
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| | | In a crappy economy who needs HD no one needs it. All of us have completely fallen for the marketing of a better picture... whoopie!
Personally I dont have cable TV and was happy to see that Hulu offers 480P viewing, which I enjoy via my LCD TV where Mac Mini is hooked up to! I pay 50 bucks a month for Internet only, which is great way to save money in a crap economy.
THough everyone is different.. me I want to save money! | |
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| | Reviews:
 ·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Parents falls in that 18% said by MomandDad :
In a crappy economy who needs HD no one needs it. All of us have completely fallen for the marketing of a better picture... whoopie!
Personally I dont have cable TV and was happy to see that Hulu offers 480P viewing, which I enjoy via my LCD TV where Mac Mini is hooked up to! I pay 50 bucks a month for Internet only, which is great way to save money in a crap economy.
THough everyone is different.. me I want to save money!
And if everyone only bought things they *needed* the economy would be looking a bit different right now wouldn't it?  | |
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| | | | yet you did fall for the MAC hype!!!
you paid that HD channels money to the Apple store!!!
HD channels look great, and you can get them OTA in most places | |
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 ILpt4UPremium
join:2006-11-12
Lisle, IL
kudos:4
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T Yahoo
| Studies on Salespeople? Any studies that point out that when Joe the Consumer buys a TV from Joe the Salesman, how much BS the salesman gives the consumer about that Big HDTV? And giving NO education or facts at all about needing HD Programming?
Then again, there are also the people that honestly tell you they cannot see a difference between HD and SD versions of the same programming (movies, sports, tv shows, etc).
I'm sure the 18% is a mix of both groups. | |
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| Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: Studies on Salespeople? said by ILpt4U:Then again, there are also the people that honestly tell you they cannot see a difference between HD and SD versions of the same programming (movies, sports, tv shows, etc). I'm sure the 18% is a mix of both groups. And some of the tech on new TVs makes that possible. 480i signals are up-converted to 480P or more. Cable STBs from Motorola get 480i SD signals in, but then send it to the TV as 720P or 1080i; and then some newer 1080P TVs take that 1080i and further up-convert to 1080P.
While it is still possible to tell the difference side by side, many people see very little difference after all the up-converting is done.
Also, the 3:2 pulldown feature on new sets also improves the quality of SD movies as it smooths out the artifacts generated in conversion of 24 frames/sec film and 30 frames/sec video.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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 RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Have you seen HD lately? Maybe it's just my provider, but my HD Service is sometimes worse than my SD service, given the amount of compression they do.
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CheckSite.us | YourIP.US | |
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| | I have three HD sets and Directv. My wife hates the HD channels because of the side bars that come on when viewing non HD content on an HD channel. She insists on stretching the picture out so that the entire screen is filled. | |
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1 edit | I think it's amazing people can't tell the difference. My HD channels on my plasma look infinitely better than SD. Not even comparable. Especially sports. Not to mention, is it just me or does your on channel listings not advise which is HD and what is SD? My MOXI menu sure does. Even if the channel is listed as HD and it's not being broadcasted as such, you can still clearly see. | |
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|  AlcoholPremium
join:2003-05-26
Climax, MI
kudos:3
·Comcast
| Re: Amazing.... said by BinaryXtreme:I think it's amazing people can't tell the difference. My HD channels on my plasma look infinitely better than SD. Not even comparable. Same here. The HD channel is right after the regular one. If you switch between the two the difference is clearly noticeable. It bothers me when i have to watch tv on regular channels now. | |
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| | My tv is a 23 incher with native 1080i resolution. I can tell the differenve between HD and SD just by looking at the picture. There is no comparison. SD looks very flat, and HD looks as if you can poke your head thru the screen & be where the camera is pointing. Some content just wasnt recorded in very good quality for HD and that is what a lot of people end up seeing.
- A
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LETS GO METS! | |
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| | | Re: You can tell the difference between SD and HD. What 23" TV does 1080i? | |
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| | | | Re: You can tell the difference between SD and HD. said by Skippy25:What 23" TV does 1080i? I dunno, maybe just about any standard 24" computer monitor. (1920x1200) | |
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| | | said by FastiBook:My tv is a 23 incher with native 1080i resolution. I can tell the differenve between HD and SD just by looking at the picture. There is no comparison. Can you describe the difference? I've got one of these HD TVs and an HD package from the cable company. However if I didn't see the little HD symbol in the program guide, I'd never know if a show as in HD or not. They all looks the same to me. What do I look for to know it is HD (other than the symbol in the program guide). In a side by side comparison what should I notice? | |
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 Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 | when you consider that they're part of the 67% of who think wiping their boogers under the car seat makes them vanish immediately...
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 dslwanterIt's comingPremium
join:2002-12-16
Niles, OH
·AT&T Midwest
| My philosophy is if you need a salesman to help you purchase a product then you're pretty ignorant. Do your research before you go to the store. So many people think that they have HD just because they have an HDTV.
Some people are just a salesman's dream.
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Need a DJ within 60 miles of Youngstown, OH? Check out my service: »www.thebomb102djservice.com | |
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|  C_Kill The SocialistsPremium
join:2001-03-19
kudos:3 | Re: Ignorance said by dslwanter:My philosophy is if you need a salesman to help you purchase a product then you're pretty ignorant. Do your research before you go to the store. So many people think that they have HD just because they have an HDTV. Some people are just a salesman's dream. my philosophy is if you need a salesman to help you purchase a product then you deserve to get "ripped off"
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"and no matter how drunk you get .. don't lick the wall socket to test polarity..." | |
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Reviews:
·ProLog
 ·DIRECTV
| It's very hard to get it across to some woman, children and less technical elderly, that HD channels have their own number.
Yes it's really stupid, but that channel 4 FOX that you've come to known the last 30 years of your life is now on 234 if you want it in HD. It's tough to break that habit for some people.
They need an option in I-Guide / SARA / Passport / etc... for HD boxes that automatically tune to the HD version of the channel, when it's simulcast material like that. I know you may want both available to save DVR recording space, so when you set recordings there should be an option to get it in HD or SD, along with an explanation. HD takes more space, but will look much better.
DirecTV and Dish Network don't seem to have this problem at all. For example, I push 6 on the remote, and I get WPVI 6 ABC in HD in the Philly market. How F'in genius!!!
You can't believe how hard it is, and still to this day, to convince the wife, no hun TNT looks better on 204, not 31! Parental Controls work to a point, but they are a nuisance. I'd rather have the box redirect automatically. | |
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| | What I absolutely hate is when people insist on stretching SD video on a widescreen TV. Can they not see the distortion? Do they not care? If they can't see that, no wonder they can't tell the difference between SD and HD.
But maybe things are getting a little better. I was at dinner last night, and the restaurant had their TVs set up correctly. I watched the local channel's 4:3 programming end and ABC's 16:9 HD programming begin, just as it should.
As for me, I wouldn't mind an HDTV, but my eight year old Sony still works just fine, so I think I'll wait a bit longer. With the prices of sets going down and the quality improving, I see no reason to get in a hurry. I like to watch TV, but it isn't such a big part of my life that I have to run out for a new set when the old one still looks great. | |
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|  SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | Re: Stretched video LOL...you captured it precisely - restaurants *always* have their "new" flat-panels running SD programming in stretch mode. | |
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|  algPassionately apatheticPremium
join:2001-04-10
Houston, TX
kudos:3 | My dad is always complaining about the "lines" when there is an SD show. Stretching it out to fill the screen makes me want to vomit. | |
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 Subaru1-3-2-4Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT | My mom who says she can't tell the difference...
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| Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: I have seen some like.. said by Subaru:My mom who says she can't tell the difference... True enough. If your vision isn't so hot to start with ...
... but it's also true about people who must fill the screen no matter how bad it looks, and most - I'd bet - have 20/20 vision.
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| | Subaru1-3-2-4Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT | Re: I have seen some like.. I always watch whatever it is i'm watching in it's native view.. I prefer widescreen | |
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 IridiumPremium
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA
1 edit | they have to have a flatscreen TV or they can't watch TV anymore. I have several people ask that at electronics stores.
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My next laptop will be an Apple, I am fed up with PC's and Windows. | |
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| | I have a 42" plasma EDTV, meaning it only goes to 480p (bought it over 3 years ago for ~2k). Apparently, just going to progressive scan is important, because the difference between HD and SD feeds is HUGE! Other than the 'looking thru a screen' effect (not really noticeable from 6' or more), it looks great. I know it sucks, but when I bought it, 42" plasma HDTVs were over 4k! So I compromised, and it has worked out ok. | |
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| | It doesn't help when cable companies put HD in the program descriptions of shows on SD channels. Not sure how many companies do this, but I know ours does. Next to a lot of shows on SD channels the 'HD' icon is there. I can see that fooling the uninformed user into thinking they are watching HD content when they are really watching it on an SD channel. | |
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 QuaffAPintA Big Thanks To The Troops
join:2001-01-10
Downingtown, PA | My lordy - How simple it used to be - Go in and buy a friggin TV and plug in your cable - DONE - Simple - None of the crapola we have to go through today.
It seems like we took a bug leap back in progress by making things so overly complex for the average consumer 
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{Send Secure Notes Free and Easily} :: whisperBot.com | |
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See 9 replies to this post |
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 FTTC
join:2008-10-01
Mount Rainier, MD | My friend bought a 60inch plasma a year ago, and had his ps3 hooked up in 480i in thought it was HD, I fixed it for him and he was shocked. | |
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|  Smith6612Premium,MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
kudos:21
·Frontier Communi..
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: hd Same happened with my friend on his Xbox 360. He was using regular composite video and thought it was HD. I took out his component cable, plugged it into the component slot on his TV, then went into the Xbox, changed the video settings, and he was shocked himself. | |
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| | I had a contract cable installer come out to activate the drop to my house and give me my HD DVR. He gets everything all setup and working on the provider's side, so he hands me the cables and the remote and tells me I can hook it up to the TV if I wanted to since I knew what I was doing.
The cables he handed me were COMPOSITE cables, not component or HDMI. I immediately pointed out his error and he looked a little confused.
"Nobody has every asked for component cables when I installed their HD. I just gave them the composite. Let me go look in the truck because I think I have a couple of those."
He goes back out to the truck and, lookie, he has a component cable.
I wonder how many other clueless cable installers out there are making the same mistake, not knowing that component or HDMI are required for HD.
It reminds me of the time I went to Best Buy once and found a TV used to demonstrate HD hooked up with S-Video.
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Drilling for more oil is akin to giving a methhead the keys to the meth lab. | |
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|  Vchat20Landing is the REAL challengePremium
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH
1 edit | Re: I bet installers don't help in some places That's ok. When my aunt got her new LCD tv and had her DVR upgraded to an HD box, the tech stupidly locked it to 480i output. Though it is hooked up via component, he just left it on 480i and didn't check in the boxes for 480p/720p/1080i. Though she still doesn't seem to gather the difference between HD and SD. Still see her dvr'd shows set to record off the SD channels.
Though I quickly fixed that bugger right up and set it to output the channel resolution as it should be.
Now we're hot to watch the Macy's parade in beautiful 1080i.
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I swear, some people should have pace-makers installed to free up the resources. Breathing and heart beat taxes their whole system, all of their brain cells wasted on life support.-two bit brains, and the second bit is wasted on parity! ~head_spaz | |
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| |  moko
join:2002-12-22
Fayetteville, GA | Re: I bet installers don't help in some places hahaha | |
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| pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | I had a similar experience with Comcast and their contractors' lack of knowledge about what HD is.
When I moved to Maryland initially I brought my 48" rear projection 1080i TV. The first Comcast installer tried to tell me that 480i was "HD." I showed him the output of my PC which had an off-air HD tuner and told him that output was actual HD. He then told me to "call Comcast" for more help (yes really).
Comcast did send 2 senior technicians who showed me how to configure the output of the box to do 1080i. When I moved again, this time to what had been an Adelphia service area, I was able to show the installer how to perform a similar settings change.
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| |  mech1164I'll Be Back
join:2001-11-19
Lodi, NJ
·Optimum Online
| Re: I bet installers don't help in some places said by pnh102:I had a similar experience with Comcast and their contractors' lack of knowledge about what HD is. When I moved to Maryland initially I brought my 48" rear projection 1080i TV. The first Comcast installer tried to tell me that 480i was "HD." I showed him the output of my PC which had an off-air HD tuner and told him that output was actual HD. He then told me to "call Comcast" for more help (yes really). Comcast did send 2 senior technicians who showed me how to configure the output of the box to do 1080i. When I moved again, this time to what had been an Adelphia service area, I was able to show the installer how to perform a similar settings change. I just said screw it last year. I got a 34 in Toshiba Tube (YES CRT) HDTV about 4+ years ago. When they came to put in the 8300HD they set it up with Svid.  Had to tear that all apart and do component properly. Last Thanksgiving I had to replace the set in the bedroom. Kmart had a blowout before Black Friday sale on Tday. Got a 32 in 720P LCD TV for 420.00 Best money i spent next to the bargain on the Toshiba (500.00 for that). Before I went on Thursday I went to a walk in location for my 4250HD box from Cablevision. The girl was very nice and accommodating. I even got the component cables thrown in. I switched that out for HDMI and I did all the install in 10 minutes it was done looking at it in it's HD glory.
Bottom line is never let a tech do what you can do better and faster then them.
Oh and BTW 82 year old mother still turns to sd not knowing after all these years. But she is getting better, if Wheel or Jeopardy is on then she knows to turn to the HD station. | |
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 aaronwtPremium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA | When the beginning of the program says available in HD, some people with an SD cet actually think they are watching HD. Which is rather funny. | |
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| | My girlfriends parents think that just because they have an HD tv, everything is in HD
lol, when they got their HD set her mom wanted to go out and buy an HD-DVD and put it in their DVD player. | |
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| | If your watching cable tv sd and hd is pretty much the same.
I can see how 18% would be confused. | |
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