Greetings HDTVHeads,
Finally found a decent HDTV local forum, I've been reading up on HDTV info and technology. Got the HDTV bug when sister-in-law family got themselves a 37" Aquos LCD telly. Unfortunately, its mostly tuned to Astro transmission most of the time, and looks really shite on the telly since you can see the video is heavily compressed with heavy artifacts all around. Horrid. I've imagine hooking up my Xbox, but then again I'd realise that they might not be any more *new*games left to play at the end of this year (if I end up with a nice big telly).

I've been reading the whole thread, I'm looking forward to move up to a better + bigger telly. No hurry on my part, since I'll only get one probably at the end of this year.

I've been looking at a CRT display with widescreen, HD ready and the Samsung SlimFit 32" WS-32Z31HE really fits the bill.

But digging in closer, and reading more, one of the main gripes are:

1. Bad geometry problems (screen lines are not true straight at edge of screen)

2. Picture quality is so-so (I dropped by at Harvey Norman@The Curve yesterday, they have one SlimFit 32 WS on display, but it was running on composite video)

Overall, I am very dissappointed at Samsung's first attempt and imagine the poor Yanks who bought this TV when it was first release during July 2005, most of them end up returning back the tv and ending up with a Sony.
Ref: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....92&page=1&pp=30

LG does market a similar product as well called Cybertube(!) but since announcing it last year, there is virtually no news or products coming out here (except in Korea market)

I'll have to wait and see yeah?

PS: Spend most on my telly playing Xbox and watching DvDs, I got a nice smallish 21ish Sony Wega, nothing fancy but it all sense has absolutely lovely color and vibrant image. And DVD is running on composite cables only!

this only works for using PC Monitor or Projector. Projector, i doubt got anyone here using it to watch video. before i buy a HDTV, i was using 19" PC Monitor with vdigi. then from 19" to 29" HDTV, the difference was totally shocking.

From what I gather. Some ppl use it to replace the standard descaler that's built into most HDTVs.

i'm wondering...
if i buy a sony bravia lcdtv, (S series - no money to get the highest end V series)... is the image from the tv be hd if i connect the component cable between the tv and the dvd player (assuming the movie is a hd-dvd)?

Actually the short answer is NO.

DVD media does not output HD images, so even if you have the V-series, unless you have a special BluRay or HDDVD player you'll get images at 480p, which is EDTV, but not HDTV.

So assuming you buy a HDDVD/bluray player, YES you'll be able to view gorgeous HDTV images, but not thru component cables, rather DVI or HDMI.

err.... u can still get HDTV images using component cables but limited to 720p and 1080i. For 1080p then only u'd need DVI or HDMI.

i'm wondering...
if i buy a sony bravia lcdtv, (S series - no money to get the highest end V series)... is the image from the tv be hd if i connect the component cable between the tv and the dvd player (assuming the movie is a hd-dvd)?

Actually I was directly addressing this question:
So if we were to take his question word for word -  there is no DVD player as yet that outputs at 720p/1080i, especially since HDDVD players don't exist yet. So in a sense I think my answer still stands as correct. Sure we can get HD resolution programming using component cables, but we don't have those here yet.

I think the sliight more correct answer is, there is NO SUCH THING AS A HDTV DVD player and THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HDTV MOVIES IN DVD FORMAT.
So even if you crack up a HDTV DVD player in your garage, you still can't do anything with it coz THERE'S NO MOVIE ENCODED IN THIS FORMAT ON DVD.

So assuming you buy a HDDVD/bluray player, YES you'll be able to view gorgeous HDTV images, but not thru component cables, rather DVI or HDMI.

yes u are correct bout the dvd player, but i was replying to this statement. 

what HD-TV widescreen wan...will scale astro into good lookin widescreen mode...?i seen most widescreen hd-tv...on astro...it will stretch the image..

AFAIK there's no way to correctly display astro broadcasts in widescreen since the native resolution of the broadcasts are in regular pan and scan... but if I had any say I'd suggest looking at the Philips Pixel Plus 2 sets. The PP2 engine makes almost anything look good.

oh...thx...been to philips web...malaysia wan...but cant find any LCD PP2 Display larger than 30"..it is me didnt look properly or....
today i went to makan in a taiwan restaurant...saw a 32" PP2 LCD...color so nice...but not very good in astro...
agak2 how much 32" PP2??or smaller...

Again, the latest batch of LCD PP2 sets are gonna set you back at least RM 10 k. I'd also suggest the Sony Bravia series since the Sony DRC is comparably good...but you'll have to test them both out with an S-video in (for astro).

No -ler. test with XBOX with component cables. It's the only way to test HDTV now and push the LCD to the Max!

btw, just bought a new ASTRO decoder since my old one kaput already. Now using S-VIDEO instead of composite to my SONY HDTV (my old decoder S-VIDEO also not working). There is quite significant improvement in the quality.