Thanks for all the replys and information.
Soooo....
If I understand correctly, HDTV is not what the government has mandated, but DTV (digital TV) is what's required? Are new TV's capable of recieving a digital broadcast? My main goal is to find a TV that will still work in a few years when and if the mandated change takes effect, and if I improve picture quality a bit that would be ok also.

 

I strongly recommend unplugging!

You ARE being programmed, whether you know it or not!

But do as you like

 

Some TVs are able to receive digital transmission. You just have to be careful when you look at them. Make sure it has a digital tuner. Only problem with this is you won't be able to watch anything not digital. Meaning, unless you have digital cable or satellite, or are watching your local over-the-air station that has recently started transmitting in digital, you won't get it. So, I guess you might check your local listings for the shows you like to watch and see if they are offered in Digital. Or wait a while. They will be digital someday. Primetime on virtually every channel is in HD now, so it's not like you won't get the benefits of an HD monitor/TV.

 

get a plasma...it's good.

 

Welcome earjack to FTE, this has got to be one of the shortest first posts~!~

 

I believe all tvs manufactured after July of this year have to include a digital (ATSC) tuner. Pretty much all of them still come with a regular (NTSC) tuner as well. However if the manufacturer calls it a monitor they do not have to include any tuners so just be careful with what you are buying.

The big question here is what kind of signal will you be using. Do you subscribe to cable or sattelite, or do you just use a tv antenna? If you use a TV antenna I would definitely suggest buying a TV with an ATSC tuner so your tv is not outdated in a couple of years when broadcasters switch over.

If you have cable I would suggest looking into a TV with a QAM tuner with cable card capability if you think you might want to upgrade to digital cable. However, I will warn you that the current cable card standard does not support TV on Demand or DVR functionality so if you want those you will still have to rent a box from your cable company, or you can wait another year or two for this technology to be updated.

If you use sattelite TV I would suggest you look at TV monitors. You will be able to save some money by not having the extra tuner hardware in the tv and still be able to watch all of the channels you currently watch.

Finally if you are currently happy with your standard programming you can buy just a regular cheap TV to get you by until analog transmission ends, which it looks like will be 4 years or so from now.

One thing I should mention is that if you buy a new HDTV there is a good chance that your normal TV programming will look worse than on your old tv. This is because all of the flaws in your signal are made clearer by the clearer picture. Some HDTV's have good quality scalers that will help, but not all do.

If you have more questions another really helpful site is http://www.avsforum.com/ There are many very helpful people there that can help you. Like all Forums try to read the rules before you start posting though.

Hope I helped you out more than confusing you. I just realized how long this post was.

 

Jeez, you're right Tim. That was a short 1st post, and in a wierd place. Most 1st posters have a truck problem, not a comment about TV's.

 

sorry....what was that? I was watching TV.