50" & Up true 1080p HDTVs getting cheaper

[Tom Bombadil]

Large, true 1080p HDTVs are now creeping below $2000 from local brick & mortar stores, such as these from Circuit City:

Samsung 50" DLP $1799
Samsung 56" DLP $1949
Sony 50" SXRD $1999

It is a shame that mass market HD providers continue to further degrade their HD retransmission via down-rezzing and inadequate bandwidth.

A year ago E* was providing higher quality HD channels than they are now. But HDTVs that could really show off the good HD channels were pretty expensive. Now those TVs are moving into mainstream pricing ranges, but the good HD channels are disappearing.

Of course a lot of sub-32" LCD HDTVs are being sold that have a max resolution of 1280x720 (some of them even lower) and those customers are much less likely to notice the quality degradation.

As these 1080p sets are sure to continue to get cheaper and move more and more into popular price ranges, it exciting to think about what we might be able to purchase for $1500 in 2 years. I sure hope that improvements in MPEG4 compression can get the quality levels up again so that we can once again ooh and aah watching DishHD on our shiny new 1080p sets.

 

[scooby2]

LCD TVs are also getting much cheaper. The low end 52" are priced around where the 32" were 18 months ago.

Been eying a 46" Sony XBR2 as a second HDTV but I am going to wait and see what CES brings.

 

[digiblur]

The only real 1080i transmission feeds I've seen are the 35mbps HD backhaul feeds. The providers can't even get the 1080i part down let alone the 1080p part.

The only true 1080i or 1080p stuff you are going to see for a long time is Bluray and HD-DVD.

 

[waltinvt]

The only true 1080i or 1080p stuff you are going to see for a long time is Bluray and HD-DVD.

and that's been the plan right along. How many HD DVDs do you think they'd sell if you had real HD on cable or satellite?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

My point wasn't that we need true 1080p feeds, but that mainstream TVs now can show the full glory of a 1920x1080i w/high bandwidth feed. I should have noted that these sets are full 1920x1080 resolution, as that is the important specification as it relates to providers down-rezzing video.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

If they can improve contrast ratios on the large LCD HDTVs, then I just might consider something around the 52"-56" size in '08.