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People don't because

Turns out, recently, you have been able to get such LCDs:

http://www.hometheatermag.com/gearworks/707gear/

So, if you want to, you can get an LCD that flashes the image and then turns dark until the next frame.

Unless you're sitting less than ten feet away from a six-foot-wide screen, you can't tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. All you're doing is wasting money and energy.

It seems some products are using this technology already:

http://www.hometheatermag.com/rearprojectiontvs/1007pana50lcz70/

Bluray does 1080p, and HD-DVD does 1080i, at least with the way things are set up right now.

You can see the difference between 1080p and 1080i, the biggest difference is that most 1080i HDTV does not display at a full 1920x1080. This is compounded with high-motion video content which progressive is far superior then interlaced (and yes you can see artifacts). Also, 1080p players are not $1,000, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have players in the $500 range (least of which the PS3, 360+add-on and Toshiba's entry-level HD_DVD player). Also, starting next year, all 1080p sets will become the norm and are already showing up in the $1k level (Westinghouse 1080p LCD, and Vizio has 46" 1080p set for $2k)

http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/0506halfrez /

"You can't do that. Broadcast television is interlaced. VGA is progressive. Never the twain shall meet."

Oh, I wouldn't say that.

BTW DVD players do an internal conversion to interlaced.

First of all the picture displayed on all new plasmas is a progressive picture, it is not displayed as an interlaced picture. Only if there is something _seriously_ wrong with your 1080i set's de-interlacer will you be able to tell the difference between the two when it comes to watching a 24fps film.

The difference between the 1080i and 1080p is that 1080i displays 30fps and 1080p displayes 60fps.

How many PS3 games do you think will actually offer 60fps at full res? Not many if they are going to be rendering complex scenes. Check out the links for more info:

http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/
http://ozymandias.com/

Should be out any day now.

http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/06 0106/

• ncta.com "ESPN HD is delivered in the 720p format
• MNF: "All of ABC's HDTV programs use 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format."
• Home Theater MagazineLike ABC, ESPN's high-def format is 720P

another

Will Digital TV Save Lives?

Will Digital TV Save Lives?

By Darryl Wilkinson

June 20, 2005 -- A new bill introduced by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) entitled the "Spectrum Availability for Emergency-response and Law-enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services Act" - otherwise known as "The SAVE LIVES Act" - will, if passed, directly affect the on-going Digital TV transition and the impending analog broadcast cut-off date. The proposed legislation assigns a hard cut-off date of January 1, 2009 ....

blah blah about allocating the spectrum to emergency services and consumer education

In order to prevent analog-TV owners from finding themselves in the dark after the January 1, 2009 cut-off, the bill includes provisions for digital-to-analog converter boxes to over-the-air viewers who "have a household income that does not exceed 200 percent of the poverty line." (That includes most of the writers I work with...) Cable companies would be allowed to down convert DTV signals "if necessary." Finally, the proposed legislation would establish a tax credit for recycling TVs as well as require the Environmental Protection Agency to report to Congress on the need for a national electronic waste recycling program."

more sundry blah blah

The Federal Communications Committee's original target date for the analog broadcast cut-off was 2006.

Have you seen this [apple.com]?

Just this week I found a product called Kaleidescape. It seems to be the equivalent of storing all your CDs on your hard drive in iTunes. It's super expensive, but looks very cool. You just load your dvds into the reader and it burns it to the HD. You then put a networked player in every room and play any DVD at any time. The thing is, it seems like it would promote piracy. Why buy a dvd when you can just rent it from Blockbuster and load it to your system? ;) This would make it all too easy to do that.

Here's a review on that system. (Scroll down.)

Did that clear anything up? I know Home Theater magazine recently did a good article on this using two Pioneer DVD players as an example (one high-end and one low-end).


Refrag

This guy clearly didn't even bother to do the slightest bit of homework. If he would have bothered to spend $4 and pick up a copy of The Perfict Vision or Home Theater he would have avoided much of his problems. It doesn't take a lot of research to find out that the RCA DirecTV receiver has DB-15 output for VGA. It takes even less time to find out that DirecTV only has 1 "actual" HD channel. (BTW, if you want HD, buy a DISH Network system. They require multiple dishes in many instances, but you get several more HD channels, with much more room to grow.) There is definitely a problem with HD broadcasts right now. However, this article just sounds like a rich guy saw a Best Buy ad and decided he had to have HDTV NOW! Had he done a bit of homework, he would have realized that it isn't that easy.

Go out and get yourself a copy of Home Theater mag and read their reviews. Over a year ago they covered this very same topic, to wit:
the DVD spec does not include support for CDR and CDRW. Period.

If you can play 'em on your current box, then the people who made it are generous.

I'd have to agree. I got a DVD player from my parents for Christmas and I decided I needed decent sound to go with the picture. I did some research on the HTB-503 (audioreview.com, hometheatermag.com) and thought this would be the best bang for my buck, considering that I didn't have a lot of bucks to spend. It has Dolby Digital and DTS decoding @ 100 watts per channel. I am pleased with it. I picked it up at Sears for $500, but you can find it cheaper online if you wish.

These look like they may be reprints of some of his articles in Home Theater, or at least re-writes. If so they are well worth reading. When I used to get the mag his column was always the first thing I read.