Chad's News

With the expected price drop in HDTVs this holiday season, the linked article has some basic tips on what to look for when purchasing one.

Link: http://gizmodo.com/…
(via digg)

Been waiting for the right time to switch from that clunky old analog television to a sleek, new flat-panel HDTV? According to the linked article, the upcoming holiday season may be the time to take the plunge. (Especially with the upcoming analog-to-digital switch.)

Link: http://apnews.myway.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

Regular Chad’s News readers are now familiar with the various HDTV modes (e.g., 720p, 1080i, etc.). And I’ve always associated larger picture sizes with higher quality. I was surprised, therefore, to read the linked article which contends that this is not necessarily the case—that the quality of the signal has little to do with the number of pixels. It turns out that broadcasters compress the digital signal to conserve bandwidth, and the compression algorithm is lossy. The compression reduces the quality of the picture regardless of the number of pixels, and if used “overzealously,” it will make a visible difference.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/…
(via digg)

Thinking about purchasing one of those monster-sized LCD/plasma TVs for thousands of dollars? Well you may want to hold off for a couple years and get an OLED TV instead.

Link: http://news.smh.com.au/…
(via Kim Komando)

The linked article describes various ways to safely clean LCD monitor screens. It was written in response to a situation where grandkids used permanent markers to draw on a monitor.

Link: http://www.komando.com/…

HDTV color, brightness, and contrast levels are set by the manufacturer to look great in brightly-lit retail stores, and once you get it home, the picture quality isn’t nearly as good. Thus the need to calibrate your HDTV. You can do it yourself, or pay a professional.

Update: Getting a professional to make the changes may not be such a good idea.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

No official numbers are available yet, but the Nikkei business daily estimates that Toshiba will book a $986 million loss in its high-definition business. This is due to Toshiba’s HD-DVD format losing out to Sony’s Blu-ray.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/…
(via Engadget)

Update: Toshiba has released official numbers estimating its loss to be about $666 million.

The high-definition format war is officially over. Toshiba has thrown in the towel on its HD-DVD format, and the remaining holdout studios have announced their decision to switch to Blu-ray.

For the early adopters, here’s how to convert HD-DVD discs to Blu-ray,

Link: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/…
(via Engadget)

Over the past few weeks, HD-DVD has been losing more and more ground in the high-definition format war with Blu-ray. Several major retailers have announced their decision to discontinue stocking HD-DVD titles, and there are rumors that Toshiba is thinking about conceding defeat. Looks like Blu-ray is going to emerge as the winner.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/…

In celebration of last night’s big game, here are three of my favorite Superbowl ads:

• Terry Tate, office linebacker
• 1984 Apple Macintosh
• When I grow up…

And here’s my top pick for this year, the Budweiser “Rocky” spot.

In an update to this post about the analog television coupons, there are some further details that could cause problems. Chief among them is that the coupons have a 90-day expiration, even though most converter boxes are not yet widely available. So the wise move would be to wait, but don’t wait too long, because the total number of available coupons is limited.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Apparently it’s not a wise idea to be an early adopter with regards to the Blu-ray high-definition movie format. Due to competition from the HD-DVD format, the Blu-ray specification was released about a year early. Smart shoppers will wait until players are available that support “Profile 2.0” of the spec. There’s also an intermediate step called Profile 1.1 (current players, with the exception of the PS3, support Profile 1.0).

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Update: Ars Technica has an article that explains more about the various specifications and the players that support them.