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New HDTV ... what to watch?

post #1 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
My dinosaur of a television finally gave up the ghost. I had to replace it, and so it was the time to upsize and go HD. My new television is over 3x the screen-size of the previous. Took a few things for a spin to watch the glory:

Star Wars: A New Hope -- the opening crawl and Star Destroyer bit
Raiders of the Lost Ark -- the truck chase
Lawrence of Arabia -- the match blow-out cut and the entrance of Omar

What did you watch upon your first upgrade, or would you watch upon such upgrade?
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post #2 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:25pm
Planet Earth. Folks who don't typically see the difference between SD and HD notice it with this series. The fine details you can still pick out of long shots or shot filled with hundreds of animals is incredible.
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post #3 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, Planet Earth will be required viewing in the next few days. Thanks.
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post #4 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:37pm
When I got my new LCD HDTV, with my PS3, I watched Fifth Element on Blu-Ray and my wife watched the whole LOTR trilogy over 3 days.

I think the very first movie I watched after I got my upstairs HDTV was the opening space battle sequence in Attack of the Clones.


And speaking of "seeing more" in HD, I (regrettably) watched "Meet the Spartans" on BR last week, and man, Carmen Electra has about hit the wall, if not already.
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post #5 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
Oh, yes. The extended editions of Lord of the Rings will be up this week as well.
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post #6 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:39pm
You can't go wrong with Planet Earth, definitely meant for HD.

The movie Sunshine(2007). I have an HD CRT TV 1080i (actually better than flat screen/plasma resolution) and this was my first Blu-Ray disc purchase. Amazing visuals and story. I showed it to my buddy and after the first 15 minutes he was like "I am buying this as soon as I leave here!".

Probably my favorite movie of 2007, and I loved No Country and There Will Be Blood. I saw it in the theaters. Too bad it was only on like 10 screens nationwide, as it seems to have been completely ignored. It looks as good, if not better, than movies that cost 3 times as much. Highly reccomend it.
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post #7 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:46pm
Porn?

Who doesn't want to see money shots in 1080p?
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post #8 of 31
6/18/08 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by billylove View Post
Porn?

Who doesn't want to see money shots in 1080p?
He does have a point
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post #9 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:04pm
Do you have a blu-ray player?

If so, No Country and There Will Be Blood are essential viewing. The transfers are so god damned good.

The first film I watched on my HD TV was the special edition of Blade Runner, which was breathtaking, especially since it was my first non cable viewing of it. The 5 disc blu-ray set has been going for near $20 lately, which is a steal.

Even without blu-ray access you can't go wrong with something epic like LOTR or Lawerence of Arabia.
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post #10 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:08pm
Blofeld, what programming sources are you running into your HD set?

It might be worthwhile to break out a decent UHF antenna - cable companies overcompress the local HD channels, and I find that the over-the-air ATSC picture quality shits all over the same channel on HD cable 8 out of 10 times, those two times being ones where the channel's just too far away to get a clean lock on the signal. Digital TV doesn't degrade elegantly with weakened signal levels the way that analog TV does - ATSC just goes straight from "flawless" to "horribly scratched DVD".

Also, assuming that your HD set comes with a cable-ready ATSC tuner, connect your cable TV wire directly to the TV and perform a channel scan. You may find some interesting stuff by doing so.
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post #11 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:12pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, Reggie. As I rarely watch broadcast television, I'm not concerned with signal degredation, etc. I will try to hook up my UHF antenna just to see what happens. I'll also try hooking to the cable jack... Other than for limited sporting events and the Oscars, I'm never motivated to tune in.

I don't have a blu-ray yet. Right now I'm simply enjoying watching things on standard DVD but writ large and in widescreen. As my existing DVD player craps out, I'll certainly replace it with the next generation up.

Is a blu-ray player backward compatible? Will I be able to play my massive library of standard DVDs on a blu-ray? I think not... So I'll have to always have an investment in a standard DVD player, too, I suppose.
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post #12 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blofeld View Post
Is a blu-ray player backward compatible? Will I be able to play my massive library of standard DVDs on a blu-ray?
Yes it is. Not only that, but it will upscale those 480p dvds to 1080p.
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post #13 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:17pm
Thread Starter 
Cool! Blu-Ray sooner than expected!
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post #14 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blofeld View Post
Thanks,

Is a blu-ray player backward compatible? Will I be able to play my massive library of standard DVDs on a blu-ray? I think not... So I'll have to always have an investment in a standard DVD player, too, I suppose.
Buy a PS3. Cheaper than a stand-alone Blu-Ray player, plus the free online updates allow you to upgrade the player's cabability so you will always have the best possible software. Also, you can play PS3 games, which is a huge bonus.

It will definitely upgrade your standard discs. I've noticed this is much more apparent on newer releases. Older movies still look good, but newer movies, on regular DVD format, look amazing on the PS3. I have never owned a stand-alone player, then again I play a lot of video games too.
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post #15 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RCA View Post
Buy a PS3. Cheaper than a stand-alone Blu-Ray player, plus the free online updates allow you to upgrade the player's cabability so you will always have the best possible software. Also, you can play PS3 games, which is a huge bonus.
You can get nice Blu-Ray player for around 350.
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post #16 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 
PS3? My kids' heads would explode. Now if I can just get them off of their Wii so I can watch some fucking movies!
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post #17 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by billylove View Post
You can get nice Blu-Ray player for around 350.
You can get a PS3 40 GB for roughly the same price, plus free online updates(updated quite frequently) and ability to play games, go on the internet, store media files, etc. Total package.

I watched National Treasure 2 on Blu-Ray the week it came out and it said, before the movie started, that I may need to update my player for full functionality. buy a stand-alone and it could be outdated in 6 months. Online updates ensure this doesn't happen.
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post #18 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:36pm
I will say that I wish Time Warner Cable had more HDTV channels. They don't even have the discovery channel... but National Geographic instead. weird.
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post #19 of 31
6/18/08 at 5:58pm
Go Directv!
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post #20 of 31
6/18/08 at 6:08pm
Blofeld, If you have Cablevision, one of the best HD channels is Kung Fu HD. The channel airs the Zatoichi films, as well as ones starring Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, etc.
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post #21 of 31
6/18/08 at 10:09pm
First DVD I popped in when I hooked up my GREAT BIG NEW TV last year was Sin City.

Yesterday I got a new GREAT BIG NEW TV for my office and had to review the Jumper Blu-Ray, so I popped that in first to see how great it looked. Not a good movie but damn it looked great on the new TV.
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post #22 of 31
6/19/08 at 12:46am
I must also admit that the first thing I dropped in was the Attack of the Clones opening battle. If you are willing to wheel and deal you can get a pretty good deal on an upgrade on Dishnetwork or DirectTV if you are already a customer. I have Dish and they broadcast space shuttle launches on HDNET. If you want to watch something that will show off your system that would be it. Pretty amazing.
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post #23 of 31
6/19/08 at 1:54am
whats your favorite recent movie? watch that

oh and planet earth. I'm not into nature, discovery, learning stuff, but this for some reason totally floored me.

i'm sure the kids will like ratatouille and cars.
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post #24 of 31
6/19/08 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SAIRUS View Post
i'm sure the kids will like ratatouille and cars.
Yeah, Ratatouille on Blu-Ray looked incredible. I'm dying for The Incredibles to be released on BR.
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post #25 of 31
6/19/08 at 10:11am
Also, if you get Discovery HD, enjoying a few minutes of Sunrise Earth each morning at 7:00AM is an awesome way to start the day.
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post #26 of 31
6/19/08 at 10:14am
Find a sports game...pretty much any sport looks FANTASTIC in HD.
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post #27 of 31
6/19/08 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul755 View Post
Find a sports game...pretty much any sport looks FANTASTIC in HD.
I dunno...lately every team in the NL West has looked like shit regardless of the quality of the picture...
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post #28 of 31
6/20/08 at 1:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tieman View Post
I dunno...lately every team in the NL West has looked like shit regardless of the quality of the picture...
unfortunatly...so true.
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post #29 of 31
6/21/08 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
God damn it, I'm actually enjoying watching soccer!
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post #30 of 31
6/21/08 at 5:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by billylove View Post
Porn?

Who doesn't want to see bikini stubble and ass pimples in 1080p?
Fixed.
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post #31 of 31
6/23/08 at 9:44am
The Olympic trials were friggin awesome in High Def. If you like diving and gymnastics...
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