Art Guy - most people who view HDTV do not do it over the air (via the tuner). Most get it from cable (and not via CableCARD) or from DirectTV or Dish network. As such, they don't use the tuner in their TV anyway.
Anyway a friend has a Sharp 45" direct-view LCD that accepts 1080p does indeed have a remote and a tuner. It does have CableCARD, but he uses his cable box instead, since it has a PVR. I can see where he's coming from there, I had an HD-capable display for over a year before I finally got an HDTV receiver for it, because my lifestyle doesn't fit any tuner that isn't a PVR. I simply cannot be home to watch shows when they air.
Anyway, he got his 45" Sharp Direct-view 1920x1080 (1080p input) LCD for $3300. That's not bad, is it? It's a lot less than $18K.
I'm sitting right now in front of a Dell 24" monitor I got for $640 that accepts 1080p (although mine, unlike the Sharp mentioned above doesn't do HDCP) too.
So 1080p is a lot more affordable than you think.
Anyway, the reason to have 1080p is because there are two major formats of HDTV, 1080i and 720p. ABC and ESPN use 720p. NBC and CBS use 1080i (I forget which FOX uses). If I want to watch each of them in their highest quality, I need to switch modes between them as I switch channels. Because 720p has too many frames per second (60) to be converted to 1080i (which has 30 frames, 60 fields) and 1080i has too much spatial resolution (1920x1080) to be converted to 720p (1280x720).
So I have to switch modes all the time and my TV has to resync and it flickers and such.
But, if my TV (and my HDTiVo) did 1080p, then the 1080i could be converted to 1080p and the 720p could be converted to 1080p and I wouldn't have to adjust my set all the time. And on top of that, I could watch movies or perhaps even play video games in 1080p.
And that's why my next HDTV will have 1080p input (and rendering) capabilities.
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Art Guy - most people who view HDTV do not do it over the air (via the tuner). Most get it from cable (and not via CableCARD) or from DirectTV or Dish network. As such, they don't use the tuner in their TV anyway.
Anyway a friend has a Sharp 45" direct-view LCD that accepts 1080p does indeed have a remote and a tuner. It does have CableCARD, but he uses his cable box instead, since it has a PVR. I can see where he's coming from there, I had an HD-capable display for over a year before I finally got an HDTV receiver for it, because my lifestyle doesn't fit any tuner that isn't a PVR. I simply cannot be home to watch shows when they air.
Anyway, he got his 45" Sharp Direct-view 1920x1080 (1080p input) LCD for $3300. That's not bad, is it? It's a lot less than $18K.
You can find it here for about $3500.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=4177578
I'm sitting right now in front of a Dell 24" monitor I got for $640 that accepts 1080p (although mine, unlike the Sharp mentioned above doesn't do HDCP) too.
So 1080p is a lot more affordable than you think.
Anyway, the reason to have 1080p is because there are two major formats of HDTV, 1080i and 720p. ABC and ESPN use 720p. NBC and CBS use 1080i (I forget which FOX uses). If I want to watch each of them in their highest quality, I need to switch modes between them as I switch channels. Because 720p has too many frames per second (60) to be converted to 1080i (which has 30 frames, 60 fields) and 1080i has too much spatial resolution (1920x1080) to be converted to 720p (1280x720).
So I have to switch modes all the time and my TV has to resync and it flickers and such.
But, if my TV (and my HDTiVo) did 1080p, then the 1080i could be converted to 1080p and the 720p could be converted to 1080p and I wouldn't have to adjust my set all the time. And on top of that, I could watch movies or perhaps even play video games in 1080p.
And that's why my next HDTV will have 1080p input (and rendering) capabilities.