Poll: When did you join the HDTV ownership club?
By Richard Lawler 
posted June 20th 2010 4:45PM
posted June 20th 2010 4:45PM
Since you're reading this, we'll guess that you have an HDTV (or three) in your possession but not everyone got on board the movement at the same time. So let it be known, did you suffer through the early days, with only a few channels, watching the Olympics a day behind and no HD movies on disc? Or are you a latecomer who jumped into a world full of cheap Blu-ray discs, downloadable HD and more HDTV channels than service providers think we can count?
i dont own one, mainly becuase i have no money and there to expensive :/
@huskie fluff
That's no longer a valid excuse.
Well, I guess it is, I shouldn't be so harsh, but Dell have a 24" 1080p monitor for £169 so I don't see that a bit of saving wouldn't get you there.
@FORDY my pc sitll uses a 17 " 2002 dell crt becuase i cant afford a monitor. i mean my system is kick ass, but after buying it in 2008 i dont have money for a monitor. *note i run on a -$ a month salary)
yesterday
Congrats!
@nrb Thanks. The sad thing is I have been recording only HD content for over a year now, and finally decided to take the plunge with the deals on the 58V10 out there.
So far I am happy with it. I figured I would take a bit to adjust to a 58" from viewing a letterboxed HD content on a 36" CRT, but it felt fine the first time I sat down.
Remember the Economic Stimulus Package a few years ago? Yeah, I spent all $1100 of it on a 42" Westinghouse. Still going strong.
@Ignignokt I have a 42" Westinghouse that I got in 2007, but mine developed a discoloration on the screen. And it also ghosts BADLY. I am looking to replace it.
Early 2005. =D
@WilliamTM
same
I wasn't going to buy a 360 and not play it in HD so I made sure I was ready a few months before it launched. TV still kicks ass!
I just don't have a TV at all. Partly the money thing.. but also, I've been living in dorms and school apartment and stuff. I wanted to have minimal possessions in order to be able to move quickly and easily. So I watch a lot on my computer (still no true HD screen), but I used to have a projector and bluray player for a while. The projector accepted up to 1080p input, but the actual resolution on the thing was more like "enhanced" definition.
Would one of the fifty or so who don't have a HDTV please tell me where I can find a good buggy whip? By the way: How much are the replacement tubes for your TV's these days and where do you go to test the tubes? Does the record player underneath still work?
Stop laughing!!! Just kidding!!!
@TRT in fact, i didnt find that funny at all. it may have been a joke but it insults people that actually dont have rich ass parents to pamper there asses. i dont have money for an *hd tv* oh and btw a 480p crt doesnt use *tubes anymore* so shut it.
@huskie fluff If you think you need "rich-ass parents" to own a HDTV then you need to get yourself a job. I bought my own 32" Samsung back in 2005 when I was working part time at a supermarket and you can pick one up for a hell of a lot cheaper than I did back then. "I don't have enough money" isn't an excuse. If you don't feel it's important and want to spend your money on something else then that's fine, but tjhey are so cheap now (like £150 - £200 cheap) that anyone can afford one with a little saving
@vidoardes wich happens to be more than just that in american dollars son. i cant get a job, if i dont have a car, wich you may know, costs money itself. also theres taxes, theres electric bills, there are water bills, there are morgage and all that other crap. so if you *work at a supermarket* with these things, then you obviosly wont hav emoney for one would you?
@huskie fluff--I don't believe the poll question was targeting boys that live in their parents basements who spend their allowance on pot and peter-beater magazines. I'm a retired grandfather that actually signs 1040 forms. As long as you are a number in the dependent box, no one expects you to watch stock trends on the crawler at the bottom of a 60" plasma. So, put away the bong and open a text book every now and then. If you do, you'll eventually discover that CRT is an acronym for cathode ray TUBE.
@huskie fluff So you pay a mortgage but don't have a car or TV? I find that hard to believe. Stop bitching, you obviously have a computer so head over to craigslist and find a job you can walk to. And why do people read Engadget HD when they don't have an HDTV!
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget
You need a good, stable, yearly income in order to afford an HDTV all by yourself. It's a perk. First is paying for your home, car, kids, and food. Then, you'd have to save up (or get into more debt) for the TV and be prepared to pay for the more expensive monthly cable/satellite package, not to mention the surround sound system. It's only been the last couple of years where TVs have been affordable enough to buy on top of these other expenses for most working families.
Sold some excess furniture on Craigslist, got $900 cash, and bought a 40" Samsung in March of 09, it replaced a 27" CRT 480i Sharp set. We've had HD service since 07 though, if not earlier...
i bought a ps3 on launch day and i thought it would be all kinds of lonely without a buddy so i felt compelled to pick up a 720P 46" Samsung DLP. The title is dead on because I remember being told that at 46" your never gonna notice the difference.
@normychas
We sit about 12' away from my 56" Sammy 720p DLP and you wouldn't notice the difference until you got a little closer. Actually, at this size, 12 feet is the closest you can get before 1080p starts to look sharper. I'm looking to go with a 100" projector and screen. At about 14 feet away, 100" is the largest you'd want to go with 1080p before it starts to lose its sharpness. Assuming the source material is up to snuff, of course.
Back in 2001, my family purchased a 57" 720p/1080i Sony rear projection set. Cost nearly $4,000 at the time, and it doesn't have a single HDMI port, only composite, coaxial, component, and s-video (anyone remember s-video?!).
We had to repair the lamp and circuit board about two years ago, but the set's still running strong.
@shuref00t
Something is off. Either it's 1080i OR it's not a RPTV. It may be a DLP but it can't be an RPTV. Because if it were, it wouldn't have a native resolution and acept whatever you gave it. That would be why all the inputs are analog.
If it is a 57" DLP and you bought it in 2001, it was not $4000.
@walljordan Some of the old Sony's would accept a 720P signal then convert it, mostly to 480P. That was part of the hubbub surrounding the PS3 - a lot of the launch games only supported 720P, which means a lot of Sony TV's could only play 480P; Sony's response was, "Buy a new TV." :-P Needless to say, that didn't fly too well with the people who had just picked up a brand new Super Fine Pitch Trinitron tube the year before - myself included.
June 2006, Samsung 1080p DLP just in time for the 2006 World Cup!
July 2nd 2005. I only remember because they were playing the Live 8 concert in the Best Buy that I was shopping in.
I still remember watching the July 4th fireworks in HD for the first time. No need to go see them in person anymore!
2006 with the Panasonic TH-50PX60U
I love the tv put I'm ready to upgrade to 1080p
We bought a Mistubishi 55" RPTV that could do 720p/1080i back in 2001 or 2002. It was a beast, but it was incredibly reliable for what we put it through.
August 2008 for me. Had to wait to finish grad school and then work to save enough money to build my own home theater system
I'm on my second HDTV. The first one was a 32-inch, 720p Westinghouse LCD with no HDMI (yet it had DVI, which is why it's my nephew's plus-size computer monitor now). Paid $850 for it at a Black Friday 2005 sale at Best Buy, and in those days, that was legitimately a steal for that size set.
And like Ignignokt, I put my stimulus check toward a TV - my current set, a 42-inch Panasonic plasma. Still 720p but the contrast ratio of plasma makes up for that. :-)
I had to put 2007-2009.
I've had a 42" plasma EDTV since around 2004...but just bought a HDTV LCD projector currently projecting at 125" last year.
College is an expensive ordeal...so, 2009 for me.
I had a 480p widescreen CRT in Australia in 2002. Moved back to the states and was disappointed with the lack of widescreen programming above 480i. Didn't go HD in the USA until 2005 with a 50 inch 1080i Visio plasma that popped and was traded for a 1080p LCD at Costco when they still took returns on defective electronics.
I bought a 32" Sammy back in '05, only 720p but it is still going strong and having used it for SkyHD and Blu-Rays it still looks good. I bought my own house last year and got a little 22" 1080p LG for the bedroom which is pretty nice, until you notice the horrible, horrible backlight bleed :p
Bought a 30" LG SuperSlim CRT HDTV on July 17, 2006 (I'm trying to sell it and found the BB receipt a couple of days ago) and have recently upgraded to a 50" LG PK550. Also have a 32" Sony LCD purchased last summer in the bedroom. All of it paid for with my own hard-earned cash, thanks very much Huskie Fluff.
My main tv, which is what is on 90% of the time in my house, is a 2004 Panasonic 47" RPTV HDTV. Got it before my local cable company was even broadcasting HD, but DVD's sure looked great (before progressive scan was available.)
I have been itching BAD to replace this set, and my next purchase will be a 65" 1080P Plasma, but waiting until next year if I can...
@theanimala Acutally, my bad, I bought this set in 2002, so I am earlier than I thought...
2003, I got a 51" Sony RPTV. Did 1080i. Nice TV, sold it to a friend a few years back when I ugpraded to SXRD.
I bought my first 1080p set in spring/summer of 2008 when I got mah Pee-Ess-Three. Was doing travel nursing for awhile, so left it at my parents' house when I went on my last assignment.
Jonesing for HD for Oblivion again, I got a $300 32" at Amazon...then found a deal on a 52" Sharp once I 'went staff' at the hospital I'm at now.
December 2003, bought a 43" Sammy DLP for $3100 delivered. Still on the 2nd bulb, I'll be replacing it before the NFL season for sure.
I have to admit, I kinda want to ditch it and get a nice new set that can deal with my Win7 HTPC better. Sets from that era assumed you were gonna hook a PC up via VGA and I cant get the overscan right for PC use using the DVI-in. Not to mention its slightly off geometrically so the desktop appears slightly crooked (which is not an issue for regular HDTV).
Fall 2003 I bought my Panasonic PT-LC5013. 50" 720P LCD RPTV. Envious of what $3000 would buy now, but the thing won't break.
'05-'06 i think. Discovered it goes up to 1080i last year.
I bought back in 2002, although did not really get the full experience until the digital switch over. Although I love my 60inch Sony rear projection HDTV, it is a big ugly mofo that takes up hella space and has no HD tuner built in, no HDMI so it's kinda outdated but it still running strong so if it aint broke...... Beside's when I got my FAT PS3 to hook up to it, it was like a match made in heaven lol. The DLP I bought in 2005 was a different story. Although the picture was alot better the technology sucks and it broke down 3-4 times before I just kicked it to the curb. Texas Instruments you owe me $2600!!!!!!
August 2001 - Hitachi 36" 4:3 CRT - horrible (undefeatable) edge correction on the component inputs, but the RGB input was pristine (intended for computer use, EE would've made text illegible), and fortunately my Dish 6000 had the output. That lasted me a few years before it zapped itself to death (and that was not a fun 300lbs to haul to the TV repair shop).
Spring 2004 - Dish Network-branded RCA 34" 16:9 CRT - won it by calling in to one of Dish Network's tech chat shows - I believe the question was, "What is the full ATSC MPEG-2 transport stream bitrate, to the thousandth?" I only knew it as 19.2mbps at the time, but a quick Google search while the phone rang found (what I believe was) 19.363662mbps, which turned out to be the correct answer. That TV was given to my Grandmother, who (indirectly) bequeathed it to my father, where it lives on today.
August 2006 - Sony Wega 34" Super Fine Pitch Trinitron CRT - the last model manufactured before they switched back to regular-width aperture grilles exclusively, a $2000 TV that I found on clearance for $615 and change at Fry's. That is now my bedroom TV.
February 2008 - JVC 55" LCOS RPTV - excellent projection technology, horrible silk screen effect; now my mother's TV.
February 2009 - Epson HC6100 FPTV with 106" DaLite High Power screen - I've finally found my home. It's a blessing and a curse, though... my first thought was, "How did I ever do without this?" Then my next thought was, "How *can* I ever do without this?" Further compounding problems is my affection for the new 3D tech - how I'd love to have that 3D movie theater at home, but what a dearth of options there are in the space; I can either go smaller, or super-expensive, and well... I do have my limits... such as they are.
And there it is... a life in television. I wish I was joking.
I got mine this year January :p
I knew 3D TV's where coming so i could of saved a bit up but i discovered that I'm 3D blind... A lazy eye is the cause of it meaning i use one eye more than the other so my perception of depth is not good enough to view 3D pictures.
So i skipped 3DTV and just got myself a nice 42" HD LCD, i didnt feel the need for anything bigger or thinner ( LED ) so hey :p why bother with the whole 3D hype :p
Mitsubishi WT46807 in Early 2001. Heck we had an LCD in the bedroom in 2005.
I remember when Dish Network changed the demo loop. We were all so excited. :o
Got a Pioneer 5000EX in 2007 when it dropped from $15.000 to $7000 still one of the best screens I have seen in consumer and pro field. Had to have a 1080 screen after shooting loads of 1080 stuff on HDCam.
Here is hoping in a few years Panasonic will produce something as good as this screen again. Off course I will go for the 65" 3D one next time :)
I've been playing HD content from my computer to my 24" Dell 2405FPW (1920x1200) since Sep 2005 and then my 30" Dell 3007WFP (2560x1600) since Jan 2006. But I did not really get into it until I bought a PS3 in December 2007 and a Mitsubishi HC-4900 1080p projector in January 2008. All four devices are still going strong today!