Work While Drunk

I didn't used to watch much TV, but I used to watch a lot of films, mainly at the cinema. Then I met Emma, my girlfriend. She definitely likes her TV programmes and so I started spending more and more time watching them with her. About the same time the DVD revolution started too, so we took up buying or borrowing various movies and TV shows on DVD. Recently we've cancelled our cinema 'unlimited' cards, partly because the people who go there keep ruining the movies for us by being noisy, making phone calls (!) or vandalising the cinema, but partly also due to not finding convenient times to go - so a good new home theater setup may be in my near future.

I purchased a 32" widescreen TV (CRT - a traditional glass type) a few years ago when my current 25" square one was on its last legs. It was particularly hard to watch sports on that old TV as the picture was badly curved, so on our TV Beckham wasn't just bending his shots, he was defying the laws of physics. The newer 32" TV does the job, but not very well, and its very heavy (I move around a lot). It was cheap, as I expected I'd want to replace it with something more sophisticated when the time came, and that time draws closer.

I have had my eye on the whole HDTV market for a while, and am fortunate enough to work for a company who have a very large interest in HDTV, and a very large R+D department. I almost broke last summer and got one after spending a day at the R+D site looking at "HDTV and beyond", but fortunately I calmed myself down and refrained. Over the last few weeks I've been reading up on them again. To my surprise an Xbox scene site provided me with the best reading. These articles in particular:

• The TeamXbox.com Guide to HDTV
• The Facts and Fiction of 1080p

The articles were particularly interesting to me as my requirements are a bit more varied than most people. I have a HTPC, a DVD player and a cable box I'd want to plug into an HDTV, plus I want all of these things to share (switch able between sources?) the same sound system. Obviously Xbox users have a similar requirement to be able to use the Xbox on their HDTV along with their content delivery system (Satellite, Cable, TiVo, etc). The only thing I disagree with is the authors preference of DLP (Rear Projection). I personally prefer LCD, but it is very much an individual choice.

The three issues I need to be comfortable with before I make the jump to HDTV are the interoperability of the devices (and of course the connectivity to the HDTV itself), the price of the equipment and the status of British HDTV content. On that last point, this article at Hexus proves that there's an increasing amount, but still not a whole lot.

I was impressed by a review of an unheard-of brand of HDTV over on Hot Hardware. It was called the Sceptre X37SV-Naga and it appeared to be one of those impressive gems that a lesser known company produces as a low cost unit, but actually has very impressive spec's. The reviewer certainly seemed impressed. It's close to what I'd want, but TV's are very regional and of course I'd want a UK specific version to receive our DTV broadcasts, and maybe have a SCART socket or two.

As I got into the DVD scene big time when it happened I have a LOT of DVD's, so I'd want a nice new DVD player capable of getting the most out of them. BlueRay and HD-DVD are of course just around the corner. BlueRay appears better on paper, but never mentions DVD compatibility - and there's no way I'd selling my DVD collection. HD-DVD, while also clearly improving on DVD, does have backwards compatibility and is now even on sale. It is of course too early to tell which will win, so I was looking for a good DVD player, that's not too expensive, in the mean time. By the looks of it, if found what I'm looking for in this NeoDigits/Helios HVD2085. It appears to be very impressive on paper, but I've yet to read a proper review of it. From what I can see it does everything I want, lacking only DivX/XviD support (but I have a HTPC for that) and also lacking UK availability.

So, along with the all the other expensive gadgets and such I keep eyeing up, all I need it a large sum of cash and I'll be sorted.