Home Theater View grew out of business weblogs at JupiterResearch and AskAvi columns written over several years at a personal site, http://www.greengart.com. Thanks to the persistence of the Internet -- web pages never really die as long as they're in Google's index -- one of those old AskAvi columns is now generating a lot of feedback. It seems someone queried Google to find advice choosing a TV, found Column 10, and posted it to a newsgroup. They did this without ever looking at the column's date (which is on the page, though perhaps not as prominent as it could be).
Column 10 was provocatively titled, "Why HDTV Doesn't Matter," and it covered whether to buy a 4:3 (square) TV or a 16:9 (widescreen, rectangular) shaped TV. At the time, there was precious little HDTV content being broadcast and even fewer ways to get that content using cable or satellite. There were also several 4:3 TVs on the market with a true 16:9 squeeze mode - in other words, you could buy a square TV without giving up the higher resolution of widescreen programming (though you'd have black bars on top and bottom of your image).
The advice was good for its time: it was written in 2001, before the advent of relatively affordable DLP-based sets and Dell HDTV plasmas. (And I noted that the price of HDTVs would come down in time for something to watch on them). But to correct any misconceptions, this is not the advice I would give today.
First of all, there's a lot more widescreen programming available now, even for those watching standard definition ("regular" TV, as opposed to HDTV). Even video games are being created for widescreen playback. Second, 4:3 sets with 16:9 squeeze mode have largely disappeared from the marketplace, having been replaced by less expensive widescreen HDTV-ready models. No, today the issue isn't whether to go widescreen or not, but which widescreen technology to go with: traditional CRT? New, narrow depth CRT? CRT rear projection? Plasma flat panel? LCD flat panel? LCD rear projection? DLP rear projection? LCOS rear projection? Wait for SED flat panel?
Short answer: budget and screen size dictate the technology. Past Home Theater View columns have covered LCD vs. plasma, the introduction of SED, DLP's suitability for gaming, DLP vs. LCOS, and the announcement of narrow depth CRT.
-avi
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