[MPlayer-users] what tv to buy

[Adam Nielsen]

> i decided to buy a tv for myself...
> i would like to know if there are any possible problems, any problematic
> manufacturers/models, anything i should be careful with, recommendations and
> so on.

I would highly recommend getting a Loewe brand if you can - they offer 
fantastic picture quality (although you do tend to pay for it a bit.)  We 
have a Loewe Planus (4:3) 100Hz and it's absolutely fantastic.  I seriously 
doubt that I would ever buy another brand again, it's that good!

> things i would like to have 'in' my tv:
> 100hz... it seems to me that the picture quality is better on those tvs.

The picture does look better, but I don't think it's because of the refresh 
rate.  It's probably just because 100Hz TVs are more expensive, so they have 
more expensive picture processing circuitry too.

> are there any problems with computer-tv-out with a 100hz tv?

None that I've noticed.  My GeForce2 video out works perfectly, Hollywood+ 
MPEG decoder video out and also the video out from an old S3 board all work 
fine.  Mind you, you wouldn't expect any differences if they just display the 
picture at twice the speed.

> and btw. could anyone explain to me what they do differently? i know that
> 100hz means that they show a new picture 100times in a second, but you only
> get 25/24 full-frames (or 50 interlaced), so how do they create the
> remaining 50? interpolate?)

I always thought they just displayed the frame twice, but that would make the 
interlaced picture look strange.  I have a hunch ours *might* be progressive 
scan, but given that it's not mentioned anywhere I don't know how likely that 
is...but there are some things that make me wonder (e.g. when credits scroll 
along the bottom of the screen horizontally, they're quite blurry as if the 
two interlaced fields have been combined to create one progressive field, 
which is then displayed twice.)

And just fyi, most if not all 100Hz TVs actually just double the refresh rate, 
so NTSC/PAL60 is shown at 120Hz.

One thing I have noticed however, is that after I was watching a 100Hz TV for 
a few months I couldn't go back to watching 50Hz TVs any more, because the 
low refresh rate hurt my eyes and the picture flicker was distracting (which 
I could never see before!)  And surprisingly enough I now also get a hint of 
flicker when looking at my monitor even though it's running at 80Hz...!  So 
if nothing else, it certainly improves your eyesight ;-)

> p.s: about the price... i'd prefer to spend max 600-750euros on this (but i
> don't know if that money is enough or not)

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for...so as long as you like the 
picture on a TV you can afford, there's really no reason to go any better.

Cheers,
Adam.