# Call me stupid....



## itlbtu (Nov 18, 2007)

Ok, I know very little about HD, how TV's work and such. I have an older "upgradeable" Mitsubishi RP TV. The current vid resolution is 480i, 480p, and 1080i. Why can't someone or even the manufacturer sell a device that would allow people to truly upgrade their TV's? Anyone can install a new video card in their computer, why not have something similar for TV's to keep up with technology? I'm not going to throw out my perfectly good $3000.00 TV, other than not the best resolution, to buy a new one. I would think there would be a big market for some sort of upgrade. I only bring this up because my new PS3 would be so much better if I had 720p.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

The sad thing is, consumer electronics have a life of about 3 years. They are not designed to be upgraded or even used after that. The assumption is that the next big thing will be so cheap within 3 years that you'll just upgrade to that.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Not everything can be upgraded.

You can't, for instance, upgrade your car into a truck. You can't upgrade a piece of paper into a tablet.

You can't upgrade your desktop into a laptop (or vice versa for the most part).

On the flip side... You could also look at it this way... There is an "upgrade" available. It costs approximately $1,500.00 and results in a complete replacement of all parts of your old TV for all parts in the new TV


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

Another thing to realize is that TV's have fixed resloutions. When they are built, they have a determined amount lines which makes your resolution. 

For instance 480i only shows 240 lines at one time. You said your TV can also do 1080i. This is only 540 lines at one time. So technically speaking, you could not just upgrade your TV to do 720P (720 lines). Hope that helps a little.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Ok, I'll call you stu..., nah, I won't.  You don't sound stupid at all.

I have a similar Mits TV, same problem. Mits "promised" an "economical" upgrade to the approved digital format once it became official--then they never delivered on an HDMI solution. (They were reportedly convinced firewire would be the new standard...)

At this point, I use the TV's component inputs and it has a great picture. If the HDMI security features ever become standard on all transmissions, I'll be even more upset with Mits. I already won't buy a single product from them until they resolve this issue.

Good luck,
Tom


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Tom Robertson said:


> I have a similar Mits TV, same problem. Mits "promised" an "economical" upgrade to the approved digital format once it became official--then they never delivered on an HDMI solution. (They were reportedly convinced firewire would be the new standard...)
> 
> At this point, I use the TV's component inputs and it has a great picture. If the HDMI security features ever become standard on all transmissions, I'll be even more upset with Mits. I already won't buy a single product from them until they resolve this issue.


Now that's a different discussion... My Toshiba TV only has component inputs, but a DVI upgrade was promised. It is like pulling teeth to get Toshiba to admit there is such an upgrade, but they want way more than it is worth to actually perform it plus no guarantees that it will satisfy the latest HDCP requirements, so I haven't bothered.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

ouch, I used to like Toshiba a lot... bummer.


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

When I bought my 386 computer, I selected the one I got because it was upgradable to 486.

But I never upgraded it. By the time I was ready to upgrade, I decided to just wait another few months and get a cheaper Pentium computer with more memory and larger harddrive for less than the cost of the 486 upgrade.

Same thing here. By the time you're ready to upgrade, you could probably buy something better new for less than the cost of the upgrade.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

I'm going to take a risk and ask a stupid question, why would 720P be so much better than 1080i??? I hope this doesn't turn into (yet another) debate on whether 720P is better than 1080i or vice-versa, even if one is considered better than the other it's certainly only marginally so when compared to the jump from 480i/p to either 720P or 1080i!!


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

bobukcat said:


> I'm going to take a risk and ask a stupid question, why would 720P be so much better than 1080i??? I hope this doesn't turn into (yet another) debate on whether 720P is better than 1080i or vice-versa, even if one is considered better than the other it's certainly only marginally so when compared to the jump from 480i/p to either 720P or 1080i!!


720p is generally considered to be the better format for action scenes -- sports, for example. 1080i is generally considered to provide better detail, when there isn't rapid action in the scene.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Will someone call this guy stupid already? :lol:


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## itlbtu (Nov 18, 2007)

HDMe said:


> Not everything can be upgraded.
> 
> On the flip side... You could also look at it this way... There is an "upgrade" available. It costs approximately $1,500.00 and results in a complete replacement of all parts of your old TV for all parts in the new TV


I might think about a $1500.00 upgrade.... Especially since I paid double that for my TV. I haven't seen too many $1500.00 HD 65" TV's. I still think there is a market for TV upgrades...


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

itlbtu said:


> I might think about a $1500.00 upgrade.... Especially since I paid double that for my TV. I haven't seen too many $1500.00 HD 65" TV's. I still think there is a market for TV upgrades...


Sure there is a market for upgrades, but if the upgrade can't be performed or is not cost-effective, is it a realistic market?

What if the upgrade could be done but it would cost $1500? OR you could buy a new TV for about that much.


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## racton1 (Nov 7, 2007)

HDMe said:


> Now that's a different discussion... My Toshiba TV only has component inputs, but a DVI upgrade was promised. It is like pulling teeth to get Toshiba to admit there is such an upgrade, but they want way more than it is worth to actually perform it plus no guarantees that it will satisfy the latest HDCP requirements, so I haven't bothered.


I have a brand new Tosahiba and they won't even tell me what the contrast ratio is or even advertise it to get more customers.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Stuart Sweet said:


> The sad thing is, consumer electronics have a life of about 3 years.


Tell that to the 18 year-old Samsung tv still in excellent working order when I sold it
two years ago for $150. Virtually all of my electronic devices have lasted well over
three years.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

You know, what the OP wants already exists.

Simply buy (or build) a media center PC and connect it to a HD display. Not only do you have an upgradable HDTV, but it also can have a DVR and HD DVDplayer/recorder built-in.

Each of the components is upgradable and replacable.

As a single unit, TV's are not made to be upgradeable, they are throw away items, even HDTV's.


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