To HTPC or not?

I've got a dilemma, I love my HTPC (Home Theater PC) but I'm being tempted to replace it with a cable HD DVR.  My HTPC is excellent, it records television in HD, plays games and browses the web in beautiful 1080p.  The problem is that my HTPC only receives OTA (Over The Air) broadcast HD channels. I've never hooked up the analog cable channels because a cable converter box would still be necessary.  Now my cable company is offering me HD channels and an HD DVR (Digital Video Recorder) for $10 more than I pay them for services now.

I'm currently paying $80 a month for 6MB cable internet, cable telephone with unlimited long distance and basic cable channels.  For $90 they will throw in cable channels in HD and an HD DVR.  I'm not sure which DVR but whichever it is I'm sure it will work fine.  The idea of being able to record my favorite cable channels  is very tempting.  The only thing making me think twice about this deal is the time, effort and money I've put into my computer.
As I've recounted in prior posts, my HTPC is made up of the following:

ATI TV Wonder HD tuner card

VBOX Cat's Eye DTA-150 tuner card

HIS RADEON 1800GTO graphics card

2GB of RAM

70GB 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive for the system

400GB  SATA hard drive internal for recording

500GB SATA hard drive external for storage (I manually move shows to the external to free space for recording)

AMD Athlon X2 3800+ processor

DVD Read/Write

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Terrestrial Digital DB2 Multi-Directional HDTV Antenna

Eagle Tech Silver Aluminum HTPC Desktop Computer Case


This is a nice computer and I'll still use it for games / browsing / burning DVDs but it just doesn't feel right to give up on Media Center.  Yes, I'll be getting a lot more channels on the cable DVR but my beloved HTPC will be underutilized.  Maybe all I'm feeling is the fondness that one feels when he/she sells a beloved car to buy a new one.  Part of the loss is the sense of pride I have when I show off my HTPC, the sense of community that I have when dealing with others in the HTPC universe.

The HTPC gives me abilities that a DVR never will.  I can burn recordings to DVD, change them to other formats, share them, the DVR won't let me do these things.

I'll try the DVR for a while and see how it goes.  I'll miss playing with my HTPC, now there is no reason to but the HDHomeRun tuner that I've been drooling over.   If the DVR doesn't work out or if the cable company jumps the price my HTPC will be sitting there waiting to pick up the slack.

Westinghouse 37" 1080p monitor refurb for $512

Onsale.com has the Westinghouse LVM-37W3R 37" 1080p monitor for $512 plus $45 shipping (there is a $40 rebate on shipping, weird but nice) making shipping $5. Remember, this is not a television, this does not have a tuner in it. This works great with a Media Center PC or as a PC monitor or for video gaming. Add a tuner to make this an incredible HD TV.

Looking to buy a Home Theater PC (HTPC)?

I've been looking for a good deal on a "gaming" pc for a coworker. Today Newegg's latest email advert had a nice Gateway PC listed. After scouring the details on Newegg's site it turns out that in addition to all the stuff you want in a PC this also has an HD Tuner Card and MCE remote control. This computer is an HTPC all setup and ready to go. Just add rabbit ears or any UHF antenna and you are ready to receive HD broadcasts over the air (assuming your area has broadcast HD in range).

The computer is the Gateway GM5442, for $579 plus shipping and tax it has:
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 processor,
2GB of RAM,
500GB Hard Drive,
Windows Vista Home Premium (Premium includes Media Center!),
16X DVD±RW Drive,
Optical Mouse and Multimedia Keyboard,
7.1 surround audio and stereo speakers,
Analog/Digital TV Tuner w/3-D Comb
Media Center Remote Control

This looks like a great deal, the reviews are excellent for this computer. Check out the pictures and reviews on Newegg's product page.

a PC in the living room

People just don't understand the utility of having a computer hooked to the tv in the living room until they actually do it. My wife was humoring me when she went along with my idea of buying a monitor to put in the front room with one of my computers attached. Now she would fight me if I wanted to remove the computer.

We use the computer for the usual computer stuff like email, web browsing, gaming etc but we also use it as are primary video recorder. The computer has 2 HD tuners installed. The tuners are attached to a small in door antenna and do a great job of receiving free, over the air, broadcasts. I get about 20 channels and use Windows Media Center to schedule and record my shows.

The computer in the front room is now our only computer other than my wife's laptop. We are redecorating and took down the other computers we had setup. We don't miss them, we hadn't used them for some time. The computer in the front room is the only "desktop" we tend to use.

Back in August I ordered an actual HTPC case for our front room pc, it looks great. I'll do a write up with pictures soon.

Two weeks ago I hooked one of my spare computers up to my sister's television. She's using it just for the computer functionality, the system does not have any tuners in it. So far she's used email, web browsing and used it to watch videos and shows online. My sister is a new convert to the HTPC crowd. When I do put an HD tuner it it I'm sure she'll love it that much more.

My sister's TV is a 32" 1080i minor brand tv. The computer looks great on this. It's not as nice and sharp as my 47" 1080p Westinghouse but it's nice and does a great job. Seeing this reaffirmed my belief that 1080p is not always necessary in a TV/monitor. If cost is important then 1080i looks great. The advantage of 1080p is the higher resolution and, to be honest, lower resolution is actually easier to read. The little tiny fonts on a high resolution screen are hard to read from the easy chair.

42" 1080p for just over $800!!!

eCost has the Westinghouse LVM-42W2 42" 1080p LCD television for $799 +59 shipping and tax in some states.

WOW, incredible price. I've never purchased from eCost and their ratings are a little shaky on www.resellerratings.com so if you purchase be sure and use a credit card for protection.  Most likely you won't have any trouble with them but just in case the credit card can save you.

ECost also has the 37" 1080p LVM-37W1 for $559 and a 46" LTV-46W1 1080i for $895

I've been tempted to buy one of these from eCost for the bedroom but am sure my wife would kill me so we're sticking with our standard def tube in there for now.

1080p HDTVs are still coming down in price

 has the Sceptre 42" 1080p model X42GV-NAGA for $899

after $100 rebate and promo code EMC809HOAV02. 



This monitor was one of the ones I was watching prior to buying my Westinghouse.  If I had seen this price I would have jumped on it.  Unique to this monitor is that it has a connections box where you plug in all of your sources.  This box is seperate from the monitor and connects to the monitor via a cable.  This is kind of cool because you can have just the one (or is it 2?) cable running to the monitor for a clean looking install.

Click on the Newegg logo or the picture of the monitor to be taken to the site.

Senator Dodd is at it again

He wants to bail out the hedge funds and investors who made bad loans to house buyers and speculators.  I don't support a bailout of any sort for the housing market.  I do support changing regulations on loans to protect the public.  I believe that most people who took out loans that they cannot afford new what they were doing and were speculating that the house would go up in value and they could resell it for a profit.

I just wrote to Senator Dodd again, here is my letter to him:

Senator Dodd,

You are pushing for higher conforming loan limits and I disagree with this action.  I don't believe that the limits are the problem.  The problem, in my view, is that home prices are too high.  Reckless investment and speculation in housing has caused the problems.
Raising the conforming limits would only continue the problems.  Reforming loan origination so that people do not buy beyond their means to pay would be helpful.  Changing lending standards to create a better informed consumer is always good.
I feel for the people who are losing their homes, everything that can be done for them should be, everything up to but not including the government taking responsibility for their loans.  I do not believe that the government should step in and guarantee loans that were made under false pretenses.  Working with the banks to alter the loans to save as many households as possible I do support.
I hope I was my writing is clear and understandable, if you have any questions please feel free to call me.

Sincerely,

Tivo HD, wow, incredible

Tivo has just announced its new Tivo HD box. This is the little brother to the Tivo Series 3.

The Series 3:

• World's only Digital Media Recorder with THX®-certification


• Control live HDTV and record 2 digital cable shows at once*


• 300 hours of standard recording time or up to 32 in HD


• NEW backlit, programmable TiVo® remote, easy to configure to your TV


• cost $799

Tivo HD

• Control live HDTV and record 2 digital cable shows at once*


• 180 hours of standard recording time or up to 20 in HD


• ordinary old style Tivo remote


• cost $299

Both units support up to 2 cablecards to allow for the recording of two shows at once. The units also support over the air (OTA) HDTV via an antenna.

I love the price point of the Tivo HD and would jump on it except that a subscription is still required. I hate the idea of paying an additional $100 a year to subscribe to Tivo.

For now I'm going to continue playing with my Microsoft Media Center Edition box.

Westinghouse 37" 1080p at Costco.com for $799

Costco.com has the 37" Westinghouse LVM-37w3 on sale for $799 plus shipping and tax.  This is the same monitor as the 47" LVM-47w1 except for the size.  there is some discussion about this product going on over at fatwallet.com and I posted the following in response to some questions about the monitor:

I have the 47" version of this monitor and love it. Television watching on this either through the cable box or through my Windows MCE is great. Standard tv even looks good. I run the MCE into the monitor through the DVI port, I don't use the HDMI at this point.

Watching television from the easy chair ten feet from the monitor is great, reading web pages from ten feet is very difficult. It's not the picture it's the size of the fonts. I've enlarged the fonts on my MCE system to as high as they will go and I still have to press cntrl + several times to enlarge the screen before I can read it at the ten foot distance.

To play games on this guy I drag my easy chair forward until I am five feet from the monitor, then it is an incredible experience. I wish I could play from ten feet away but everything is just too small on the screen. I don't think a 60" screen would help either, maybe a 105" screen would do the trick.

The picture on this monitor is incredible and rock solid. The colors are great.

I'm tempted to pick up one of the 37" Westy's from Costco for the bedroom but I think my wife would kill me.

Westinghouse in the press

I just found this in one of John Dvorak's columns, evidently he is a fan too:

 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2123846,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000584

The 1080p Monitor Revolution Dept.: Many of us have been waiting for 1080p monitors, and now they're appearing at Costco. That means "mainstream." The most interesting of the group comes from a company called Westinghouse Digital Electronics. Well, the executives behind these monitors are various eggheads from Korea, Taiwan, and China with experience at Princeton Graphics, Samsung, and elsewhere, but they're licensing the Westinghouse name for marketing purposes.

I would keep an eye on these folks. They seem to be doing everything right, and they're part of a big market swing away from Samsung, a company that essentially owned the monitor space a couple of years ago.

Success seems to have spoiled Samsung, and the company ended up losing its best marketing people, including Peter Weedfald, who went to Circuit City, and Rey Roque, who went to Westinghouse. To top it all off, Samsung dumped its well-connected PR agency, HWH, out of New York City—and HWH quickly signed with Westinghouse.

These apparent missteps are costing Samsung momentum in the market, and Westinghouse appears to be the primary beneficiary, along with Sharp and Pioneer for their LCDs and probably Panasonic for its excellent plasma displays. If I were to buy an LCD monitor today, it would be a Westinghouse. I don't see anything else of this quality at such a low price.

A letter to Senator Dodd about the sub-prime problems

Senator Dodd,

You have been stating that the "sub-prime' loan problem was caused by predatory practices.  I will argue that the borrowers signed the loan docs knowing that the rates would jump when the fixed period was over and that they planned to refinance or sell prior to that time. 

While housing was rising in price at a humongous rate this was not a problem.  The fact that these people did not see the end of the housing boom approaching is the cause of the problem. 

I do not believe that we, the people of the US, should bail out these people, nor should we bail out the mortgage companies. 

Rather than changing the rules on financing how about enforcing the rules that we have now?  Rule Z, I believe, is the rule that requires full disclosure at the time of applying for a loan. 

I need to disclose that I do have a variable rate mortgage on my property.  I am planning on refinancing prior to the loan going variable.  If I cannot refi then I must be prepared to pay for the loan at the new rate.  I knew this going in and plan to live with the consequences of my actions. 

I have given you my phone number and address; please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this situation or any other. 

Sincerely, 

Clayton Gradis

Which processor should you buy in your next PC?

I have several computers at home. I have a server, two desktops and two laptops. My computers range in age from five years to just over a year old. Not all of the computers are ideal personal use, I'll explain why.

My server is an old Gateway that I bought about five years ago. I use the server for testing; it features two Pentium III 933 processors, a raid controller with a bunch of drives and a gigabyte of memory. The server is way too slow to use as a desktop but pretty good for testing server products.

The two laptops are my wife’s. She has a two year old Pentium 4 system running at 2.0 GHZ that she uses daily. Her other laptop is an older 1 GHZ or so system that she's had for years. She keeps it because she has some apps on it that we don't have the discs for anymore and she may need the data one day.

The two desktops that we have are AMD Athlon 64 based systems. The older of the two is a 3200+ that I've had since the Athlon was introduced. It's a single core system with a gigabyte of ram. This used to be my main workstation until I put together the new system a year ago. I used to think this system was fast but I'll come back to this story in a minute.

The second of the desktops, my current primary system, is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ system. The Athlon 64 X2 is a dual core processor allowing this system to process two commands at a time assuming your software supports multi-threading. Multi-threading allows the program to send commands to multiple processors at the same time to spread the load out and make processing faster.

I've been playing games and running my Media Center Edition Windows XP on this system. It's worked fine but friends of mine have purchased newer systems and the X2 is no longer the fastest system while playing multiplayer games. This hasn't been a problem but more a niggling bother.

After buying the large screen HDTV I moved my X2 system into the front room to act as a DVR with the MCE software. I reclaimed the old 3200+ Athlon system and began playing games on it again. What a shocker. I don't remember the 3200+ being slow but then again I wasn't playing Company of Heroes when I was using that system.

The 3200+ system is so slow that the games would just drag and the game would pause for long periods. The game was actually unplayable. That is when I finally got the parts I needed to be able to play in the front room. I'm now back on the X2.

So, the whole point of this article is which processor should you buy if you're buying a new system. I think the keys in processor selection are

1) Get a dual core or better system. Single core processors just don’t cut it anymore. Even if your application is not multi-threaded the dual core processors help with multi-tasking and with background services.

2) The processors should be relatively quick, the 3800+ I'm running is ok but I'd rather have the newer 4600+ or 5000+ that AMD has come out with.

3) Get at least 2GB of memory. I didn't talk much about the need for memory but memory helps processors be more efficient. Not to mention that Vista requires large amounts of memory. If you are going with Vista I'd get four GBs of memory. Two will work but four is much better.

Now I need to go out and build a new system so that I can keep up with my buddies. I'd upgrade my current one but my X2 system is a Socket 939 and AMD is no longer making Socket 939 processors. I'll need to buy one of the new AMD Socket AM2 motherboards and processors or move over to an Intel system. No matter which I decide to go with I'm going to incur the additional cost of new memory as the newer systems all use DDR2 and my old systems use DDR. Oh well, faster memory helps too.

Intel currently has the better performing CPUs. When Intel came out with the Core2Duo systems they leapfrogged AMD’s Athlon processors for the king of performance title.

Fry's always has motherboard and CPU combo deals listed in their advertisements. Each week they feature an Intel and an AMD system. I'm not sure which I'll buy. I've heard rumors that there is a big price cut coming for AMD in April, I'll wait for that before I decide.

to 1080p or not

The question I have beaten to death has come back to life. I was trying to show my wife the difference between 1080i and 1080p last night so I put up a nice 1080p picture of trees and a stream. I pointed out the wonderful detail and then lowered the resolution to 1366X768 and said and here it is at 1080i. My wife couldn't see the difference.

I couldn't really tell much difference either. The main difference was not in the picture but in the desktop, we had lost a lot of real estate. I flipped the resolution back and forth several times until my wife finally conceded that she could see a minor difference and that 1080p was better.

I should have brought up a PIP with television, an MCE window with HDTV in it and a browser all at the same time. Then changing the resolution would have shown how much better 1080p is.

I guess the point of this is if you can find a 1080i monitor in the size you like for a lot less than the 1080p monitors then buy it. If the price is close go for the 1080p. You'll be happy either way. I'm ok with this because the price I paid for this monitor is less than competing 1080i models.

Did I mention I love this monitor?

OK, enough of the 1080p 1080i debate, I promise to bring up new subjects soon.

Gaming on the big screen

I finally got the last pieces together so that I can game on my big screen tv. I had to buy a 15' USB cable and a USB hub to extend USB behind the couch and around to my easy chair for the mouse. I forgot to buy extension 3.5mm cables for my headphones and microphone. WWW.monoprice.com is sold out on 25' 3.5mm extension cables so instead I used an old microphone I had laying around and ran the sound through the stereo, that wound up working well.

Gaming at 10', the distance from the tv to my easy chair, was difficult. I couldn't see the finer details in the game. I tried lowering the resolution to make everything larger but this didn't help. Company of Heroes, my current game of choice, scales the image so that you see the same text and graphics no matter what resolution you are at. At higher resolutions the graphics look more detailed but they are the same size as lower resolutions.

I wound up pushing my easy chair forward about five feet. At a five foot distance viewing everything was perfect so I changed the resolution back to 1080p and played. Finally the holy grail, 1080p gaming on a 47" tv. Incredible.

Was it better than gaming on my 19" monitor? Yes and no. Graphically it looked the same, 47" at 5 feet is not that much bigger than 19" at 1 foot. The sound coming through my stereo was cool but not that much cooler. The easy chair made all the difference. I was comfortable, kicked back with my legs raised playing for hours on end.

Yes, this is the life.

The wonders of a pc connected to your television

I'm still playing with the new 47" Westinghouse 1080p monitor connected to the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 computer. I'm having a blast with this combination.
I watched an episode of Jericho on CBS last week, the first that I had seen. I liked the premise of the show so I browsed to CBS' website and found that they had all of the episodes available for watching online. I've now watched four of the twelve available episodes and am enjoying the series.
Prior to purchasing the Westy I would have had to watch the episodes on my computer's 19" LCD while sitting in my cramped office. Now I can lounge in my recliner in the front room and watch the shows in beautiful HD.
A problem has appeared in the MCE computer, one of the HD tuners does not appear to be working. I can only watch or record one show at a time right now. When a scheduled recording comes up the computer pops over to that channel wether we are done watching the current show or not. I'll have to rectify this problem asap.
So, what's next? I'm getting setup to play "Company Of Heroes" on the big screen, I needed to buy a USB hub and a long, 15', USB cable to reach the easy chair via the back of the couch. I didn't want to spend the extra money on a wireless mouse, wired always works out better for gaming and the parts cost about $20 shipped from www.newegg.com. I'll let you know how the gaming at 10' from the set turns out.

1080p the good, the bad and the ugly

Since I purchased the Westinghouse LVM-W471 last week I have been enjoying playing with it. Not all of the play has been good but most has. Here's a breakdown:

The Good:
Picture quality is incredible.
Resolution is incredible.
Design is very nice, looks great in my front room.
Remote is simple to use and well layed out.

The Bad:
Windows XP MCE 2005 is hard to read from ten feet away.
Sitting in my easy chair I have a hard time reading windows fonts.
I can increase the text in the window at ease with CNTRL + but increasing the font size for menu items has proven much hard. I've gone to the Appearance tab in Display properties and raised the font size to Extra Large Fonts. Unfortunately not all fonts change with this setting. I've got more digging and testing to do.

I also haven't figured out how to get both the internal and external speakers to operate at the same time.

The Ugly:
Only one component input, I'm using it for my SD cable box and have to unplug it to plug in my NES to play M.U.L.E.

wow, what have I done

The new monitor (not a televison because the Westinghouse 47w1 doesn't have a tuner) is incredible. 1080p computing and gaming is incredible. Movies and HDTV look incredible.

Web browsing does not look incredible.

The text is so small when sitting 10' away from a 47" monitor that I kind of wonder if I made a mistake in not buying a 1080i instead.

I use cntrl + in windows to enlarge the text in windows but the text in the windows frames and drop down menus is not enlarged. I tried setting larger text in properties but will need to revisit this.

Now I'm wondering if I should have saved two to three hundred dollars by buying 1080i instead of 1080p. If I had gone the 1080i route I'd never know as stores aren't setup for you to test the monitors as you will use them at home.

Other than small, crisp text this monitor is the cat's meow and I'm sure I'll work out the small text issue. In the meantime I am watching incredibly beautiful video on an extremely capable monitor.

I have my HTPC (Home Theater PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005) plugged into DVI port 1. My SD (Standard Definition or non HD) Cable box is plugged into the composite video. My DVD player is plugged into Component Video 1.

I have extra ports now, one more of each DVI and Component and an HDMI all empty and waiting. What devices will I add to this monster next?

I am happy with my purchase, when I look at the price difference between what I paid and the similiarly sized 1080i systems I realize I did the right thing.

Waiting to find a good price on a Westinghouse 1080p was good, jumping on a great price for the 47" was even better.

Wooohoo, I did it!

I finally purchased my HDTV. Now I am eagerly awaiting delivery. I wound up purchasing the Westinghouse 47" LCD monitor from Best Buy. I had never considered this monitor because of the price, I ran across a deal on BestBuy.com that dropped the cost to $1622, about $300 more than the 42" Westy. I had to jump on the deal for that price.

The Westinghouse LVM-47w1 sports 1080p, two DVI inputs, one HDMI, two component and one composite. I think I'm pretty well covered with inputs.

I'll let you know how the monitor looks as soon as I get it and hook the HTPC to it.

Still looking, still waiting

Prices are coming down for the 720P sets, I saw some 37" LCDs for under $600 but the 1080p sets are holding onto their prices. I'm determined to get the Westinghouse 42" 1080P monitor for $999 but if a 1080p 37" showed up at $899 I'd probably jump.

I've been reading up on media center extenders lately, so far the Xbox 360 looks like the best deal but it also looks like I'd need to upgrade my MCE to Vista to get it to work.

I'm thinking of building a new computer in a case that looks like a piece of audio equipment to run my MCE in. It would still be nice to have an extender for the bedroom but that can wait.

120hz LCDs to save picture quality

I found a good article on Gizmondo about why 120hz LCDs are going to be better than 60hz, here it is:

120Hz HDTVs are going to help movies look better than ever on the little screen in your living room.

Here's how.


Film is 24 frames per second. That standard was the approximation of what was defined in the early 20th century by hand crank cameras. And just about every movie disc you can buy is encoded in this format. We're not just talking DVD. We're talking about HD DVD and Blu-ray, too.

The problem is, most TVs run at 30 frames per second. Fitting that 24-frame content onto a 30-frame screen isn't that easy; the math just doesn't compute cleanly. You can't divide 24 by 30 without filling in the gaps with some junk. That junk causes stuttering in the video. This is a jerky-looking phenomenon that's particularly noticeable when the camera pans across a scene. The conversion is better known by film and TV wonks as 2:3 pulldown. It spreads out 24 frames into 30 by placing one frame on the screen three times and the next one after that two times, and repeating this pattern ad infinitum.

How does this relate to an 120Hz HDTV showing frames at 120 frames per second? A bit of simple math tells you that 120 is a multiple of 24, because 24 x 5 = 120. So one of the claims of the purveyors of these sped-up monitors is that they can natively reproduce 24p programming, namely, just about every film has ever been shot.

These new HDTVs avoid this awkward 3:2 pulldown process altogether by changing their frame rate to something that's a multiple of 24 by using either frame doubling or interpolation (also called "tweening"). Then, their playback can be as close to native 24fps playback as you can get. That's why 72Hz (24 x 3 = 72) and 120Hz refresh rates are gaining traction. Native 24p playback: Yeah, sounds good. But how will it be implemented and which manufacturers are involved? And who does it best? – Brian Lam and Charlie White

Why I want a 1080p TV

subtitled: Fear of loss?

HDTVs come in a variety of formats, 480p, 720p, 10801, and 1080p. The more expensive sets can usually output all of these resolutions. The less expensive televisions are usually limited to 720p/1080i.
This article is not designed to explain the differences in all of these formats, perhaps in a future article I will do that (as soon as I fully research and understand them). This article is intended to talk about why I am determined to get a 1080p system while the 720p/1080i televisions would probably do all that I need.
I am looking for a 42" or larger screen (although I may settle for a 37") with 1080p resolution (1920X1080) to hook up my computer to. I want to watch recorded and downloaded media on my tv while sitting in my easy chair, my office chair is not comfortable enough.
About two months ago I rebuild my PC as a Media Center by installing a couple of HD tuner cards and loading Windows XP Media Center Edition on it. MCE, as XP Media Center is known, downloads a catalog and allows for Tivo like scheduling and recording of shows and series.
Currently to watch the shows I record my wife and I sit in our office and watch on our 19" screen. Not comfortable and not fun, hence the need to buy an HDTV that I can hook the computer to.
Now, why do I say that 1080i (1920X1080 / 2 because it is interlaced or 1.04 million pixels compared to 2.07 million pixels on 1080p) would work just fine? 1080i is the maximum resolution currently being broadcast over the air and over cable. The only signals that are in 1080p are HD-DVDs, Blu Ray and the computer.
My reason for waiting for 1080p to come down to my price point is that I'm not sure how the computer would look at 1080i and I would always wonder if I should have held out. My fear of loss.
Hope this helps.

I think prices are moving!

Best Buy has a 50" Philips plasma for $1499 after a $200 rebate. Nice to see the prices coming down. I'm hoping to pick up my 42" 1080p LCD for $999 before the super bowl.

Here's the link if you are interested in the plasma:
http://enews.buy.com/cgi-bin5/DM/y/nily0KgoSe0JE60B4qI0GL

120hz vs 60hz in LCD

While I doubt this is the final word in the debate I found a piece on Anandtech.com talking about 120hz vs 60hz:

A subset of the 1080p displays is Toshiba’s new Regza Cinema series, which use 120Hz panels, while the rest of the displays use standard 60Hz displays. Toshiba did have a live comparison showing the benefits of 120Hz vs. 60Hz panels, but honestly it’s tough for the normal viewer to see a difference between the two.

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2904

This does ease my mind somewhat and may help me make a decision based upon current LCD offerings.

Indecision has me frozen

I watched the Vizio 47" LCDs sell out at Costco on Monday without buying one. I am undecided as to which model / size is right for me.
I've been keeping up with the comments from Vizio owners on AVS forum. Some of the buyers are reporting problems with the television but I still think it would work well for me.
Problems being reported include a humming sound from the speakers, a backlight bleed through that seems to clear up over time and color adjustment issues.
The Costco sale price of $1650 is way out of the range I'm looking for but I'm still tempted. I went and got a rain check so I can wait and make up my mind later if Costco gets the model back in stock.
Announced at CES are 120hz LCD models vs the current 60hz models. I'm not sure what this change actually does but reports say the picture is much better on the 120hz models. I'll do a little research into this and report back.

here's a link to the AVS Vizio 47" forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=777914&page=1&pp=30&highlight=vizio+47

Ahhhhh the horror of it all

I know that in 6 months HDTVs will have dropped at least 25% in price. I know that I should wait for this to happen before buying but I want one now. The 47" at Costco is too expensive for my budget so I'm still watching and waiting. My goal is a 1080P 42" LCD for $1000. Nothing in that range now but I'm hoping to have it by SuperBowl time.

Still looking for my HDTV

I got all excited when I read that Costco was going to offer a $250 off coupon on the Vizio 47" LCD that they retail for $1899. Unfortunately, when I looked up the specs on Vizio's website I found that the TV is not a native 1080p monitor boot upconverts to it. I need a full 1080p for the computer to hook up to, or at least that is what I want.

I'll continue looking and waiting.