Blu-Ray player work with Toshiba HDTV?

[awyeaboyee]

Folks,
I'm new here and am feeling completely ignorant about this technology. I just picked up a 34" Toshiba 34HF81 HDTV made in '01 for $200 on CL (really, just wanting a tv, nothing special, but this is what I found). What I'm trying to figure out is: is blu-ray compatible with this tv? Can I go get a blu-ray player and use it with this tv? Furthermore, will it look all bad-ass, or will it just look normal?
Thanks guys. Apologies for my cluelessness...
David

[MOONPHASE]

answer to 1st question is a yes

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by awyeaboyee

Folks,
I'm new here and am feeling completely ignorant about this technology. I just picked up a 34" Toshiba 34HF81 HDTV made in '01 for $200 on CL (really, just wanting a tv, nothing special, but this is what I found). What I'm trying to figure out is: is blu-ray compatible with this tv? Can I go get a blu-ray player and use it with this tv? Furthermore, will it look all bad-ass, or will it just look normal?
Thanks guys. Apologies for my cluelessness...
David

HAHAHA! That you most certainly are! Please don't take offense to my laughter. I honestly thought that this lack of knowledge was confined to old ladies who need septocal glasses and need to sit on multiple phonebooks in order to just barely see over the steering wheel!

As to your inquiry... Blu-ray is compatible with all TVs available on the market (even non HD TVs). Yes, it will look better than DVD. As for what the TV itself can do for the quality of the Blu-ray tech that you will be using on it? That isn't as nice an answer.

First, your TV doesn't appear to accept HDMI inputs. This is the latest way of transporting both video at 1080p and audio in all HD codecs in tact. The best you get from your TV is component connections, which breaks the video signal down into three analog colours and then re-assembles the image in the TV. Component can still provide a 1080p signal, but any signal that gets broken down and reassembled is going to lose some quality. Also, sadly, that TV can't produce a 1080p signal. So, you will have to set whatever Blu-ray player you get to make sure that it outputs at a max setting of 1080i. Don't worry though. You won't harm your TV in the least if you do accidentally start by outputting a 1080p signal... some TVs will actually downconvert the 1080p image to 1080i for you.

So, ultimately, it certainly isn't the best TV to experience the real power behind Blu-ray. But, for $200 and a starter system, I don't think you could go wrong. Enjoy!!!

P.S. In case anyone else is interested in the TV tech specs, here is a quick link so you don't have to go researching. http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Toshiba-34HF81

[awyeaboyee]

Thanks so much for the explanation of 1080p and 1080i!!
Best Regards

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by awyeaboyee

Thanks so much for the explanation of 1080p and 1080i!!
Best Regards

That was not an explanation of 1080p and 1080i. If you want me to get technical, the image of a 1080i signal is comprised of two alternating "half images" where the quick alternating of the two images creates the illusion of one full frame. Alternately, the 1080p image is created by replicating one complete frame in the same amount of time as it takes 1080i to create one "half image." So, in essence, the 1080p signal offers a smoother visual experience than 1080i. Some people say that they can't see the difference, but once I saw 1080p in action, 1080i looked "just better than DVD."

[awyeaboyee]

Well, hopefully in a few years I can upgrade for $200 again. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Cheers!