[rca2000]

Yesterday, I had the "privlige" of going out to a new plasma instalation, to see why "things weren't right" with this guys tv set.

The problems were" the volume wouldn't adjust, the picture was in the "window" mode"(white bars on each side) and the picture, even in HD mode, looked like SHIT!!

I fond that the cable company had hooked up the audio out. from the box to the audio OUT of the set-- all that got through was a bit of "bleed" and so, that was why the sound was wrong. BUT-- the box must had been wrong, because I could NOT get the "window mode" problem cleared up, when I changed the aspect ratio on the set, it would shift the image to the right. It did NOT do this on a DVD, so the set was not the problem(I checked). It must be the cable box.

BUT-- on the HD channelss he has, (and is paying extra for) the picture quality is NOT much, if ANY better, than normal digital cable, which is only so-so, when the picture is NOT in pixelation mode(which happens too often. ) There was a noticeable grainess, from about 3 feet from the set, and it did NOT liook like the resolustion was any better, though the plasma said it was in the 1080I mode. SO, I tried to explain to the dissatisfied man, that" many of the super-duper pictures you may had seen, of this knockout, breath-taking picture in HD, in stores were SPECIALLY PREPARED, from a stream or a dvd, and that cable, even in HD mode, will NOT look anywhere near as good as those demos, at least around here, on Warner cable. He was not amused, but what else could I do? His is NOT the only set I have seen those "great" (as in pi$$ poor) HD images from, either.

IMHO, Digital and HD is a HUGE rip-off, and a LOT of people are paying extra money, for ... little of NO improvement in picture quality!!