I found this section of special interest because all of us know that we are everyday closer to the deadline, the day in which our rear projection TV sets are going are subject of either upgrade or replacement.

Incidentally, I met my brother at the mall today and he was somewhat confused fearing for this change because, according to his own words, his 8mm movies suffered the detriment with the need to transfer them to a video format, first Beta and then VHS.

Those home-made films are from his childhood (the 1960s) so a valuable treasure that every technology update seems to be injuring. Just early this century, he transferred the movies to a DVD format and now he is scared of HDTV demanding something else.

I told him that is up to poor quality of vintage filming produces and maybe not-so-qualified services doing tithe transfers, but I don't believe that HDTV will distort his movies projection as I don't believe he can use his old rear TV set once that the change occurs.

What do you think of this?

He will more then likely have to upgrade. fortunatley is easier now then ever. My mother took all of my childhood movies and put them on a disc. So i believe this will keep the movies safe for another 10 20 years. More then likely his old TV is a dinosuar and is ready for extinction. Have him get a converter box, milk it for awhile then throw it in the trash.

Whether we're ready or not, here comes HDTV. I just wonder what took so long. I was in Japan 20 years ago and they already had HDTV. Watching the Olympics back then was truly impressive because of the high def.

Agreed! It's the same way with cell phones too; Asia always gets to have the best technology first!

Here's a good quote from a CNet article:

I'm wondering why he is so hesitant to change. what your brother does not realize is that video has always been filmed in the 16x9 format and its the 4x3 format that is the oddball out. Tell him the world is moving on.....with or without him, but he is welcome to join if he wishes. And his videos on DVD should show up as good on HDTV as they do on regular TV as most of the HDTVs are capable of delivering normal tv signal anyway.

I thought we were only changing to DTV.

True, but all digital TV's being sold are HD TV's The least resolution your going to find is 720i and that is on the way out to be replaced by the 1080i standard.

All that resolution and such a pretty picture and not a dang thing on TV to watch even though I have 250 channels. lol

you can play regular dvds on an hdtv...that's what my boyfriend and I use...as long as they are on dvds they will still work...the tv will work as well just not with the cable without the upgrade.