So you’re ready to make the move to high definition (HD) TV. You’ve looked at the buyers guides and scanned some of the more technical sites. Many of the buyers guides are just lame or they’re too technical. You’ve joined the forums, but the forums are full of confusing rants and esoteric complaints. You’re wishing that someone would just sit down with you in your easy chair by the fireplace and guide you through the process. This is what I’m going to do in this series.

One can read too much about high definition. Every time you think you’ve settled on a plan, there is some alarming forum post or new technology that makes you re-think your whole plan. If you’ve decided you want the latest and greatest, it’ll get even worse. The standards are settling down, but the technology is changing by the month. I’ve been down this road, prepared for a year, and I’ve made my own jump to HD. The system is in place and working nicely. So I’m ready to publish my first rule -- for those of modest means anyway.

Fireside HDTV Rule #1. Making the switch to HD, with some modest insight and care, is more important than having the ultimate system.

This means that any high definition system will be so pleasing that there’s no longer a reason to wait, and excessive fretting and optimization is a waste of time. So I’m going to make the assumption that you’re ready to make this leap by Christmas. I’ll also assume that you’re a smart, technical reader. You want insights above and beyond the Sunday Supplements but not so technical that you’re hopelessly over your head. I’m going to stay on the middle course, but more towards the technical side in the subsequent installments.

With that, let’s sit back, relax, and start the fireside chat. In order to be able to stay within your budget, we’ll have to look at four subject areas.

Over the next few weeks, prior to Christmas, I’ll go into more detail in each of these areas. It’s not like the old days. Prior to the high definition era, a good CRT-based TV would cost $600 and a washing machine would cost $600. Nowadays, that washing machine is still $600, but a good HDTV system will cost several times that. You’ll want to do some planning to make sure you get what you want for your money.

1. Video. In terms of the video elements, you’ll want to start thinking about the kinds of viewing you do. Occasionally, you’ll read that one kind of HDTV is better for certain levels of room lighting. I would ignore that because all HDTV’s have bright screens these days and often have special screen treatments to reduce glare. Far more important for technical reasons is whether most of your viewing is broadcast TV, how much will remain standard definition (SD) and how much will be movies on disc, say, DVD or possibly one of the HD formats.

With that, it’s time for the next rule.

Fireside HDTV Rule #2. Every kind of HDTV, rear projection or flat panel, and types within those, have their proselytes, almost to a religious degree. You should be selfishly, technically agnostic.

I started in the church of Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) and couldn’t be budged for a long time. Over the last year, I migrated towards DLP/LED, then LCD/LED, and finally settled on Plasma as I learned more and more about the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, looked closely at actual TVs and better understood my own viewing habits.

2. Audio. In terms of audio elements, many, many people forget that the emotional and physiological experience of great sound is an important part of the HD experience and is included in the source material as an integral component of the show or movie. Some customers will buy a several thousand dollar, say, LCD display, and then, incredibly, send the sound out through the two tiny speakers installed along the edges of most HDTVs. My system has no sound coming out of those speakers, typically included in a perfunctory fashion by the manifacturers. Nor should you plan on using them.

Fireside HDTV Rule #3. Do not plan to use the speakers inside the HDTV. Period. No arguments. End of discussion.

Understanding this and starting to plan for a new audio experience will become an awakening and an important part of your planning and budget for HDTV.

3. The HD Source. Which source you select for your HD system depends mostly on your previous experience with a broadcast source, your home wiring, and your geographic location. Cable and satellite companies are rushing to provide more and more HD channels, so your decision, at least in large cities, will likely not be based on a clear choice between a clearly superior carrier and an inferior one. However, some of the choices you make will depend on details of their services and customer service policies. Some of the equipment provided by these carriers has come under intense scrutiny, and we’ll look at that. Also, plans for growth, such as external eSATA storage may be important for your future. We’ll go into those details in future installments.

4. Installation. Finally, you’ll want to consider, as part of your budget, whether you plan to to make the change all in one big push on a Saturday by a professional installer -- which can be expensive -- or whether you want to make this a Do It Yourself (DIY) project. You’ll need to consider some serious assistance from a friend or relative if you plan to lug a 125 lb rear projection TV up three flights of stairs, and we’ll talk about all that. Also, if you have a spouse and children, you’ll want to consider how complex the set up might become. There will be multiple remote controls, multiple settings, and multiple sources such as broadcast, DVD, maybe an Apple TV, or other devices. Whether you have an installer set this up and provide a three hour tutorial on the operation of the system or you set it up yourself, in a planned, systematic, and incremental fashion is something to think about. And then you may have to train your family on not only operation of controls but other technical considerations.

One of the biggest problems Best Buy ran across over the past few years has been customers who came in, bought an HDTV to replace a CRT TV, took it home, and were not only hopelessly confused but also disappointed by the picture. (Not to mention some with strained backs.) That resulted in angry customers who were soured by the HD experience and wanted their money back. Best Buy learned from that and smartly enlisted the assistance of Magolia Home Theater. I’m going to help you avoid that dismal scenario.

Having a professional installer come in can add anywhere from $300 to $1000 to your budget. We’ll look at our options and explain what’s to be gained from each option.

For the next installment, you should start to think about how much you have to spend on your HDTV upgrade, how much room you have in your viewing area, how far you sit from your TV, whether you need a new TV stand for new components, what current components you can keep (speakers, A/V receiver, DVD player), what kind of viewing you plan to do (broadcast, disc, Apple TV, Internet), and take inventory of connections you already have in place or plan to add: Ethernet, phone connections, speaker wires and coaxial cable. A good HDTV system will likely need most if not all these. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this:

Fireside HDTV Rule #4. Once you have your HD system in place, the fun of watching all kinds of new shows in HD will overcome the anxiety you have now, and agonized decisions will fade into the past.

Here are the links to all six articles in the series.

Nov 7th:The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Introduction

Nov 13th: The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Display Selection

Nov 16th: The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Audio Selection

Nov 29th: The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Source Selection

Dec 6th: The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Installation

Dec 14th: The Fireside Guide: Moving to High Definition, Sample Systems