You’re definitely not the only one. It can get really annoying, especially when you can see the individual pores of someone’s skin, instead of just their skin.

I agree with you. I go watch my old tv in the bedroom often, the HD almost hurts my eyes sometimes, like on the intro to Big Bang Theory?! My friend has a super nice one and it took me weeks before I could even watch more than ten or fifteen minutes.

Another non-fan here. It’s odd to me that the images seem to lose “depth” or something that is difficult to describe—yes, the illusion is gone.

I don’t have one, but I’ve been wondering if I should invest. I hadn’t heard the downside, so this is interesting. I’m having trouble understanding how it spoils the illusion. Does it make the images too real?

I once watched a production of the opera Madama Butterfly that had been performed in a location setting instead of being filmed onstage. It destroyed the effect for me. Seeing a staged version, I can imagine the little house and garden. But seen in a real garden, those folks looked ridiculous standing around singing their conversation. Is it anything like that?

I’ve also wondered if the supposed virtues would be lost on someone whose vision is less than optimal.

I agree with you guys the magic is gone, especially if you are a FOX Retro Fan like me, Chips, Star Trek and all that sixties and seventies stuff is not the same on HDTV.

I honestly can’t tell much of a difference between the two. Then again, I haven’t had an old TV in awhile. 3D TV’s annoy me, though.

@Jeruba It’s almost like a play instead of tv to me.

Just wait till you get a 4K set.

Some people complain of what they call the “soap opera” effect, which is where everything looks like it’s a soap opera, or videotaped. If that bothers you, check in your TV settings for a ‘motion enhancement’ option and turn it off. It helps a lot with that.

As far as the question goes, no, I don’t hate HDTV. It’s all just TV to me.

Am I the only one that can’t tell the difference? My cable offers both non-HD and HD and I have flipped between them without a glimmer of what it’s all about.

@YARNLADY, do you have a HD-enabled receiver? (I don’t know if that’s the proper term.) If you’re watching on a pre-HD set, I don’t know how you could see any difference. If my impression is wrong, I hope somebody will set me straight, but I think that’s like listening to a stereo recording through a single speaker. You’re not going to hear the stereo effect unless you have the equipment for it.

I’m not in love with it either.

Try watching more modern movies/shows and you will probably like it more. Of course old stuff is going to look weird when it’s basically upconverted to HD

I see everything like a set. I can tell where the camera is and all the facades that are meant to look real do not.

I do not like it.

@Jeruba yes, my TV is an HDTV. Maybe I’m just expecting too much. I’m extremely myopic, and the difference when I take my glasses off is so huge, first I can see clearly, then I can’t. I think the HD should be like that too.

Nope, I don’t like it either. I don’t know when people will realize that more technology does not equal everything getting better. I passionately hate flat screens too.

I love HD.

You probably have it on the wrong setting. Some HD TV’s are automatically fixed to a setting called “motion interpolation” which gets rid of motion blur and makes the picture clearer, but it makes TV shows look like cheap soap operas. That’s because in motion interpolation, the frame rate is 24 fps. What you want is 48fps. HD television in 48fps is amazing.

The image quality depends on a variety of factors, including how the cable station is broadcasting and what one’s own bandwidth is. Nature stuff can be brilliant, movies not so much. I have a giant sceen and glad to have both it and 3D.

I love HD and would watch everything in HD if I could. The resolution is so clear and sharp and the colours perfect. Nature programmes are just sublime. Some studio shots of people can reveal every tiny blemish in the skin which isn’t really a good thing. I have noticed some supposedly HD programmes from the States aren’t really HD at all, but the real HD is a marvellous experience on a large widescreen TV.

I won’t wast my time watching anything that is not in HD, unless it’s not originally produced that way.

For those who said so, my wife can’t tell the difference between Standard Definition and High Definition.

I absolutely can and love HD — particularly nature shows.

I think it’s pretty neat.

It may help if you change the settings on your TV. When I first got my HDTV, I was very unhappy with the way the picture looked. My son knew a website that advised settings for different brands of televisions, and when I took their advice, I was much happier (though still not thrilled).

The Simpsons looks weird in HD!

@Crumpet I’m with you there. Any cartoon looks a little odd in HD, unless it’s designed for it, like, say a Pixar movie.

Something we agree on! Nothing looks right. I saw Return of the Jedi in HD and could see where the makeup stopped, and the hangar scene with the glorious Millennium Falcon was very clearly a matte painting. I had to go back and rewatch Jedi in standard def.

We have one smallish HDTV that my husband games on. It’s great for that, but I’m not crazy about watching shows or movies on it. I don’t mind the realism so much, but it all sort of hurts my eyes/brain. I’m easily over stimulated, so maybe it’s too much of a good thing for me.

This is fascinating. I had no idea there was such diversity of opinion on the subject. I thought it was like—who doesn’t like better sound, better picture? I think I’ll hang in with my old screen, then, for as long as it lasts. I only use it for Netflix anyway, and most of those are of movies that are anywhere from 10 to 90 years old.

I have an HDTV and it’s fucking fantastic. But understand, 90% of my TV’s use is for video games. Given that I have a PlayStation 3 and that those were designed to be compatible with HDTV’s…games look like shit on cathodic TV’s. I played for more than a year on a square TV with my PS3, and you can hardly read text…it’s terrible. Plus all the options in the PS3 to alter the picture or better fit it to your old TV really don’t help at all…the best thing I had found got my picture stretched vertically, and it sucked. I am SOO happy with my HDTV, and how great my games look on it. Being that I love role playing games, you have to be able to read text without straining your eyeballs. Plus even if there is little text in a game, they look so much more grand on an HDTV.

As far as movies go though…were I not a video game player, I would never buy an HDTV. I don’t see much of a difference between BluRay/HD movies and normal, older ones. I mean there is a difference, HD looks better, but nowhere near enough to warrant an 800 dollar purchase.
Mind you this from someone who loves video games and has no choice but to adapt, but you don’t need to do that with movies and cable TV though, at least not so far, unless you’re real picky. Not in a way that, if you did not, would badly impede on your enjoyment due to how deformed the picture looks, like it does with video games. In fact, I often rent movies digitally from the PlayStation Network, but I always take the non HD version. Costs less, and there’s barely a difference between that and the HD version, anyway. :/

TLDR; fuck 3D. Makes my nose feel weird.

Oops, got it mixed up. 24fps is what looks best. Not 48fps.

It’s easy to change the settings of an HD television set, so you don’t see the pores of someone’s skin, instead of just their skin.

HDTV is great for watching nature films and sports events.

I think HDTV has more advantages than disadvantages. It’s true that there are some scary details in the TV. But movies like Avatar are nice to see in HD.