HD TV decision

[victoriabears]

Plan to install a 42(Max) inch hdtv in our family room (natural light) which is 16ft wide by 12dt(Deep or wide) viewing distance is 10 feet, I live in Victoria BC Canada.

questions:-
1: Can anything be done to make vhs watchable, or is it just as well to give up on vhs viewing on this tv.

2: Can vhs recordings be transferred to HD-DVD when it comes, or is converting (as I am) to "normal" dvd be the best?

3: I am really impressed by the DLP samsung I have seen, but suggestions please for this room scenario.

4: Is there any point in having a HDTV with a cable tuner (Ntsc) or again is using a digital cable box the way to go.

Thanks a lot everyone, I know this is a regular topic, but may be we can address the regular questions posed by normal family tv watchers, rather than those who wish to have a theatre room with all the trimmings.

We have alarge room where we have a 55 inch Toshiba rear projection TV, the darkness etc makes my wife fall alseep, and she misses the view of the garden, i also find it a bit dull, so back to a cozy family room for us.

[edDV]

questions:-
1: Can anything be done to make vhs watchable, or is it just as well to give up on vhs viewing on this tv.

What you see is what you get. Hardware deinterlacers will struggle with VHS and introduce additional artifacts. You may prefer watching VHS on an interlace CRT instead.

2: Can vhs recordings be transferred to HD-DVD when it comes, or is converting (as I am) to "normal" dvd be the best?

No difference other than DVD capacity.

3: I am really impressed by the DLP samsung I have seen, but suggestions please for this room scenario.

Projectors will be dimmer than direct view. Brightest is Plasma. DLP is medium. LCD at that size is still more expensive but in 1-2 years expect 46" 1280x720 LCD will be the sweet spot and will be priced near $1000-1500.

Make sure you demo these TVs in a bright space before you buy.

At 42" you may want to trade resolution for plasma brightness with a plasma EDTV (720x480 progressive, like DVD). The money you save may buy that 46" HDTV LCD in a couple of years.

42" EDTV plasmas are around $1500-2200 US
42" HDTV plasmas are $2500+US

4: Is there any point in having a HDTV with a cable tuner (Ntsc) or again is using a digital cable box the way to go.

Internal tuners will allow you to get over the air DTV and analog TV. Some include QAM tuners for cable with a smart card interface for digital cable descramble (if your cable company supports it).

I like the external cable boxes so I can update on their dime, but that is personal taste.

PS, for HD resolution go with 1280x720 native resolution minimum.

[ntscuser]

Buy an S-VHS player with built-in digital timebase corrector and/or noise reduction. Connect the S-VHS player to your monitor or DVD recorder with an S-video lead. All VHS tapes are recorded in S-video mode but only S-VHS machines can play them back that way.