I just bought my first HDTV. A 37" Vizio (1080P) on sale at Sam's Club for $575.00

Question: I keep hearing about setup DVD's to optimize HDTV settings. Are these things really necessary? If so, who has the best one?

Also, is Blu-Ray worth the money?

Congratulations on your new HDTV!

First of all... if you want to get a setup DVD for your HDTV, it needs to be in HD... so you need a Blu-Ray player anyway. There are a bunch of great mid-range blu-ray players out there, and they are really worth it, particularly if you're going to watch movies. Currently, that's the only way you're going to get a 1080P signal into your TV anyway, as you're unlikely to see anything better than 1080i or 720P from cable or satellite.

Once you get your blu-ray player, the best calibration disc is "video essentials". Obviously, you'll want the blu-ray version.

BTW, I just ordered our 1080P projector. While the den/media room won't be ready for a couple of months, we're planning to debut the projector in the living room on the 4th of July.

...Or you could buy a PS3 and have a game system that plays blu-rays :)

Day two and I ran into a snag.

SDTV looks fine. When I switch to an HDTV channel, the screen is letterboxed. It should be full screen. There's a "wide" command in the menu that fixes this, but I have to change that setting everytime I go from SDTV to HDTV or back again. It's a pain! There should be a way to save this setting so I only have to do it once for each mode.

I did some googling on Blu-Ray. It appears that most people can't tell the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD on screens smaller than 50". I have a 37" set. Do you agree?

Sure, but I will have to take your word on it.

We've got a calibrated 37" CRT HDTV, and it's VERY apparent when there's a Bluray on vs. a DVD.

Just upgraded and super-sized from a 26 inch HD to this Sharp Quattron 40 inch Big-O-Vision.

It's Netflix ready (yay) so I won't need to stream via the blu-ray player (which has been wonderful on the old tv)

I figure I should also get a new HDMI cable for the new thing. Anyone got any recommendations? The prices vary wildly from $12 to $250 and I'd prefer to keep in the rango of $50 or less.

Halp!

Do NOT PAY MORE THAN $15 for an HDMI cable.

Hell, don't pay more than $5 (unless you need a longer one)

http://www.monoprice.com

On the other hand I have never found myself simultaneously in need of an HDMI cable and willing to wait to have one shipped to me. So just let Best Buy butt rape me since they're across the street.

Thanks GD and Alex.

I'll go with our old one for now, then go to Best Buy over the weekend.