New age theatres in your living rooms

Life-like

Like many of his pals, Sumit chose to watch the FIFA World Cup matches at home rather than spend his evenings at the watering holes in the City.

The difference between Sumit and his friends is that, he loves harping about how he could see the finesse of the green grass on the pitch, the sharply-defined features of Messi and the veins on the hand of Casillas when he saved a goal in the finals.

“That’s high definition TV (HDTV) broadcast for you. It gives you the kick of a lifetime,” says Sumit, who recently purchased a LCD TV to watch the FIFA World Cup.

“It gives you the clarity of a 35mm screen,” says Shihab, an IT professional working, seconding Sumit’s opinion.

Sumit and Shihab sound like a happy bunch of neo-converts to the biggest technology change that is sweeping television screens across the City.

HDTV offers viewers a cinema-like experience at home with images that are five times sharper than a regular broadcast, CD quality sound and a widescreen viewing experience.

There has been a steep fall in price of HDTV’s in the last six months to make it more affordable. A 32-inch LCD TV costing Rs 50,000 is now sold at a slashed rate of Rs 36,000. While a 55-inch LCD TV costs Rs 1.5 lakh now.

“There has been a 70-80 per cent jump in the sale of HDTVs in just six months,” says Naveen, who handles the television department in Girias.

The pleasure of viewing high clarity images can be heightened by opting for blu-ray DVD players that are compatible with HDTVs. But, the high clarity comes at quite a high price. A blu-ray DVD player is available at Rs 9,999 and the price can go up to Rs 35,000.

“A blu-ray disc is priced between Rs 999 to Rs 1,999. There are limited options available and most of them are international titles,” explains Chetan Rajashekar, store manager, Planet M.

Now, even DTH providers like TataSky, Sundirect, Airtel are going the HD way. They are offering HD channels which have better picture quality. A HD set-top box will cost you Rs 2,999, while a DTH service without HD will cost Rs 1,600.

Prices side, time you ditch the jarring black bars on screen and get set for a high definition thrill on your television.