Santa was good to me this year and got me an awesome Samsung 23" LCD 720P tv (LNT2342) I originally wanted a much cheaper Olivia branded tv, but my parents got talked into buying me a bigger and much better quality one (thank you employees at Fry's).

Anyway I think its a nice upgrade from my 1980's Zenith 19" TV (as seen below)



And heres what it looks like now =)



But I have a few questions as far as this goes.

1. I know bad pixels can be common among lcd screens, I have not noticed any at all, but I am wondering if dead pixels can occur later along in the TV's life and not just at the begining (if so we might get insurance for it)

2. Does an xbox high def pack really create much of a difference? XBMC looks mediocre via regular composite cables, so I was wondering if a high def pack would be a must have

3. Any special precautions I should take? I hear burnouts can be a problem..

And WOW Xbox 360 looks amazing on it..

Thanks for your help guys, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!

1. I think dead pixels are a production issue and shouldn't occur later in a products life (need verification on this, but this is true based on my experience).

2. HD pack is definitely worth it.

3. You mean burn-in? Not a problem with LCD panels.

Enjoy your HD-goodness!

The component cables are not only worth it, but they are a must! If you're going to have a TV that supports great resolutions, why wouldn't you want to view them in and in the best possible way? I'm not sure what you're going to use your Xbox for, but it takes gaming to another level graphically. As far as streaming and playing back things via XBMC, the quality will all depend on the source.

Thanks for the replies... I was not sure about the HD component cables mainly because I was under the inpression that the xbox was not designed for HD output, so the xbox would be upconverting from its standard tv output to hd.

On the topic of that, are the generic 3rd party component cables on ebay good? Seems like i can snag a set for under $10 shipped, but i would rather save my time if those cables are junk

dead or stuck pixels can occur at any point during the set's life, it worht finding out what samsungs "tolerances" are for them. A certain amount of them depending on area is more than acceptable and there is nothing you can do about it as it is not deemed faulty.

My tosh has 3 dead on the outer edges, and you never see the unless you look for them, just dont worry about.

Also about screen burn, with modern LCD's it isnt a problem, just dont even think about it.

Not that many games support 720p/1080i, but the Xbox does do native HD rendering for almost all homebrew software (inc. XBMC). You will also get 480p support in most games which is an improvement.

Don't bother with the 3rd party cables, the MS ones are best and can be found quite cheap these days.

Image retention can still occur with LCD sets. It is a bit of myth that there are no issues....however in normal everyday use this will simply not occur.
Component cables will be a definite improvement.
makes a difference even using a Wii through them.
Remember to dust your new one. The old one would be clearer if the screen was clean.

ok well i finally ordered some component cables off ebay... hopefully they'll make it by saturday...

but anyway thanks for your help guys, and ill keep u posted on the high def goodness=)

If anyone is still checking this out, I actually prefer 480i on my original xbox games, simply because of the jagged edges I get in 480p. Is this common?

I know this is a lil late. but to answer your question. yes it is common. older games weren't designed with HD in mind. Developers relied on 'losing' information in the interlaced image so that they could add in more detail (nicer backgrounds, bigger levels, etc.) by cutting those corners, they could make the games longer and more detailed in the sceneic sense. A perfect example would be Halo 1. Halo looks like pure crap in 480p. Simply because the cut corners that the typical home sdtv viewer would never ever notice. They got pwnd in the long run, though eh?

That's one hell of an upgrade! I SILL have an old tv like that sitting my house somewhere