"John" wrote in message

I'm thinking of getting an LCD television in the sales. I
just have a couple of questions for those more in the
know than me.

Full 1080 HD Televisions is there a certain size of
screen that you have to get or above for full HD, or can
you get full HD in most screen sizes? I didn't want to
get something too big, maybe only a 26 or 32" screen size.

I own a 24 inch screen that is 1920 x 1280. All of the 22" (next size down)
screens I've seen have less than 1080 lines. Point being that true 1080 is
possible with 26".

If I was to get a full HD screen, would I still be able
to watch or change the screen format to 720? Its just I
watch a lot of sports and I've heard that 720 HD is
better for sports than full HD? I also watch quite a lot
of wildlife programs as well though were full HD would be
better for picture quality instead of motion.

If the picture transmitted has more lines than the receiver screen, its just
downsampled, anyway.

Another question I have is regarding the connectors for
TVs. What's the difference between HDMI and DVI?

Same basic electrical format for video.

HDMI has both audio and video on a very compact connector.

DVI is a physically larger connector, with pin positions for analog for
legacy compatibilty, and no sound.

Do any televisions accept DV in from a miniDV camcorder?

Never saw it, but the market is new, and feature sets are not fully
worked-out.

Or do you have to connect via analogue audio/video inputs
the yellow, red and white cables?

I've seen that.

Can most modern televisions work with NTSC input as well?
E.g. NTSC games console or NTSC camcorder?

Yes.

For Brightness and Contrast values am I generally looking
for higher values as being better? So Contrast 3500:1 and
Brightness 500 cd/m2 would be pretty good? Better than
1500:1 and 250 cd/m2?

1000:1 and 550 cd/m2 is a pretty nice picture. How critical you are of
brightness and contrast is highly dependent on ambient light. During the
day, even 400:1 contrast is OK. But at night, you might hope for even more
than 3500:1.