Well the Xbox360 is coming out in a few days and its time to move onto the next generation of videogame consoles. I have been reading most of the Xbox reviews online and I have concluded one thing, I need a High Definition Television. The majority of the reviews I have been reading have been saying that unless I have a HDTV I won’t be seeing much of an improvement over the current generation of consoles. So it seems the wise thing to do is to upgrade my TV which I have been wanting to for a while now. I don’t want to get a plasma/LCD TV for numerour reasons including the fact that the only plasma I can afford are the cheap Panasonic Viera series which are currently being advertised on billboards around Kuwait. The problem with the Viera is you get what you pay for and according to online reviews the Viera series have numerous issues with the most important one being they doen’t support the 720p resolution. I also believe that a high definition tube television would give a better picture quality then the plasmas and LCDs, so until OLED TVs get released I will be sticking with the old tube.
This is where the problem starts, I haven’t found many HD tube televisions in Kuwait. I only found two models at Sony, a 29″ and a 34″ and I haven’t found any other anywhere else. The 34″ seems like my best option at the moment but it costs around KD700-KD800 which brings me to the following question, is it worth getting HDTV in Kuwait?
In the States they already have cable and satellite channels broadcasting at High Definition, from what I know we don’t have anything like that in Kuwait. So paying KD800 for a TV so I can play high definition games on it doesn’t make a lot of sense. DVD’s are supposed to look better on HDTV’s but I don’t buy that many DVD’s and I mostly use my TV for watching TV shows.
So any HDTV experts here? Any tips and advice in purchasing a HDTV and using it here in Kuwait?
25 replies on “HDTV in Kuwait”
No real need for it honestly. Depending on the resolution, if it’s a non-HD show, it will double the lines, so it turns a crappy quality station worse, and a good quality station a little better.
I wouldn’t invest in it though unless you plan on playing ALOT of that XBOX 🙂
ah yeah I read about that before on how regular tv looks worse on a HDTV capable TV.
I am not planning on play alot on the xbox thats why I am asking if there are other uses for it here in Kuwait. I am hoping someone will post a comment telling me Showtime has a HD broadcast 🙂
I watch alot of Movies on DvD and have 36″ Sony HD TV unless it is a real DvD quialty movie it looks really bad… I like HD because I never watch TV, all I watch is Movies and shows on DvD
but in your case it is not really worth it
Mark,
Panasonic has the new 42 and 50 plasmas as HDTV capable with HDMI inputs, but whats the use!. Neither showtime or orbit and most satelite channels we recieve in the area are broadcast using the HDTV standard so at the moment there is no use. Besides you will know that showtime or orbit will start HDTV when they start replacing all thier recievers and that doesnt sound like happening anytime soon. Sky in the UK will be starting HDTV and they will replace the boxes for people who want to get the signal, i personally recieve SKY here in kuwait (6m dish) but the problem is the new recievers require two inputs as in it acts like a TIVO like device and currently we have 4 recievers at home and the LNB is tapped out, if we get the 8 port LNB the signal would be very weak here in kuwait and we wont get to see anything.
ah yeah dentman i forgot, you have Sky! Maybe I should invest in that instead lol
Anyway the 42 and 50 inch Panasonic viera plasmas only work in 420p and 1080i but dont support 720p which sucks.
check out the philips hdtvs at alghanim
do u have a price estimate?
Check out the Wansa 29″ Digital TV. Digital as in it has component in. I have it in my room, and never used the component (which is green, blue, red etc.) and Xbox360 is going to be my first HDTV chance. Has 3 AV-in with S-Video, VGA in, AV out, headphone port on front, component in (on it’s own when pressing AV on remote and comes out as DVD Component). Bought it for 200KD in 2002, should be about a 100KD now. Wansa’s are real reliable and cheap. I suggest you buy one instead of wasting money on Panasonic for no real reason. It’s a tube big tv btw.
firstly no offence but wansa sucks dude. Also I doubt the wansa is high definition capable. My tv has component inputs but its no Highdef.
secondly i have a 34″ panasonic i am considering the sony not the other way around.
“is it worth getting HDTV in Kuwait?”
No, not yet. I’ve been wanting to get an HDTV since 2002 and still no luck. Word of warning: don’t get anything that’s “HDTV-Ready”!
I suggest you wait or use a VGA monitor if possible.
WANSA is cheap, but not well-known brand. Sony have real nice TV’s, just be prepared to pay extra than a panasonic for no real features other than brand. 😉
1) wansa is shite so don’t even bother. the al rai gahnim shop had a pair of wansa widescreen HDTV’s running and they looked terrible.
the main thing to look for in an HDTV is to find out if it upconverts or donwconverts signals according to it’s processor, which is is *impossible* to find out in kuwait because electronics in kuwait are apparently sold by fucking morons. yep that includes your dumb l337 shabaab hAkkErz that think that PC’s= all electronics and useless pirating hindi robots.
If you think finding a tube HDTV in kuwait is hard try finding a widescreen tube HDTV, it’s damn near impossible esp with reasonable prices. i know sony has a great model but i couldn’t find it in kuwait even though it’s listed in sony ME. the best i could find was a samsung 34 slim widescreen HDTV in hawalli but it’s set to native 1080i and i am not sure if it upconverts 720p signals to 1080i or downconverts them to 420P. it’s sold for about 340KD which is reasonable and it looks absolutely fantastic. i think i might have t buy it anyway bc i really want my xbox 360 to run in widescreen and high dev, even if it’s still not at it’s optimal resolution.
oh BTW HDTV is worth it if you do any sort of DVD watching or gaming. even the original xbox supports high def signals and looks awesome on my mate’s DLP set. standard to HD is like night and day. and widescreen is just pure sex.
HDTV is not THAT established across the world yet so it’s not suprising that it’s not available in kuwait at all. give it another 5 years.
thanks holla for the tips. i am actually looking for a 4:3 ratio tv. i dont like widescreen since 90% of the time i watch regular television and they all broadcast in 4:3… or atleast i think they do…
i just got a 61 inch Samsung HDTV , its amazing , 1200kd with free Samsung dvd player .
my 12 year old 34inch sony looks crappy when compared to it..
and u should watch widescreen more often its like 298298928298 times better specialy for games and dvds…
another thing , forget about the xbox 360 , just wait for the PS3 it has much better graphic capabilities , plus more games will be released for it.
Just get one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006B522Y/002-3551163-3989645?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
I have one and it works great. There’s nothing better than playing on your PC monitor.
i remember getting our big screen tv, non lcd, for around 580kd but the have 29 and 34 inch models, ours is 54 inch think
mark if you want a quality 4:3 set, check out the al gahnim sony tube HDTV’s, they have the best picture quality and full of options. the 29 inch set can be had for as low as 155 KD.
i actually found their top end widescreen tube HDTV in salmiya today and they only had like 1 in stock. it’s so stupid that different shops within the same company keep different inventories so they don’t even know what the fuck they have in stock until you tell them. it was discounted from around 900KD to like 550 KD or so bc it was the floor model and that’s the only one they have so they want to sell it. the picture quality was amazing. CRT sets beat even the nicest plasma and DLP screens for a much lower price.
wow thats cool, what brand was it? i might pass by tonight.
the widescreen tube one? it’s a sony and it’s only available in the algahnim salmiya. they also have the non widescreen sonys in different sizes, the cheapest HDTV one being 155KD.
thats not possible, a sony HDTV for KD155? must be HD capable but not HD
sorry mark you’re right i was thinking of another samsung HDTV. the sony one costs 252KD
yeah i past by AlGhanim yesterday the only Sony TV they had that was HD was the widescreen one. They had another 34inch sony that was cheap but it didn’t have HD
Dont fall for the HD thing
they are selling old TV’s here
only few support HDMI & only few got full 1080i & 1080p does not exist here
all the TV’s sux because all have blure or burn or ghosting!