Is HD over the air really this bad?

matimage

Hmm, Moonrakerz, I disagree with you there. I think the problem some people have when looking at teles in shops is they get right up close to them and they look fuzzy/carp. Expecially with SD. However, when you sit a nice distance, they look awesome.
Best things viewed so far: Wall-E on bluray - Dark knight on bluray and I Was rather impressed with the natures events thing on wednesday on bbc hd.

mymatebob

hpuse wrote: »

This is an humble attempt to explain in my own understanding.

HD is related to transmission(digital signal, via satellite or freeview), reception(HD digital receiver) and presentation(TV) format. This is similar to PAL/SECAM introduced in the 1980s.
While Blueray, is just another media format burnt into the disc, similar to DVD format or an audio-CD. Blueray has lot of interactive and rich features to display content on any screen. You can watch Blueray in your old CRT TV set because the Blueray disc player can output the standard PAL signal as analogue output. The clarity at its best, is the maximum that your current CRT TV set can afford to display. Mind you, CRT clarity is still far superior to LCD/Plasma clarity, while HD-TV format picture clarity is far superior to a traditional CRT TV, due to its rich defined contents in digital format. For watching HD-TV, you need an HD-compatible TV. LCD and Plasma are ever so popular in the UK but CRT-HD are not, though Samsung tried to introduce it in 2006/2007, but not sure how popular they were, and eventually removed them from their product lines.

For HD, you need a compatible receiver(HD reciever) and a TV that understands the HD output from the receiver (HD compatible TV).

RE: quality of the signals, I do not know, as I don't have a HD TV yet(first I need a job, then money to buy one HD TV . Picture quality should more or less be the same between Blueray and HD, but since HD is transmission-oriented, you need lot of compatible gadgets to view them!. Hope this helps.

I am confused by the above

What was introduced in the 80's?

roddydogs

Your not the only one confused........its total b.................

samhale

does he mean 50s?

mymatebob

samhale wrote: »

does he mean 50s?

Don't know - but since both systems were around long before the 80's possibly.

gjchester

mymatebob wrote: »

Don't know - but since both systems were around long before the 80's possibly.

A lot before the 80's, 1950's is about right.

The NTSC system used 50Hz power to sycronise the signal (they use a 25Hz TV signal) , Europe has 60Hz power so they could not do that easily hence PAL and SECAM came about.

SECAM is a different kettle of fish for a lot of reasons, its main reason for adoption was supposed to be to protect French national industry as it was developed by Thompson, although as PAL was invented by a German company there may have been more political bias in that than just French protectionism.

mymatebob

gjchester wrote: »

A lot before the 80's, 1950's is about right.

The NTSC system used 50Hz power to sycronise the signal (they use a 25Hz TV signal) , Europe has 60Hz power so they could not do that easily hence PAL and SECAM came about.

SECAM is a different kettle of fish for a lot of reasons, its main reason for adoption was supposed to be to protect French national industry as it was developed by Thompson, although as PAL was invented by a German company there may have been more political bias in that than just French protectionism.

True - and I am none the wiser as to what hpuse was on about

moonrakerz

matimage wrote: »

Hmm, Moonrakerz, I disagree with you there. I think the problem some people have when looking at teles in shops is they get right up close to them and they look fuzzy/carp. Expecially with SD. However, when you sit a nice distance, they look awesome.
Best things viewed so far: Wall-E on bluray - Dark knight on bluray and I Was rather impressed with the natures events thing on wednesday on bbc hd.

I must confess that I thought the same as you. Agree with what you say about the way they are displayed in many stores - and more - see my earlier post !

But - I now have a 40" Panasonic and the viewing distance is quite critical. If I sit way back where I used to sit, many programmes, especially sport and drama, do not seem that much better. When I got a chair and tried the various distances - I was converted !
Try it, you will be surprised.

This applies to HD, not SD. If you have a poor SD picture, and many HD TVs are not set up/installed to give the best SD picture, getting closer only makes it worse !

See: http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Article/How-Far-Should-I-Sit.php

Or Google it, there are plenty more.

Reds-on-Sea

gjchester wrote: »

Yes.

However they will charge you the extra tenner a month as the box can recieve the HD service (it's not if you can see it it's if the box recieved it) however why you would want to pay more for channels you already have?

Sky+ is a tenner extra per month, and (separately) Sky HD is an extra tenner a month, but also includes the Sky+ with it.

You may as well get the HD&Sky+ for £10 rather than just Sky+.

The main factor in getting the best out of your HD is a decent TV!! I recommend HD all the way, it looks absolutely stunning on my Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma telly ) hehe (had to get that one in) New HD channels are being added all the time, and I always flick through the HD listings before the main listings.

I think that everyone forgets how nice a decent CRT set was compared to a crappy LCD that looks like a mosaic with all those pixels! It really is quite involved. You should all read your manuals and optimise your display settings to get the most out of your HD.

samhale

Reds-on-Sea wrote: »

Sky+ is a tenner extra per month, and (separately) Sky HD is an extra tenner a month, but also includes the Sky+ with it.

You may as well get the HD&Sky+ for £10 rather than just Sky+.

The main factor in getting the best out of your HD is a decent TV!! I recommend HD all the way, it looks absolutely stunning on my Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma telly ) hehe (had to get that one in) New HD channels are being added all the time, and I always flick through the HD listings before the main listings.

I think that everyone forgets how nice a decent CRT set was compared to a crappy LCD that looks like a mosaic with all those pixels! It really is quite involved. You should all read your manuals and optimise your display settings to get the most out of your HD.

I thought Sky+ was free now?