HD or HD ready?

first78

Idiophreak wrote: »

Do you have a budget in mind?

I don't really want to spend more than £350

Inactive

first78 wrote: »

I don't really want to spend more than £350

Go for HD Ready then.

BillScarab

david39 wrote: »

I've recently bought a 37" Panasonic 1080P HD set with built-in Freesat so I can directly compare the HD 1080P Freesat picture with the same programme showing on Freeview aerial transmission and there is a distinct improvement in quality.
Although the set contains software that artificially upgrades the standard picture on Freeview to pseudo-1080P, switching to HD Freesat gives a crisper more detailed image. The difference is particularly noticeable when you move back from HD to standard Freeview.

The Blu-Ray quality at 1080P is superb, too - it leaves DVD standing - the same degree of improvement as from VHS tape to DVD.



After seeing other peoples' "HD-ready" sets, if you can afford 1080P, I'd say go for it - well worth it in my opinion.

I agree with the point about 37" minimum - minor regret - wish I'd gone into the 40's

Just to point out that there is no such thing as a HD1080P Freesat picture. None of the broadcasters broadcast in 1080p. They are all in 1080i. I'm not sure but there may be some 720p stuff on Sky.

We bought a HD Ready set as the SD picture on it is excellent, better than most 1080p sets.

Dave101t

thescouselander wrote: »

I would dispute that. You can see the difference on a small screen, it just depends on how far away you are when you are viewing it. As a rule is thumb, if you are within 2 1/2 screen widths from the screen you should be able to see the difference.

but any difference between 720 and 1080 is maybe up to 2% clarity with the human eye, where as the difference from CRT to HD in up to 800%, id say it was therefore splitting hairs on a smaller tv.

Inactive

BillScarab wrote: »

Just to point out that there is no such thing as a HD1080P Freesat picture. None of the broadcasters broadcast in 1080p. They are all in 1080i. I'm not sure but there may be some 720p stuff on Sky.

We bought a HD Ready set as the SD picture on it is excellent, better than most 1080p sets.

Agreed, nor are they likely to in the foreseeable future.

thescouselander

Dave101t wrote: »

but any difference between 720 and 1080 is maybe up to 2% clarity with the human eye, where as the difference from CRT to HD in up to 800%, id say it was therefore splitting hairs on a smaller tv.

On my TV (which is only 32") the difference between 720 and 1080 is noticeable but I sit quite close because the room isn't that wide. I especially notice if I am playing games because then I sit right in front of the TV.

I agree that you probably wouldn't notice if you are sitting further away.

aliEnRIK

thescouselander wrote: »

On my TV (which is only 32") the difference between 720 and 1080 is noticeable but I sit quite close because the room isn't that wide. I especially notice if I am playing games because then I sit right in front of the TV.

I agree that you probably wouldn't notice if you are sitting further away.

Youll notice a difference because one or the other MUST be scaled to fit your tvs resolution

What everyones saying is a 1080P panel v a 786 panel ~especially at the cheaper end of the scale.........786 tends to look better overall as more moneys gone into the quality side of things as opposed to squeezing more pixels into the screen

Now screens 1k plus tend to look better with 1080 as theres enough money gone into them to make them look good

macman

The correct terminology is : 720 res is HD Ready. 1080 res is Full HD. Both are equally compatible with digital broadcasts.I recently went looking for a new 32in TV, and though maybe my eyes aren't as sharp as they once were, at normal TV viewing distances (i.e. not for gaming), I could not distinguish between the 2 after doing quite a bit of 'in-shop' testing. So it depends on size-if you are looking for 37in or bigger then you are more likely to see the difference. I bought a 32 in HD Ready Panasonic and am very happy with it.
If your budget is only £350 then you will not be able to get a Full HD TV anyway-typically they are £150-200 more than HD Ready.
Once thing you might watch out for are TV's with 100hz scanning rather than 50hz-this can make for a smoother image, as the refresh rate is twice as high.

thescouselander

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Youll notice a difference because one or the other MUST be scaled to fit your tvs resolution

What everyones saying is a 1080P panel v a 786 panel ~especially at the cheaper end of the scale.........786 tends to look better overall as more moneys gone into the quality side of things as opposed to squeezing more pixels into the screen

Now screens 1k plus tend to look better with 1080 as theres enough money gone into them to make them look good

Prices have come down a lot and there are plenty of respectable 1080p sets around for a good bit under £1k.

There will always be the cheapo brands that push a higher resolution as a selling point at the expense of other aspects but I would expect a 1080 TV from a good manufacturer will mostly look better than the 720 equivalent.

Oakey22

When you was comparing 1080 and 720 panels you probably compared it with different brands where quality of images do change, also if you looked in comet, curry's etc they dont even show the images in HD its through an RF cable.