Just had Virgin+ HD installed, better using 720 or 1080 widescreen?

BillScarab

Well I was perfectly happy with a 32" CRT for watching SD broadcasts. However when it broke it broke we replaced it with a 37" Plasma 720p as that seemed to offer the best compromise for watching SD and HD channels.

The biggest problem I have with digital TV is the picture pixellating because some channels have such a low bitrate.

BBC HD is 1080i as well. I thought all HD in the Uk was 1080i but I may be wrong on that.

Pincher

720p is progressive, so it's 720 lines per frame,
whereas 1080i is 540 lines per interlaced frame.
Uncompressed, 720p uses higher bit rate.
Sky HD supports both 1080i and 720p, but I regard 720p as a higher quality standard.

SD 576i upscales easier to 1080i, so they like to use that to transmit existing 576i material on an HD channel.

But it all ends up looking blocky because the broadcasters want to save money by compressing it to shreds. Sometimes, it's better to watch a movie on a DVD with upscaling than a so-called HD channel.

For big screen viewing, I have a 120" drop down projector screen with an Optoma HD65 projector which does 720p, and 1080i. Everything Sky+HD can output, the HD65 can display. So, I have a 120" setup for: Motorised screen £120, HD65 £480. I CAN lift them, unlike the 32" widescreen CRT Phillips TV which died a few years ago.

Marty_J

Pincher wrote: »

720p is progressive, so it's 720 lines per frame,
whereas 1080i is 540 lines per interlaced frame.
Uncompressed, 720p uses higher bit rate.
Sky HD supports both 1080i and 720p, but I regard 720p as a higher quality standard.

I would rather de-interlace a signal than have to upscale it in my TV.

720p isn't a "higher quality standard", it's just different. 720p is preferable for things with lots of motion (such as sports) because it is progressively scanned.

It's not true however, that 1080i is a lower resolution.

Pincher

When looking at a still picture, 1080i is effectively the same as 1080p, with higher resolution than 720p. For watching things in motion, 720p is more capable, but only if you use more bandwidth to supply the details.
For fast action sequences, the human brain cannot process the details, so higher resolution is wasted, but frame update rate becomes important. I also distinguish TV sets as two kinds: HD-Ready = 720p, or Full-HD = 1080p, to simplify things for myself.

I'm trying to say that all this money people spend on 1080p TVs are wasted, because they just make the poor quality of broadcast more obvious.

For casual viewing of SD channels, the blocky display on a SONY 40" 1080p KDL-40V3000 LCD really annoyed me, partly because I paid £1,000 two years ago to get a artifact ridden modern art picture, as opposed to a stunning realistic picture. Now I use a HD-Ready 720p TV because the artifacts are less pronounced.

Sky HD does not support 1080p, and even the 1080i is watered down, so the action movies are a joke: they are fine until the action starts :mad:. I therefore encourage everybody to boycott Full-HD, until they start broadcasting HD at a decent bit rate.

aliEnRIK

1080i is NOT the same as 1080P. Interlaced doesnt show the same frame in 2 different parts, it shows a half of one frame then the OTHER half of the NEXT frame
A lot of deinterlacers are also quite poor which is why there 'can' be quite a difference between them
Further to that, VERY little content is actually 720P so to WATCH in 720P would mean it either needs upscaling or downscaling. Then we come to panel sizes, I dont think there are ANY manufacturers now that actually make 720 panels anymore so then it would need scaling TWICE (Very bad practice)
As for boycotting ~ I dont have ANY tv in HD. I watch blurays and films through my PS3 (As well as gaming)...................so ill pass

custardy

boycotting HD is only for sky i assume? given on virgin its part of a package rather than an extra

Pincher

40" plus TVs seem to be 1080p these days,
and I expect it's more economic to mass produce the same panels and differentiate the budget models in some other way. If you can't even buy HD-Ready (720p) soon, then there's no way to boycott 1080p.

I take your point of too many up/down scaling is not good practice. In the case of Panasonic TH37PX80B, the panel resolution is 1024x720, not 1366x720, so an extra bit of scaling seems to be inevitable, whichever way the OP configures the V+ box.

Custardy, I was suggesting people should buy cheaper 720p TVs as opposed to being conned into buying 1080p TVs when there's no broadcast signal worthy of it. I don't want to boycott Virgin or Sky. As far as I know, Sky supplies most of the Virgin cable TV content anyway.

In the spirit of MoneySavingExpert, I hate being hyped into buying something I don't need.

aliEnRIK

Pincher wrote: »

40" plus TVs seem to be 1080p these days,
and I expect it's more economic to mass produce the same panels and differentiate the budget models in some other way. If you can't even buy HD-Ready (720p) soon, then there's no way to boycott 1080p.

I take your point of too many up/down scaling is not good practice. In the case of Panasonic TH37PX80B, the panel resolution is 1024x720, not 1366x720, so an extra bit of scaling seems to be inevitable, whichever way the OP configures the V+ box.

Custardy, I was suggesting people should buy cheaper 720p TVs as opposed to being conned into buying 1080p TVs when there's no broadcast signal worthy of it. I don't want to boycott Virgin or Sky. As far as I know, Sky supplies most of the Virgin cable TV content anyway.

In the spirit of MoneySavingExpert, I hate being hyped into buying something I don't need.

Even if the panel was the exact 720P dimensions theyd still have to SCALE using the V+ box to get it to those dimensions (Meaning its STILL being scaled)