High Def - is it worth it? (just got Virgin HD)

penrhyn

Ahoy hoy, Smithers wind up the phonograph!

Millionaire

You might have some problem with your setup. HD is miles better than SD on mine.

thor

I never said there was no difference. Only I did not think it was worth spending extra for it. I guess I am lucky in regarding SD as being perfectly adequate even on big screens.
Whatever hype there is, is from manufacturers trying to make people believe that they could not live without HD and is now turning to 3D in an effort to flog off more tv sets.
I have seen HD on a correctly set up tv and it is not all that.

PaulJM

Well just to close this off (potentially) on my part....

I've had a Virgin engineer attend (an engineer from Virgin, not an engineer who was a .....anyway...I wouldn't know...)
Customer service for Virgin, although easy to get hold of, seemed a little reticent to help, but after a few calls, they did.

They changed the slow, laggy and massive box with a smaller Samsung one, and changed the signal slightly.
The Samsung is miles, miles quicker to respond than the other box they provided, which I don't think I could have lived with. I've no idea how they get away with installing that massive old box, but I guess some people don't complain.

Well, the picture is certainly better, and on most HD channels, is much better than SD. Mostly, it's not making me say "WOW" as some adverts would have you think, but it's mainly a lot better that standard def.
There are some pictures that do stand out. I watched Star Wars today on ITV HD, and it looked amazing.
If I get close, I can still see distortion when the picture is moving, but I think that's just a problem because it's an immature technology.
That's strange though - this is a 'Best Buy' Sony, I can only imagine the issues if you bought a cheap set.
The tech did say that he'd seen a cheaper Toshiba that looked a bit clearer.
Been through the menus on the TV, and things like cutting out MPEG enhancement, and reducing the backlight have helped a lot.

Mainly I'm happy with Virgin now. Although their customer service was not good, the forum they provide, and the engineers, are pretty good.
I don't think it meets my expectations, but that's probably because I expected too much.
To answer the question that I wondered about - "How good is HD?" - I'd say it's a lot better than standard def, but by no means crystal clear, but it's pretty damn good!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

OK_Sauce wrote: »

I can choose to listen to a CD, I can choose to listen to an MP3. On the surface they may sound about the same. Listen through a boombox you probably couldn't tell the difference. Listen through a reasonable hi-fi the difference may become more obvious. Listen through a reference pair of headphones the difference is astounding. I choose to buy a CD over an MP3 because I want the best quality that is available. My kids will download an MP3 because that's how they prefer to download music. I've told them they would get better quality through the purchase of a CD, they still choose the MP3.

.

Buy and listen to a record and it will sound even better then that.

OK_Sauce

I'm of an age where I basically grew up with records, heck I've still got stacks of them in the loft! There was nothing like buying a record, especially a double gatefold. I was a bit of a hi-fi buff in the old days and whilst I do agree with you that records do sound great, I can't be doing with the static, the crackles, the pops, etc!! CDs are just too convenient!!

PaulJM

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Buy and listen to a record and it will sound even better then that.

How much would a good record and direct drive turntable, and amp, and needle cost now though?
If you bought a turntable from Maplin for £50 now, I doubt you'd get CD quality.
I know that back in the day, when I bought a CD player for the first time, they sounded better than most of my records.

My mate had an amazing turntable set up, and it sounded better than a CD, but it cost him an inordinate amount of money, and that was back in '92. So I'd dread to know how much money it costs now.

This says a lot about hype, quality, and cost.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

OK_Sauce wrote: »

I'm of an age where I basically grew up with records, heck I've still got stacks of them in the loft! There was nothing like buying a record, especially a double gatefold. I was a bit of a hi-fi buff in the old days and whilst I do agree with you that records do sound great, I can't be doing with the static, the crackles, the pops, etc!! CDs are just too convenient!!

I love them.. i have around 20,000 of them. I love the sound of a record sounds so much fuller and deeper