HD and the pitfalls

hendragon

like many people I have had a look at HD televisions. It seems to me that a TV may be HD ready without being able to to do justice to a HD picture.
Most retailers seem to be displaying HD tvs that are showing SD pictures.
It is really quite difficult to get a full demonstration of HD.
I have seen a demo on both a high-end LCD TV, and a plasma TV.
It seems to me that an LCD TV is unable to give sufficient picture quality to get much benefit from a HD signal.
If you compare this to a good plasma TV the difference is startling.
I have decided to wait and see what happens with the technology and prices. It seem to me that the picture on my flat screen CRT television is as good as, if not better, than a HD signal on an LCD TV.
My own suggestion might be that if you need a new TV an HD ready LCD TV might be a good option. As a replacement for a good CRT TV it leaves a lot to be desired.
I would be interested to hear what people think, and also from people who have bought a HD ready TV without seeing a HD picture on it and have not been satisfied with the picture. I rather think that the major electrical retailers are using HD to unload as many units as they can in a short time regardless of how good or suitable for purpose they are.

ckerrd

At the moment I think you are still better with CRT.
There is also an issue with where you source your HD pictures from.
Cable, BSkyB or DVD.

Don't expect to see HD on Freeview for a good while yet as it will ake up a lot of bandwith.

Tallymanjohn

I'm hanging on until HD becomes more freely available but my neighbour has a large (I think it's 37"?) Panasonic LCD TV with Sky HD & it's extremely impressive, though I know it cost well over £1,000. I've seen displays in local Comet which are running HD from an HD DVD player & they have them side by side for easier comparison. One of my big concerns with Plasma is any decent warranty that you either don't get or have to pay an awful lot more for.

mrtaus

very much depends on what your wathing to appreciate HD.

I work in broadcasting and have seen a demo of a news programme in HD and standard Digital signal viewed on exactly the same preview monitors placed next to each other and could not see a great deal of difference.

It makes a bigger difference for sport and film, but for everyday TV HD does not in my opinion make a big diffrerence, so I wont be jumping through any hoops to upgrade anytime soon.

hendragon

thanks for the post.s Can Tallyman or anyone supply info on the issue of warranties and plasma tvs?

DuncanMiller

im sorry but if you cant tell a difference between sd and hd then you are either looking at the wrong tvs, the shops has set up the systems wrong or you are just plain blind.

A decent crt will do a sd picture more justice than an LCD. A plasma will handle sd better than LCD but not than crt. (in general).

to fully appreciate HD you need to go and view a decent brand 1080i/1080p tv (only available on 40"+ on LCD and 50"+ for plasma) this should be hooked up to a HDPC setup or a HD-DVD player or SKY HD (a decent quality channel like BBC Preview) over HDMI. Even then if the shop monkeys have not set up the tvs properly you may not be getting the best quality picture.

having seen HDTV (SKY HD) on 3 different sets it makes a big difference between the brands and the setups involved. The largest noticeable difference is between channels though.

My fionce also works at a HD tv station. The HD feed there looks fantastic compared the sd feed which you end up with at home.

Ive also heard but not seen in the flesh that HD-DVD/Blue ray blows the Sky quality out of the water.

Astaroth

Tallymanjohn wrote:

One of my big concerns with Plasma is any decent warranty that you either don't get or have to pay an awful lot more for.

John Lewis gives a free 5 year warranty and will pricematch so no concerns there.

hendragon

duncan could you tell me if the current generation of HD tvs will be compatibible with the blue ray system?

Astaroth

They will be compatible however only the very large screens currently will be able to make use of the 1080p that blu-ray will offer

DuncanMiller

Astaroth wrote:

They will be compatible however only the very large screens currently will be able to make use of the 1080p that blu-ray will offer

pretty much right - if you want to make the best of blue ray then you need a 1080p screen.

You can get this on a couple of sonys from 40" (x series and new W Series) upwards at the moment and there is also a sharp and toshiba at 42" upwards.

A decent 1080i screen will also be fine as they should beable to deinterlace the signal with no visible change.

Plasmas you probably will not find a 1080 screen which is smaller than 50" !!! this is due to the technology and the fact that they can't physically make the pixels small enough.

If you need to get a TV now i would recommend heading over to https://www.avforums.com and ask about 1080i/p screens on there. Keep in mind that a 1080p screen is the top of the range available at the moment so you will be paying a premium for it!

movieman

Keep in mind that a 1080p screen is the top of the range available at the moment so you will be paying a premium for it!

The odd thing is, my 2048x1536 PC monitor cost about 250 quid...

Ok, you'd want a bigger screen for an HDTV, but I still don't understand why they're vastly more expensive than a monitor with a higher-resolution display which looks great when playing HD video.