'Don't buy a HD Ready telly thinking it's high-definition – it's not' blog discussion

edl2011

Sorry Martin but you have missed the point on this one.

Whilst there is a technical difference in the picture resolution between the two terms, the key thing to point out is that if you buy a "HD Ready" TV, you won't actually get a HD picture unless you connect a HD source to it. Normal Freeview is not HD so you will only see a HD picture if you connect Sky HD or a Blu-ray player, for example.

MOST TVs FOR SALE TODAY do not have Freeview HD tuners built in.

If you are buying a new TV then you should be buying one with a built-in Freeview HD tuner. Then you will be able to enjoy an improved picture. Otherwise, your regular TV watching will be THE SAME as before.

jonthedog

Sorry Martin, but this time you are confusing the issue yourself.
As previous poster have mentioned, so called HDTV in this country is broadcast at a resolution of 1080i, which HD ready TVs are perfectly capable of displaying as well as 720p.
The only time someone might possibly notice a difference is if they are watching a blue ray disc which IS capable of outputting 1080p resolution. That said, this is almost not perceivable on screens below around 37", and only then when you compare them side by side.

The fact is, people might not be happy with the picture quality on their flat screen TVs is because for standard definition TV they are generally worse than CRTs. I got a top of the range Sony Bravia a couple of years ago, compared it side by side with my old school CRT and took the Bravia back as both the sound and picture quality was worse. That's one of the reason's they don't have CRTs in the shops anymore...they really don't want people to see that SD picture and sound quality are worse on flat screens. Don't get one expecting it to be better for the time being...only to save space or add Smart TV functionality. The only reason you might want 1080p is if you use it as a computer monitor or want a TV >37".

bob_a_builder

Bit late in the day ( or should I say decade) to be running this issue isn't it !

nomoneytoday

Maybe label them as 1080HD, 720HD or 1080-3D to standardise them?

rpb

Looks like everyone else beat me to it: another scam is HD TVs coming with "Freeview" and not "Freeview HD". How many people have been caught out by that?! That should be outlawed as well. They should have to call them "HD TV with Non-HD Freeview"!

roddydogs

Never mind Martin, your only about 10years late with this info, and as usual the old "CRT was better" dinosaurs crawl out of the woodwork. Martin go back to bed.

jonthedog

CRT IS better!

tom717

You are way late on this one, but I agree that the naming convention is misleading as evidenced by the fact you use it incorrectly!
Officially there is HD Ready, HD Ready 1080p, HD TV and HD TV 1080p.
HD Ready (whether 1080p or not) was supposed to signify that the television does not have its own receiver, whereas HD TV does. Have a look at this pdf.

I think a lot of the confusion comes from retailers using the phrase Full HD.
It reminds me of the names for different USB specs - we have full speed, high speed and I think super speed. Much easier to use 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 to figure out which spec supersedes the others.

photome

Isnt this non news?

I have had an HD ready plasma 42" for about 4 years, the HD pic quality is way better than the SD pic

OK_Sauce

Interlaced 1080i signals are still the same 1920 x 1080 resolution as 1080p. The difference is that it scans each complete picture in two half passes (2 x 540 line passes) as opposed to one full pass effectivley reducing the refresh rate by half. The full resolution is still maintained, however the appearence may be less smooth especially with fast moving pictures. Freeview HD is transmitted 1080i although I believe the BBC have started to experiment transmitting 1080p.