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HDTV myths & realities

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Steve Chafer

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Was ogling new Loewe & samsung LCD tv's at the week end (both look geneticaly simmilar but what a price difference! ~ wonder if its worth it?)

The salesman was heavy on the HDTV bit, but even if I bought one of these with buit in digital tuner would I still need another external "Black box" to get proper High definition TV when it eventually comes along.? (Year :confused: )



Might I be better just waiting for a truly integrated set to come along

I dont have Sky btw just a high quality digital ready terrestial ariel
thanks for anyone who can clear the muddy waters here!

Steve
 
I think your main focus should be buying a nice panel with plenty of inputs. Make sure that it will cope with all of the set top box possibilities that are coming out. You really don't want to buy a screen that won't play ball some time in the future.

With Loewe you'll be paying for the premium name of the brand - much like B&O equipment. Plenty of nice panels out there a lot cheaper.

I'm sure that Dr Perry will give you some good advice - he's the man when it comes to this stuff.
 
Just trying to help :bannana:
 
I think its too early to start shelling out money for hdtv.
 
Steve Chafer said:
Was ogling new Loewe & samsung LCD tv's at the week end (both look geneticaly simmilar but what a price difference! ~ wonder if its worth it?)

The salesman was heavy on the HDTV bit, but even if I bought one of these with buit in digital tuner would I still need another external "Black box" to get proper High definition TV when it eventually comes along.? (Year :confused: )



Might I be better just waiting for a truly integrated set to come along

I dont have Sky btw just a high quality digital ready terrestial ariel
thanks for anyone who can clear the muddy waters here!

Steve
Click to expand...
Heh, thanks Scott ;)

Hi Steve,

To answer your question, if you went ahead and bought either the Loewe or Samsung, make sure it carries the HD Ready logo.
HDready.jpg

Even though the TV may have an integrated digital tuner (DVB digital terestrial) I'm afraid you'll have to buy another box in order to receive a true HD service.

So yes, you will need another 'black box' when the HD services eventually come along, be it cable/satellite/freeview.

Also bear in mind that normal DVD is not HD either although you can buy DVD Players with an upscaler. These types of DVD will take the normal DVD signal and upscale it to either 720P (720 progressive vertical lines) or 1080i (1080 interlaced vertical lines) again not true HD but much better than standard DVD image quality. You'll have to wait for either BluRay or HD-DVD to arrive before you can really test out your new HD TV.

I could go on about HDMI/DVI/HDCP but I fear people's eyes may glaze over.

S.
 
Tx

Thaks Steve et al.

reckon i'll wait until mid 2006 then, ( famous last words bet the goggle box breaks down on Xmas eve.......)

from what you guys say it would seem sensible to go for the most "adaptable" screen and link it to whatever however many peripherals are needed.

steve
 
Steve Chafer said:
... from what you guys say it would seem sensible to go for the most "adaptable" screen and link it to whatever however many peripherals are needed...
Click to expand...
True, if HD is important to you, make sure it has the HD Ready logo. That will ensure that the TV has an HDMI or DVI port (This is the new HD digital connection standard) that conforms to the new HDCP protocols (new digital content encryption system to protect the poor movie companies). With the HD Ready logo the TV should also accept 720p or 1080i signals at 50Hz and be able to display those images on a minimum of 720 lines minimum vertical resolution. Funnily enough the European standards governing HD TV make no reference to horizontal resolution.

S.
 
mobeyone said:
I think its too early to start shelling out money for hdtv.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree - anyone remember how much 42" plasmas were 5 or 6 years ago?

Just picked up a Panasonic 42" HD for a touch over £2000 - HD was a secondary concern - it just seemed the price has reached a reasonable point, you can go on waiting for ever.

By the way Panasonic are one of the few brands that make all their components (Sony don't for instance) - picture is suberb on latest DVDs, the only down side is that older material shows every blemish or out of focus shot.

Currently watching Star Trek Voyager, much better picture than I thought it would be.

And best of all Angie is chuffed that it takes up less space - happy bunnies all round....

Mike
 
Panasonic don't make all of their own components; for one they are part of the Matsushita Group who share technology and also produce goods under the Technics brand.

HDTV is going the way of digital tuners - everyone insisting you need an integrated solution. Buy a good screen that has HD compatible resolutions (without scaling as it is awful) and worry about the broadcast box issue later. Just think of the screen as a monitor.
 
sorry - what i meant was the technology is far from stable and what you buy today will be obselete tomorrow.

it took crt what 50 years to get a very good picture? so i think it maybe wiser to wait until the back end of next year/begining 07 before you get a really good picture - and i would only consider buying lcd.

samsung and panasonic seem to be the market leaders at the moment, both have cracking pictures compared to how crap they used to be.
 
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stats007 said:
Panasonic don't make all of their own components; for one they are part of the Matsushita Group who share technology and also produce goods under the Technics brand...
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I beg to differ... Yes Panasonic are part of the Matsushita Group but for all intents and purposes they do make all their own components when it comes to Plasma screens and panels. i.e. they not only produce their own glass but also the driver circuits and other parts that make up the set. There are really only a handful of major manufacturers Panasonic/Pioneer/Hitachi/LG/Samsung when it comes to plasma glass and they supply all the other electronics companies, I believe that Sony get its plasma glass from Samsung, Sony will be pulling out of plasma to concentrate on LCD in any case. It's also a similar story with LCD but the big players in LCD are still Sharp & Toshiba with also LG and Samsung.

stats007 said:
Buy a good screen that has HD compatible resolutions (without scaling as it is awful) and worry about the broadcast box issue later. Just think of the screen as a monitor.
Click to expand...
Again, I'd disagree slightly... All flat panel progressive displays will re-scale an incoming image to match its own native resolution. People pay far too much attention to a screen's native resolution and not nearly enough attention to how good a TV/panel's scaler or digital image processor is. Scaling done well will produce an image of breath taking qualities, done poorly and you'd wish you stuck with an old 28" CRT. This is why the Pioneers, Hitachis and Panasonics of this world outshine other brands and the cheapo budget brands like Tiny (before they went bust) or Techwood.

Also, strangely enough, downscaling an image will produce a better quality picture than upscaling will. So, in most cases an HD TV that is upscaling a standard definition signal will actually look worse than an SD TV that is displaying a SD signal or downscaling an HD image. Just think about the results you get when resizing your jpg digital images, it's the same for TV signals.

S.
 
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Panasonic are one of the few companies that make all the major components for their screens but the other internals are not 100% Panasonic. Sony uses Hitachi glass for certain size screens but they manufacture their own elsewhere (they have a joint manufacturing facililty with Samsung).

Scaling, however good, is always worse than matching the native resolution to that of the incoming signal. In video games this is particularly important - 1080i can look very bad, especially with fast motion like an XBox 360 running PGR3.

If I were buying one then I'd wait 6 - 12 months and make sure it had a pixel resolution to display 1920 x 1080 at 1:1 (currently the Samsung 46" is how much!?!)- as you say they will all stretch the image to fit the largest native resolution if desired.

HDTV broadcasts will take a few years to get going properly in the UK - so the only real consideration is for HD-DVD / Blu-ray etc or games consoles (which have been giving progressive scan outputs for years).
 
Ive gotta pitch in here...

My 55" Hitachi Plasma is superb , couldnt ask for more. Even regular telly looks a treat on it. Football matches even with fast motion are brilliant..

I agree with steve , get a good brand and your laughing.
 
Fast motion isn't much of an issue with current broadcasts as they're PAL 50hz or resampled at 100hz. HDTV or video at 1080i will be a different story as it's interlaced (60 fields per second giving 30fps).
 
thanks for all the info guys

I feel a bit like the court judge who replied to the learned barrister after a particularly elequent speech " thank you , I am much better informed , but alas non the wiser"

Seriously, its been a great help, practically speaking I think i'll wait untill mid 2006 then armed with tape measure I'll go and try all the screens I can at the same viewing distance as in the house. I'll try and view a HD DVD /broadcast if available then. and not worry too much about an all in one set solution.

You're right about the wait untill the better one comes along scenario, the last time I bought a PC I was convinced the very minute I stepped out of the front of the store they brought the same thing (but cheaper with more RAM etc ) out of the store room! :rolleyes:

cheers
Steve

PS I'm convinced the chap told me Loewe make their own TV entirely, was he mistaken , it was in HARRODS - great place to WINDOW shop btw
 
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anyone got any views on Philips LCD HD Ready TVs? Like their look, plus I can get staff discount from a mate.
 
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