Hdtv

Seeker

Im thinking about getting a High Definition TV mostly to be used for gaming and was wondering about the following things;

How do you connect your HDTV to an XBox 360? I got a 7 pin lead with my 360 and was wondering if you used that or something llike a SCART lead.

In 2 electronics shops I visited I asked did any of their TV's work in a 720p resolution. both of them had no idea what 720p meant. One of them gave one of their TV's a resolution of 1366 *768. Since these numbers are greater than 1280 *720 , (720p I think) , does that mean it automatically have a resolution of 720p?

Idleater

The ways of connecting the 360 to a TV are via component leads, RGB Scart and VGA PC input. See Here. I don't know what the 7 pin lead that you have is. How do you have it connected at the moment?

Regarding your resolution questions, 1366x768 is the native resolution of the screen that you are talking about. And you are correct in saying that the 720 "fits" into this. What actually happens is that the screen scales the 720 image into 768. Some screens are 1280x720 and therefore do not have to perform any scaling.

The p as in 720p is for progressive i.e. it draws all 720 lines sequentially. The alternative HD resolution is 1080i which is interlaced i.e. it draws one image of 520 lines and then another 520, one with the odd lines one with the even ones.

L.

Seeker

Thanks Nereid , thats really helped a lot. I went into a shop today and asked could the resolution be changed for a specific TV. The helper said No it couldnt. Does this mean its not a HDTV?.

Morf3h

the 360 comes with two options for viewing on your tv, if you got the premium pack.

the cable coming out of it splits into two, one with 3 pins, a red,white and yellow and the other with a green red and blue pin. the first is for your regular tv, and carries the audio signal as well. it's the kind that will plug into your dvd player or home cinema system. the second set is for High Definition Tv, basically, it uses the three pins, (blue,red,green) to carry the video signal, as opposed to the first in which only the yellow pin carried the signal. thus the second set is much better quality. Only problem is, is that it doesn't carry the sound, so you have to get an optical cable to do that for you. that's what the little socket is on the plug that plugs into your console is for. That lead goes straight to your home cinema system or tv. most tvs have a socket for it.

hope this helps..

also make sure that when you do start using HDTV, dont forget to change the little switch on the 360 video cable (the one we've just been talking about) to the HDTV setting. You'll see it, its real easy to find. And also change the console settings on the dashboard to output to 720p or what ever your tv supports.

To be honest, most sales people are air heads who don't have a clue what they're talking about. Its best to go to a decent shop like peats to ask question. Better yet, go to www.avforums.com, for some great reading.

Oh and id recommend the samsung range of HDTV's they have out at the moment. They're awesome. 32inch is beautifu. there's a big thread on it in this forum you should check out.

M.

Idleater

Seeker wrote:

Thanks Nereid , thats really helped a lot. I went into a shop today and asked could the resolution be changed for a specific TV. The helper said No it couldnt. Does this mean its not a HDTV?.

Well, as far as I know the resolution never changes. It is always at "native" ie 1366x768 or 1280x720 or 1020x575(for EDtv eg sharp). However.... what it will do is use its internal scaler to scale the image source up to that resolution. If you feed it ntsc at 480 lines it stretches it up by a factor of 1.5 or whatever it is to fit on the whole screen. Pal at 575 is scaled by 1.3. The HD 360 source is hardly scaled at all.

If you feed it PC input, it can only handle certain resolutions that it can easily pixel map - 1360x768, 1366x768, 1280x720, 1024x768 etc are all examples of "changing resolutions" even though at the end of the day, it never actually changes its own resolution, it just stretches/squashes the input source into the available pixels.

Hope that helps somewhat. Like Morf3h said, most of the sales staff haven't got a clue, they just want you to show up and buy any of the screens that they can sell you.

Also, I second the Samsung range, I have played the 360 on a 32" R51 model and it looks great. Personally I have a LG lx2r. At the end of the day all HD Ready LCD's conform to the same HD standard for resolution etc. The differences between brands/models is how good their internal tuners and scalers are. My friend with the Samsung complains about SD pictures (eg Cable TV) looking "not great" but I have no such complaints with the LG.

L.

Seeker

I was looking for a TV for under €800 , but thinking on it now , its a long term investment so I might stop and save money for a while and get a brilliant set instead of a merely good one and raise the price to €1400.

Anybody know where they sell Samsung HDTV's in Cork?

kman

Seeker wrote:

Anybody know where they sell Samsung HDTV's in Cork?

Go Harvey go !

Seeker

Im looking at the specs of some LCD TV's at the moment and it states a max resulution of 1366 X 768. The TV has a "HD Ready" logo. But for it to be HD Ready , does it not have to have a resolution of 1920 X 1024i? Does that mean the TV im looking at is not really HD?

kman

No, it is HD Ready, 1366*768 will deliver 720p, and also 1080i, both of which are High Definition standards, and will display what HD Sky and others will begin broadcasting soon.

Beginning to emerge and with a higher def again are the 1080p sets (1920*1080), but support for these is further down the line...

Idleater

kman wrote:

No, it is HD Ready, 1366*768 will deliver 720p, and also 1080i, both of which are High Definition standards, and will display what HD Sky and others will begin broadcasting soon.

Beginning to emerge and with a higher def again are the 1080p sets (1920*1080), but support for these is further down the line...

Like with NTSC vs PAL/SEcam, VHS vs Betamax, HDDVD vs BluRay the HD divide is occurring in an Europe V America again.

European broadcasters among many others worldwide have adopted the 720p HD standard and when Sky start sending out HD, this is most likely to be the format. American broadcasters have gone for 1080i.

There are several +'s and -'s for each format.

As regards 1080p, this will supposedly be a posible output on the ps3, but it will be a long while before any TV is broadcast using this format due to the bandwidth it consumes.

To be honest, having seen 720p and 1080i from a 360 (which in reality is the only readily accessible HD media for the time being), there is no difference on a 26" or 32" LCD. Arguably, 720p is closest to the screen's native resolution so it has to do less internal processing of the signal source. This means that there is less of a lip sync issue which can occur with LCD/Plasma screens. You will only be able to really notice 1080 lines on a bigger screen and then you start to get into the interlacing problems.

L.