HD Question

minusorange

Hi, im picking up a new HD TV soon and i dont know if i should get a 50" 720 signal or a 42" 1080p signal.. I've got a playstation 3 and im buying an x-box 360 soon so it's gonna be used mainly for gaming. Most games in the future will be 1080p.. but what do you think? Would you prefer the larger screen or the best possible picture? I've never played a game in HD before so I dont know what id be missing out on if i went for the 720.. the reason im asking is because ive come across a lot of conflicting information regarding 1080p on a 42" screen.. ive heard it said that there isnt much differance between the two unless its over 50" or so.. is there any truth in this? If its true whats the point in paying the extra money for full HD when you cant notice the differance on a 42". One last question.. would the 720 signal on a 50" be less impressive on a 42" because of the size? Forgive me if the answers to these are obvious but I dont really know much about this stuff and its a lot of money to part with for the wrong set-up. Thanks.

ComeOnMeath

What's your budget? And what size would you prefer?

johnnyflav

I reckon you'd be better off going with the 42" 1080p, when you have the 1080i(720p) you always feel like you're missing some of the picture quality. The difference won't be all that obvious but there is definately a difference. Check out Peats on Parnell St, they had a Blu Ray on a 40" 1080p and it looked better then any of the 1080i stuff I've seen.

mathias

ive heard it said that there isnt much differance between the two unless its over 50"

when I was buying my first HD ready TV ( a 32 inch ) by the way , thats what I was told , and given calculations to prove it as well would you believe , the calculations made sense .... until I got the TV and hooked it up to Sky HD.

Now I dont know where the calculations go wrong , they look good , but everyone was clearly mistaken , the HD looks jaw dropping , especially while watching football and national Geo.

So pay no attention to people who waffle on about not seeing any difference because of the size of the screen .........I have yet to see anyone that wasnt amazed at the HD even on a 32 inch. People who say different have never seen one.

Now on to your question , the best type of TV to get is 1080p native , this is the best HD you can get , I would go for the 1080p 42 over a bigger 720 any day.

My TV is 1360 x768 ( or basically 720 with a bit of scaling)by the way , the point is , pay no attention to this waffle about screen size , get the TV with 1080 , it will be excellent and more or less future proof as 1080p is the top of the tree for HD at the moment.

And enjoy it , you will be amazed by the picture quality.

mossym

mathias i think he meant no difference between 720p and 1080p unless over 50"

big_moe

mossym wrote:

mathias i think he meant no difference between 720p and 1080p unless over 50"

i would agree. i have seen a lot of tvs and the difference with 1080i and 1080p is only noticeable over 50", in my opinion.

moe

mathias

Yes I know what he meant , I stand by my post , there will be a noticeable difference between 1080p sources and 720p sources on a 1080p set , regardless of size of screen , Ive seen this on the hunt for my Second TV , the main point of my post is that these "screen size , picture difference" calculations are flawed !!

By the way the test sources for me were Playstation 3's and Xbox 360's , using blue ray and HDDVD copies of Casino Royale , just so you know where Im coming from.

byte

Personally, I'd choose a 1080p TV over any of the 768p TV's.

That way, it'll be fully future proof. It's still odd that there are no 720p TV's to match the output resolution of HD signal, though I believe it's something to do with being "computer friendly" resolution.

minusorange

Hi guys, sorry about the delay getting back to you and thanks for all the help. I just picked up the 42" 1080p and its blowing me away, I was happy that i bought my playstation already but now its the stuff of dreams.. by the way its a Sharp LC-42XD1E, click below for a review, thanks again!

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/televisions/0,39030218,49286421,00.htm

mossym

mathias wrote:

Yes I know what he meant , I stand by my post , there will be a noticeable difference between 1080p sources and 720p sources on a 1080p set , regardless of size of screen , Ive seen this on the hunt for my Second TV , the main point of my post is that these "screen size , picture difference" calculations are flawed !!

By the way the test sources for me were Playstation 3's and Xbox 360's , using blue ray and HDDVD copies of Casino Royale , just so you know where Im coming from.

hmmm..a hddvd copy of casino royale? casino royale is a sony movie..so blu-ray only..

ComeOnMeath

Great choice!

Snake Plisken

nope even if you get a 1080p capable tv its not futureproofed you need to get 1080p and a set that can handle 24fps, otherwise you'll see Judder (jerky movement on camera panning scenes) in Blu-Ray movies.

Snake

ZENER

Snake Plisken wrote:

nope even if you get a 1080p capable tv its not futureproofed you need to get 1080p and a set that can handle 24fps, otherwise you'll see Judder (jerky movement on camera panning scenes) in Blu-Ray movies.

Snake

Could you elaborate on this, my understanding was that all film shot movies are encoded depending on the region they are targeted at. So for europe or PAL25 regions the content was converted to an MPEG2 stream at 25FPS. I have never heard of 24fps DVDs.

There is mention of 1080p24 on Wikipedia but it seems to suggest that this is an interim format before the movie is converted to 25 or 30 fps formats for different markets.

ZEN

Snake Plisken

This is more to do with HD on Blu-Ray & HD-DVD, I notice the judder as the conversion from 24fps causes the Judder effect, this pioneer video might help explain
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...168596,00.html

Snake

ZENER

Thanks for that, the link doesn't work but I understand about the way 24 > 25 fps wreaks havoc with video. I've looked at a couple of the most recent LCDTV spec sheets and have been unable to figure out whether or not they support 1080p24.

Do you know if the set informs the source device of its capabilities via HDMI. From what I read all BD Movies are 1080p24 so I presume it must so that the player converts to 1080p25 for sets that don't support 24fps movie mode.

Can you suggest any sets that support this mode, would most - if not all - native 1920 x 1080 sets be capable of this mode? Do you know if the Sky HD box can handle this ? Even the new Sony Bravia 1080HD sets don't list this mode in their spec !!

Sorry for all the questions but I've searched and read lots of documents but details and technical stuff is difficult to find that's consistent.

Thanks in advance.

ZEN

Snake Plisken

Hi there, sorry link below should work, the new 3000 series Sony's list 24fps mode on them and should become the norm on LCD's & Plasma's in the next 12months. So your PS3 does the video conversion before sending the signal down the HDMI cable. Hope this helps

Snake

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=KDL-40D3000&site=odw_en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=TVP+LCD+TV#tab

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/top/cat/article/0,,2076_310069651_399168596,00.html

ZENER

This whole area is a minefield !

I can't find any info on whether the PS3 is capable of 1080p24 output into a suitably equipped set. This is important for me because I had intended to buy one as a BD source and due to the cost I hadn't intended upgrading the player for a couple of years but had intended changing my TV or projector next year to a 1080p capable model.

Does the HDMI standard include data exchange informing components of their respective capabilities ? Anyone have a definitive answer ?

ZEN

edit: the pioneer link still fails.

edit 2: Link works now !!

Snake Plisken

Zener,

There was a recent update to the PS3 to output 1080p 24 fps via HDMI, in short The PS3 asks the screen if it's 24p capable. If the TV says yes, then it'll output 24p. Question is to find a set that will handle the signal, the new Sony's I linked above will also the new Pioneer Plasmas will handle 24fps as well (although max res on those is 720p, but can handle 1080p 24fps signals)

Snake