HD

Soz for posting down here..

Currently full HD has become "quite" affordable here in ZA. So I'm looking for a 40". The question is Full HD or HD Ready?

My situation follows that I'm at approx 9.84 feet viewing distance. From what I gather, to really experience full hd you need a viewing distance of 3x the screen height. If I take that, then I need a screen height of 3.28 feet which is way above the 40" height of 1.9 feet.

So my question(s) to those fortunate people in 1st world countries whom have experience with regards to HD:

1.) 1080i vs 1080p - is there any noticable difference between 1080p and then 1366x768 upscaled to 1080i?
2.) 1080i vs 720p - I've heard that 720p will always be better than 1080i. How true is this?


I'll be using my Xbox for DVD (SD) and AVI/WMV playback over a VGA cable.

If Full HD requires me to have a large set for my viewing distance, then I'd rather go for a non full HD set for a reduced price - which is a $375 difference. I'm looking at Samsung LA40A450 or 550.

For a final advice I also need the total price of the 720p screen. As far as I can see, it all depends on the timespan that you want to write off (or whatever that's called in decent English) your new screen.

In a first world counrty (and I'm sure SA will follow quicky with the soccer worldcup being in SA in 2010) I think you will have plenty of choice of full HD broadcasts by 2010, and full adoption of BlueRay. So if you write off the new screen in 2 to 2.5 years then you can go with a 720p and go for a nice WC bargain in 2010 (of course that will still mean lots of money but with a nice screen to go with that).

My guess is you will want to write off the screen over a longer period (4 years min), in which case I'd opt for full HD.

From what I heard, here in the states, everything is going toward 1080p. So why buy the 720 and short yourself later?

How good is projectors with regards to HD?

My dad has a DSP Sony capable of 1080p - but I never really saw a huge difference with the 720p and 1080i although in the same breath I can add that ambient lighting was never really adequate.

I figured it was a lighting issue. If it wasn't for that minor, plus lamp life then I'd go projector.

I might've also made a mistake with regards to the DSP - is it DLP or DSP projector?

Anyhow - my bank did a balls up with my 30 day notice and I was going to fetch my darn tv yesterday already. So now it's tomorrow.

First time I'm going to experience HD from the comfort of my own couch. I'm only hoping the upscaling (through 360) isn't as bad as AVS forums point at with regards to SD as I don't have too much software HD content and no blu ray type content.

When is blu ray dropping in price?? I've seen $400 prices in the states. Here by us, I'm going to pay $500 and that's alot.

We even got one HD channel now - which they launched on the Beijing Opening day - but I have to buy a new decoder @ $312 (PVR), plus upgrade my LNB from 2 wire to 4 wire @ $187 and then pay additional $6.87 ontop of my $57 subscription. The joys of my turd world country. And they got like 24 months to be ready (HD and broadband wise) for ze world cup which will be sponsored by Energizer batteries.

i still have tube tv

never heard that expression before so i certainly can't figure out how that would help

No worries. My Toshiba HD "tube" TV still blows away anything I've seen since, you just lose size. CRT is still the only display that can display true blacks, although other mediums are gaining.

mine is a sony trinitron 32" and very heavy

Because theyre "letterbox" format, one of the actual theatre formats: prolly 2.35:1 or it could be 2.21:1 or 2.25:1, depending on what size film was used to actually make the movie and the post production editing.

Both 4:3 and 16:9 formats are clipped, or "edited to fit your screen" as they like to say.

you can read a little about it here, though this particular presentation is a bit confusing

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/lbx.htm

Thanx for the link.

I guess my week will consist in fine tuning everything and getting to grips with the pros and cons of widescreen tv/dvd. And does this darn tv have settings.

It's still too early to start writing anybody off. I've been on holiday and just popped back to watch our first home game and the CL game on Wednesday. Then of to Bulgaria for a week or so for some more strenuous relaxing.

Woman? There is actually more than one, not that many more, but some.

Not a fcuking chance, I'd have been a Kopite even if I were born on the moon.

Congrats, money well spent. SD TV. Something I shoulda' warned you about. Sorry. Cable is, at least in the U.S., especially bad with this. It's what happens when running 480i on a 720p screen.

1080 won't be good enough to show your home video footage on in a year or so.
Link.

Edit for typo.

4K??? Bloody hell - imagine pron on that. You can see battle scars!!!

Talk about that, when last did a good dark comdedy come out (preferably from the UK)?

I was having a look around and saw a few upscaling dvd players here by our local shops, ranging from LG, Samsung to Sony. None of the exotic makes that can be found in the States though.

To date my 360 is doing a 'passible' job of upscaling content and as mentioned based on the effort from whomever did the transfer from master to dvd it actually does well (I got old movies that look better than newer ones through upscaling). I'm saying passible as I'm sure there's some excellent upscaling players out there that can make a statement of 'good' dismissive.

The only gripe(s) I have remaining is the tuning of all the various settings. That's tedious to say the least. That and the damn aspect ratio (Thanks for the link Turpit).

I was browsing through all my dvd's yesterday and saw how many was 16:9 Letterbox, including my Pulp Fiction DVD... What a movie, to this day still. Funnily my "proper dvd's" aka Snatch, Apollo 13, BOB etc all have 1.87:1 ratios.

I just remove the letterbox and luckily the function does not take away any picture. It only takes a while to get used to this inflate.

I will seriously consider taking you up on your offer (if my trip to Phoenix gets canelled for early next year), but with the effort I'd venture into Blu Ray instead of an SD-DVD upconverting player .

I will have to wait a while - bumped my plans for end of september as the queen Mary wants some home decoration done after watching Home Make Over channels - fcukin idiots share the same impact as Cosmopolitan.

But how good can HD DTS be over DTS?

The ease of use over a single cable I applaud, yet I just can't ignore the fact that current 5.1 sounds @ 24bit/96khz is addeqaute enough. Or am I missing something here [/based on history I might be]?

True indeed. My one friend bought an upscaling dvd player that only does 720p and 1080i (the debate around 1080i vs p we can neglect). He paid $375 and he's using a plasma with 1024x768 res. $375 for an upscaling player is a bit expensive because to me the only thing being done is populating pixels based on their position relative to differing colors.

So, when I had a rented dvd with minor scratches bomb out on the xbox last night I used my normal dvd player over component with progressive scan and it looked fugly. The xbox upscaling works well with such a comparison. Comparing the xbox with a $375 stand alone upscaler is where IMO it might get ascew. There is a saturation point where product A can not justify its price compared to product B if we use upscaling as the guideline for decision.

The same applies to me with DTS HD. DTS over 6 channels @ 24bit/96khz vs DTS HD over 8 channels @ 24bit/96khz doesn't justify it to me. The reason is that whomever produces a movie must spend time in getting the sound matrix perfect and to my knowledge there is very little production houses that pride themselves on releasing a movie with exceptional audio quality. The ratio of good vs bad favours the bad and for that I don't see why if currently and to date few movies have exceptional DTS over 5.1 why would any effort be made in doing a better job over 7.1?

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not undermining what you are telling me. A good audio system vs an average run of mill audio system will most likely have quality where it matters. The real factors in the higher price isn't the mediums' bit rate but clarity, SNR etc. Problem is, you really have to be good at knowing what areas a good one exceeds at providing that you have the proper medium and more importantly you are using the technology to its best with regards to the setup. In short, the dedicated audio/video-phile will know how to expose the difference but he's still subjected to the medium's quality.

This would also lean towards what the human ear can process - what more can be added above 24bit audio that would make a noteworthy addition? The only thing they can truly work at is coverage of audio in surround. The last part would be fidelity and this is the major decider in pricing. Fidelity sells speakers, not the standard it can drive. But where is the saturation point where it becomes hard to justify a hefty price tag. How much more can a person whom has a $3000 sounds system enjoy audio than one whom has a $300 system? No one knows - it can't be measured.

Well, I'll admit that I have a Z5500 system. Not really the best out there, but considering price it's a blast. I am contemplating going component at some stage but here by us we seldom get exotic brands in well priced scenarios. I'd go exotic just for speaker design as I already stated I believe processing of audio standards can only be as good.

Lol - Master and Commander. That and Saving Private Ryan is my favourite in terms of showing off DTS. M&C, the opening scene is just spectacular!

Saving Private Ryan. First thing I played after I got my second sub. Ater the opening scene, I noticed some sh*t in the house had moved. Really.

I would assume that Toshiba player's got the technology in it from their now defunct HD DVD players. Mine is noticeably better at up converting than the Blu-ray PS3.

DVD's of any format aren't the future for sure. I rarely buy Blu-ray's or HD DVD's unless it's a "must have" or are on sale. Best Buy had Goodfellas on Blu-ray a little while back for $15, or when the new Batman is out, I'll buy that immediately, that kind of stuff. Netflix carries Blu-ray and costs no more over standard DVD, so that's the route I go.

Keep in mind, up converting will improve the DVD, but only up to a point. An up converted newly printed DVD, where the movie was shot digitally, will not look nearly as good the same flick on Blu-ray. Older movies you have the same issue as on standard DVD's though. It's only as good as the source. Grand Prix on HD DVD looks stunning, Caddyshack on HD DVD, not so much so.

Don't fret over the Z5500's. We all start somewhere, and would bet it blows away most people you know. Hell, my Onkyo replaced a 12yr old Pioneer Pro Logic sh*t set-up...lol.