Full HD or HD ready - talk to me about TV's

[Welly]

I'm in the market for 2 new TV's but what's all this about HD full/ready?

One will be connected to a Sky box only and the other to a Digital aerial on t'roof.

[DaiRees]

There are going to be people who know more about this stuff than me, but here's my opinion.

Firstly, it depends on the size, some people say anything bigger than a 32" and you need full HD, my 32" is 720p (HD Ready) and watching standard definition even on that bugs the crap out of me! My "main" telly in the living room is a 55" LED and I hate watching anything other than full HD content on it, cos it looks shyte. Full HD on the other hand is glorious on there!

Secondly, what sources have you got? Of course a full HD tv is wasted without full HD content. So unless you're watching Sky HD, Freeview HD, Blu-rays etc (and aren't planning to upgrade) they you're wasting your money.

Strangely enough I had to call into Currys this morning and found myself drooling at the latest 65" Ultra HD (4K) TVs, but again, until people start broadcasting in that definition it's a bit pointless.

So what size are you looking for and is your Sky box HD?

[highlander]

Standard definition for a PAL TV (i.e. anything not in the USA (who use NTSC) or France (who use SECAM)) is 576 lines with 520 pixels each, giving a 4:3 aspect ratio. PAL widescreen (16:9) is 480 lines with 848 pixels each.

HD resolutions are always either 16:9 or 16:10 format widescreen - TVs are almost always 16:9.

HD Ready generally means 720p (i.e. 720 horizontal lines of pixels, each line being 1280 pixels wide)

HD Ready can also mean 1080i - note that the i means "interlaced". Interlacing means that each line of pixels is refreshed using alternating rows, so the odd-numbered lines and the even-numbered lines take it in turns to appear. This creates a horrible flickering effect in some cheaper TVs. You don't want a 1080i television for that reason, and the other reason is that some 1080i TVs only have 1440 pixels per row, not the 1920 pixels they're supposed to have.

Full HD is supposed to mean 1080p. 1080p means 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, with progressive scan, meaning each individual line is refreshed in turn, and it's a true 1080 line display.

The higher resolution the better, so a full HD 1080p screen should give a crisper image. As Dai mentions though, some TVs don't do a good job of upscaling standard definition content, so you may get annoyed with older TV or watching non-HD TV. Also worth remembering that Sky HD is only presented in 1080i format - it's a cheat - but it's still HD by definition. It also still looks way better than non-HD stuff.

4K is a bit of a misnomer - the resolution is actually 3840 x 2160 - I'd expected it to be 4,000 lines high, based on the name. It should really be called 4X, as there are 4x as many pixels as on a 1080p display. There's not much point in a 4K display at the moment, unless you plan on connecting it to your PC and watching some of the small selection of YouTube videos now available in 4K format. Broadcast TV does not exist at 4K resolution, and Blu-Ray disc format only supports up to 1080p at present. 4K TVs also cost a lot at present. Wait til they come down in price enough to justify the cost - by then, there should be more content available in 4K resolution.

Forget 3D, it's a fad and will disappear sooner or later. Until a TV is mass-produced which has the ability to display three-dimensional images (think "Star Wars" hologram of Princess Leia projected by R2D2 (but with a clearer picture), rather than what you see in the cinema with the silly glasses on), it's not going to be widely adopted.

I'd also recommend one with an LED backlight rather than a normal LCD (which use cold carbon flurescent lighting (CCFL)) or one that uses LED edge arrays. LED backlighting gives the best contrast and most even picture quality across the display. It means your blacks are really black and your whites are really white and your colours really stand out.

I'd personally recommend a nice Panasonic Viera, with a 1080p display and LED backlighting. Good quality, reliable TVs - easy to use, great picture quality, and lots of connectors on the back for Playstations/Xboxen/Blu-Ray players/camcorders/whatevers. They also give you a 5 year warranty at no cost.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/tv- ... -tx50a400b - 50in TV, £449, and apparently does Freeview HD. Job done.

[steve_earwig]

50in TV

Choose a f*cking big television...

[highlander]

My Viera is a 37in LCD with CCFL backlight. It cost around the same several years ago as this fancy new massive TV does now.

Other sizes of TV are available, from "small" 21in to frickkin' massive 100in versions, depending on budget/your sanity/the size of your house.

[Welly]

I've got a 40' incher in the lounge, some cheapo thing we got from a supermarket but it's fine for me, and plays Sky mostly through the Sony Home Cinema sound thing.

I now need a 37" (ideally) for another room which'll just play Sky from an additional multi-room install planned, I've got a Yamaha sound bar ready for this one. And another one of about 27" for a wall mount (in case you miss something on TV walking between the two rooms ) this one will play only normal freeview on its own.

So I need a full HD 1080 'p' and backlit LED, it's a nuisance in a way as I don't want to spend over £400 but then may regret spending less later on. I have to say I'm NOT a picture-quality anorak I'm just happy with an old fashioned 'clear picture' to be fair.

Very useful tips so far so thanks.

[steve_earwig]

I've got a 40' incher

[anorak] ' is feet, " is inches, so you have a 40 foot incher, whatever that is [/anorak]

Sorry I can't add anything of any value, I know eff all about where tellies went after we bought the last one. It's a 26" flat screen anyway, it's the biggest that we could fit in the cabinet where the old one was, we didn't want one bigger standing in the middle of the room because retrievers. Incidentally, when the last (CRT) telly went bang we had a 10" portable there while I investigated a new one, to start off it was tiny and made it really hard work watching anything but, after a week, I didn't notice any more.

Are f*cking huge televisions the new penis extension?

[jasper5]

Have a look around in here....https://www.avforums.com/categories/tv- ... orums.515/
Or here....http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=19

I am a member of both forums.

Basically you will not be able to tell the difference between HD Ready and Full HD unless you stick your eyes 2 feet from the screen.

I have a HD Ready Pioneer Plasma which is 6 years old...the picture is far superior to most of the latest tvs out there around a grand....unfortunately, plasma is now obsolete.
A couple of things to look out for are the angle you view the screen at, eg if you move to one side does the picture fade? Also, is there any light coming through the picture at the edge of the screen....if so the screen is crap.

[Welly]

That's interesting, like I said I'm not going to get all fussy over picture quality in detail.

When we got our 40" telly it was funny as when we set it up we all stood back, looked at each other and said it was too big and will have to be returned, now though it almost looks small especially as it seems the 'norm' is now 55" and above

All this stuff is stopping me from buying anything at the moment cos I've had my head buried in 'reviews' and all that sh*t so far

[DaiRees]

Basically you will not be able to tell the difference between HD Ready and Full HD unless you stick your eyes 2 feet from the screen.

Not sure I subscribe to that one John, because surely that also depends on the size of the panel?

A 1080 panel will have 1.5 times as many lines (or 2.25 times as many pixels) as a 720 panel, so in terms of absolute resolution a 45" 1080 panel would have exactly the same number of pixels per unit of area as a 30" 720 panel (or indeed a 20" 480 panel). On similar sized panels with different resolutions, more or less pixels are crammed into the same area, so on smaller panels I can see that the resolution may not be that significant to your viewing experience from a distance, but on bigger screens it certainly is.

I don't have any 720p content to display on the 55" telly in the living room in order to test this hypothesis, all the content going to that is either full HD 1080 or SD 480, which is visually a huge difference regardless of where you're sitting, as I said earlier I try not to watch SD content on that telly, the resolution is simply too low for a panel that big and it looks rubbish. However on the 32" I do have content in both SD 480 and "HD ready" 720 (which is also a 1.5 ratio), and while the SD looks fine on a panel that size, the HD ready is noticeably better even from a normal viewing distance of about 8 feet.

[jasper5]

If you go to demo a screen go to places like Richer Sounds and ask for the remote and play around...Currys usually have the tv set in dynamic or vivid which is giving an artificial bright screen.
My 42 Plasma looked huge when I got it, now it looks small.

[jasper5]

You could set your Sky box to 720p and test it if you have a Sky HD box hooked up.

I agree that you will need a bigger screen to notice a big difference.

[steve_earwig]

That's a good point, try the remotes if you can. I may know bugger all about tellies but remotes... What I'd look for is a remote that works straight away, unlike this Samsung - "I've pressed the button, is the tiny red led flashing? Maybe, erm, I'll press it again just in case... oh, I turned it off

[DaiRees]

You could set your Sky box to 720p and test it if you have a Sky HD box hooked up.

Oh yeah, didn't think of that I'll have a go later.

[trufflehunt]

Gone are the days when a Phillips 12" drew gasps of admiration...