New plasma TV: SD or HD

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jitendra

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#8394 26-Jun-2006 17:44

whats the concensus out there on buying a Standard Def TV vs an HDTV ready TV

I am leaning toward SD, because no one knows when HDTV will be here, and by the time it does arrive, more advanced telly's may be here anyway. I think that in this case, buying SD is the only way to future proof - if you see what i mean :)

What does everyone else think - SD or HD?

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#39688 26-Jun-2006 17:50

You hould have read the news on the weekend... TVNZ is coming with the first HD programs later this year...

So what do you think? SD or HD?
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EDIT: I found no link, I think I mixed the info, it is Sky TV in Britain who will launch some HD broadcasts next year. Almost true what I wrote.... lol....carramba, I was sure I read it in the newspaper on the weekend...

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jitendra

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#39691 26-Jun-2006 17:59

ohhh . .i think i need to read the news more! I'm off to tnvz website . . . .

Jason Gunn in HD - bring it on!

jitendra

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#39697 26-Jun-2006 18:25

nope, cant find it - do you have a link?

cheers

chiefie

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#39700 26-Jun-2006 18:48

in all mean, go for HD is wiser than getting SD...

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cyril7

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#39702 26-Jun-2006 19:10

Sky have indicated that they will do a couple of channels in HD in about 18months time. They have indicated a sports and a movie channel. TVNZ have made no promise to do HD in the near future (would be interest in any links Aloha can provide, but I think he is confused), the cost of just doing SD digital is causing them cramp.

I would go for a HD one, as it future proofs you, all the SD ones are typically only 840Hx480V pixels, which is less than our 576line system as they are US market focused, although on real material this is not a big issue.

Cyril

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#39712 26-Jun-2006 19:47

SD Plasmas are horrible things. Watch one for any extended period of time and you'll regret not spending more to get a SD model. Remember that a normal TV broadcast is 720*576 so the TV has to scale the picture just to fit it on.

Lots of people seem to look at Plasmas and be wowed by the simple fact it's a Plasma TV. Do a bit of research and view some different brands instore and you'll see there are *very* significant differences between brands and SD vs HD.

IMHO LCD is the way to go but it just depends how long you want to be saving for to buy a TV! :-)

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#39713 26-Jun-2006 20:09

we got HD LCD and definitely recommend LCD as Plasma is pretty expensive and in terms of replacement and insurance coverage, Insurance company tend to put premium up for Plasma. And given today's technology, LCD is matching up to Plasma very quickly and offers higher resolution than Plasma.

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#39722 26-Jun-2006 20:38

You'll probably have either an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player before HD broadcasts in NZ - I would go for HD just for this reason alone. no good having a super expensive DVD player if you dont have a super expensive TV to go with it right?

Anyways the TV I download looks just fine in SD :-)

jitendra

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#39738 26-Jun-2006 21:26

There was also an article on stuff a few weeks ago stating that many HD plasmas may not actually work with Sky's HD. i think it was because they had no inbuilt DRM or something like that.

Frankei

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#39739 26-Jun-2006 21:29

HDCP compliant HDMI (which most TVs with HDMI are)
Also the likes of the Sharp GA4X LCD Series altho laking HDMI the DVI-I is HDCP enabled ;)

I think that the issue was completely blown out of the water and exadurated, however its true that most TVs over two years wont work should sky choose to copyprotect the HD

About the only TV now is the S Series Sonys that wont work with Sky HD and pretty much everything smaller than 32"

Speaking of HD TV, the 37" JVC LCD has a DVB-T tuner, learn something new everyday; however thats in Oz but I cant see it being different for NZ

Aloha

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#39750 26-Jun-2006 22:51

I think I misunderstood this article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3697268a28,00.html

Sorry for that... :)

[Moderator (KY): Created link]

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Frankei

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#39757 26-Jun-2006 23:06

From my understanding HD Sky will need a HDCP compliant display, which most are now

Just because a TV will not display HD Sky dosent mean that its not HD Ready or compatible
Just simply means that Sky is anal, however the TV itself is still high defenition but unless its FTA HD, most things like BluRay or HDDVD wont work on a non HDCP display; not in HD anyway

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#40082 29-Jun-2006 13:52

The big issue with the 858x480 plasmas is that the pixels are huge, and are clearly visable untill you are a long way from it. The higher resolution ones have smaller pixels so you can be closer before it looks like you are seeing thru a screen door

And yes, pal is 576 lines, but thats 576 interlaced, to avoid flicker you can only use about 2/3rds to 3/4s the vertical resolution (depends on contrast in the image) - a single line will only be refreshed at 25fps which is often seen on onscreen graphics on tv.

DVDs have to be filtered to lower res despite being largley from progressive otherwise the look like crap on an interlaced TV.

Because of this, a 480 line panel is virtually fine for any normal pal SD material you will throw at it - its also why 1080i isnt a hell of a lot better then 720p and why people are pushing for 1080p (damn stupid yanks and interlacing a standard thats primarily used on flat panel displays)

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#40092 29-Jun-2006 15:10

cyril7: Sky have indicated that they will do a couple of channels in HD in about 18months time. They have indicated a sports and a movie channel. TVNZ have made no promise to do HD in the near future (would be interest in any links Aloha can provide, but I think he is confused), the cost of just doing SD digital is causing them cramp.

I would go for a HD one, as it future proofs you, all the SD ones are typically only 840Hx480V pixels, which is less than our 576line system as they are US market focused, although on real material this is not a big issue.

Cyril

Actually with the announcement of Freeview, there is no reason why TVNZ and TV3 couldn't got HD for some programmes. They already obtain a lot of content in HD (most primetime US tv shows and and many BBC ones) and pan and scan many of them for local broadcast. No reason why they couldn't send HD signals up to the satellite for those shows. Then all Freeview has to do is make sure the STB that is required for Freeview access has both HD compatible reception hardware and outputs as well as SD outputs. HDCP is not an issue since there is no intention advertised to encrypt Freeview transmissions or apply any DRM to them.

There is no urgency to convert either local programming or live broadcasts (e.g. news) to HD any time soon.

The problem of course becomes a bit more complicated for Freeview OTA. It means that BCL would have to make sure their transmission network and towers could transmit HD which is sure to be an additional cost. Alternatively Freeview could say, HD will only be available over satellite while OTA, which is the second phase of Freeview rollout, will initially only support SD. But to prepare for HD OTA (which is what Oz offers apparently), the DVB-T STB could be HD ready

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#40095 29-Jun-2006 15:31

I have mentioned this in other threads both here and on Audioenz that one of the nice things about digital broadcasting is that the content dimension need only fit within the constraints, no matter what it is. As such there is nothing stopping FreeView operators transmitting HD when ever they want either via DVB-T or S assuming the capacity is there to do it. The chances of that on DVB-T are greater once the analog network is shut down.

As far as the transmission system goes, it does not care if the transport stream has HD MPEG4 (or mpeg 2) or SD MPEG2 elements in it, that is simply a matter of what the encoders and multiplexers at the central transmission centre deal with.

I would suggest that when and if FreeView decides to do HD (over satellite) it will involve one of two things, either buying more tranponder space, or changing their uplink transmissions from DVB-S to DVB-S2. By going to DVB-S2 they get a 30% increase in capacity (rougly 13Mb/s, enough for a MPEG4 1080i stream per half transponder). Older DVB-S MPEG2 SD STB's still see the same old DVB-S modulation and transport stream as before, but newer HD STB's can see both the high modulation density S2 modulation and stream as well as the old. TVNZ currently (and will on D1) have one whole transponder, this is split into two transmissions, each with roughly 32Mb/s post FEC streams with DVB-S QPSK, under DVB-S2 8PSK each of those transponders should offer around 45Mb/s post FEC.

On DVB-T they would need more mux's (transmitters) which once the analog network is shut down some will become available (if not sold to other spectrum users).

I would suggest that for now Freeview will concentrate on getting a MPEG2 SD network running, once that is in place off the option of HD to those who wish to buy a more expensive STB. HD STB's still fetch a premium which is no where near the $200 or less that Freeview is aiming STB's to be.

Cyril

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