MySkyHD and a new tellie

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › MySkyHD and a new tellie

1 | 2 | 3

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#138208 15-Jun-2008 17:20

cyril7: .... (most specifically in the pre mepg coding process) it is very unlikely that you would notice any resolution advantage in a full 1920x1080 display over a 1365x765 or 1280x720 for that matter.

Cyril

Do you mean in the mpeg compression process mainly, Cyril? I would have thought it would be pretty easy to maintain the integrity of HD digital video material through the editing/ post production phases, especially given the huge investment made by companies in this area lately .

MPEG compression on even Blu-ray, I think, is typically in the area of 100-170:1 from the source so you can see this must have a significant effect on the perceived resolution.

boby55

1539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#138211 15-Jun-2008 17:30

I would spend the extra and get the full hd so when blu ray becomes the standed (and it will) you don't have to buy another tv

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#138226 15-Jun-2008 17:59

One of the primary tools of pre mpeg compression (either mpeg2 or 4) is to apply some filtering to reduce excessive noise and other detail from "working up" the encoder for no good reason. When you are compressing to 14Mb/s you will require some filtering to achieve this before encoding.

The BBC tests I mentioned were performed with non compressed studio grade recordings, so no compression artifacts or filtering that either HD broadcasts or BR recordings at 20Mb/s or more would be subjected to.

I think the reality is that in real world presentations, 1080 material as delivered to our homes will rarely attain full resolution of the source, its just a matter of reality, like it or not.

Cyril

Dingbatt

6756 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#138307 16-Jun-2008 10:29

But getting back to your original request, i.e. a $1500 display for your soon to arrive SkyHD.
You may be best to audition a few different panels at a retailer, after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just make sure you view the same source material on each one. If they have freeviewHD/DTT hooked up check that out as it may be the closest approximation to SkyHD, and it may pay to see what SD programming looks like unless your entire viewing schedule is going to be Sport/Movie/TV3/Prime HD (not all of which will be HD, some upscaled SD).

I am yet to see a $1500 LCD (>40") that does a decent job of action (Sport) or dark movies ($3000+ yes).

Do some homework, but IMHO when you sit more than 3m back, 768 vs 1080 may be considered in the same way as LCD vs Plasma, PS3 vs X-Box360, Ford vs Holden etc (i.e. personal preference).

If you find a salesperson that genuinely knows his stuff, treat him like gold, because they are few and far between.

Incidently, I recorded Ice Age off TV3 (HD) on Saturday (for the kids y'know), outstanding when compared to the upscaled DVD.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

muzza4

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#138311 16-Jun-2008 10:41

Thanks Dingbatt et al,

I did find a good guy at L V Martin on the weekend, and I think I will be buying Full HD Plasma (http://www.lvmartin.co.nz/public/products/ProductViewDetails.aspx?productcode=TH42PY800&level1code=L1ENT&level2code=L2PLA).

So much for $1500 I guess.

However I will wait until I get my MySky install date in case prices move in my favour.

Cheers

sectoid

14 posts

Geek

#138317 16-Jun-2008 10:48

i got one of these from dick smith for just under 1500.
http://www.uniden.co.nz/NEW_ZEALAND/p_tl42tz1_ab_index.asp
i use dvi-hdmi cable from my pc to it and have it at 1920x1080 resolution. I chose LCD over plasma because as far as i could tell LCD is better for watching a lot of content from pc.

the colours are great, have freeview running from hvr2200.

of course you can go for sony d series etc, but thats like 1000 more at least.
compared to other cheap models like acer lcd/panasonic plasma... i think this uniden is way better.

LostPacket

92 posts

Master Geek

#138318 16-Jun-2008 10:55

A really good Topic over at AVS forums from Rich Peterson

There are many factors that affect picture quality aside from format.
These include lens design, lens condition, lens mounting, camera type,
camera design, camera condition, and camera setup. Those can have huge
effects on picture quality. But I'll concentrate on image format.

An interlaced format has a number of drawbacks relative to a progressive
format. Regardless of image, there is a "pi" effect when scanning lines
are visible that can draw attention, but that's unlikely to be an issue
on an HDTV consumer display viewed at normal distances.

[Moderator edit (tonyhughes): Removed a further 120 lines of copyrighted text. The remainder above is probably okay as fair use, for the full text from Rich Peterson, please click here to go to the original site which displays this copyright notice: (C)opyright 1995 - 2005 AVS Forum, Inc. - All Rights Reserved. No information may be posted elsewhere without written permission. Please do not post copyrighted information on the Geekzone forums.]

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Dingbatt

6756 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#138411 16-Jun-2008 16:05

muzza4: Thanks Dingbatt et al,

I did find a good guy at L V Martin on the weekend, and I think I will be buying Full HD Plasma (http://www.lvmartin.co.nz/public/products/ProductViewDetails.aspx?productcode=TH42PY800&level1code=L1ENT&level2code=L2PLA).

So much for $1500 I guess.

However I will wait until I get my MySky install date in case prices move in my favour.

Cheers

A good choice IMHO and one I would be making if I didn't already have a TH-42PV70 sitting in the lounge. (I wonder if I could swap them without my wife noticing?

) Have LVM got a display model already? I understood the first ones weren't due in country for another week or so. I got the chance to check out the aussie equivalent (the full-HD TH-42PZ700) at the beginning of the year and one thing I did note was it was noticeably darker than a TH-50PZ700 playing the same media right next door to it. From my research (and backed up by a techie I trust) the likely reason is because the pixels have become so small that the inter-pixel boundaries as a proportion of the total screen area have an affect on the amount of light being emitted. (Could be even more interesting because I have been told Panasonic are bringing out a Full-HD 37"). So depending on your viewing room/situation as far as ambient light, reflections, and viewing distance there may be other panels that come back into consideration now that you are north of $3000. As I said previously in the thread above $3000 there are some awesome LCDs as well, tho' I'm definitely a Plasma fan.

The 32"widescreen SD CRT that the kids now play PS2 on cost me as much as the TV you are looking at, and not that long ago either! So yes, the longer you wait the more favourable the prices, unless the NZ Dollar tanks......

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

muzza4

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#138415 16-Jun-2008 16:12

Dingbatt,

Yep LVM have the 42 and the 50 both on display.

To my untrained eye they were very deep colours: from any angle (the LCDs put me off because they were quite dull on the angle).

Cheers

TinyTim

1042 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#138609 17-Jun-2008 07:44

Dingbatt: (Could be even more interesting because I have been told Panasonic are bringing out a Full-HD 37").

This one?

TX37LZ800

LostPacket

92 posts

Master Geek

#138632 17-Jun-2008 09:26

For that sort of money and if you really wanted a 1080p Tv, I would go for a 46' X series Toshiba.

I personally wouldn’t spend 3k on a 42"

Do some homework on 720p vs. 1080p, and even better go to a store where they actually calibrate there TV's and see if you can spot the difference.

Dingbatt

6756 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#138650 17-Jun-2008 10:40

TinyTim:
Dingbatt: (Could be even more interesting because I have been told Panasonic are bringing out a Full-HD 37").

This one?

TX37LZ800

No, a plasma. There are no doubt heaps of Full-HD LCDs of this size. (Should have made myself clearer....sorry).

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

muzza4

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#138978 18-Jun-2008 15:33

Hi all,

I had thought I might get Freeview using one of the very cheap boxes on TradeMe. However that would mean I’d need to get someone in to split the signal from the sky dish to the Freeview box leaving MySky HD unaffected (hopefully). Cost, plus the potential to bugger up the Sky connection are discouraging me.

However Sky will give me multi-room using the current SD MySky box free for 4 months, so does this work...

Sky install MySky HD
Sky do cable splitting to feed multi-room MySky SD
return MySky SD after 4 months
buy Freeview box
plug Freeview box into the now unused MySky SD connection
tune and use Freeview.

Does this work, or is there something I don’t understand?

Cheers

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#138979 18-Jun-2008 15:42

That would work, or you could just have the sky man install an extra split for you at the time, they will charge you directly for time and bits.

Cyril

muzza4

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#142262 2-Jul-2008 15:49

Thanks to everyone who helped me in this thread. If you are interested in the final decision I have purchased the Panasonic TH42PY800 for $2999 plus Freeview HD by redemption coupon from Panasonic (Newbold's Adelaide Road Wellington).

Cheers

1 | 2 | 3