MySkyHD and a new tellie

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muzza4

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#22962 13-Jun-2008 16:19

Hi there,

So I need a new tellie when the new MySkyHD box arrives, but I don't know much at all about them, all I know is I want a 42 inch.

There's lots of different TVs out there with some called HD Ready and some called Full HD.

What spec TV will get the best out of the MySky box, what spec TV would be a waste of money because the MySky box doesn't provide the detail that the TV.

Any model advice is very welcome too, I was thinking in the $1500 range but I'm not sure that achievable.

Cheers

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#137840 13-Jun-2008 16:45

For myskyHDi all you need is a HD ready tv, Full HD won't happen through sky, you only need full HD when you have a bluray player etc because it will use it properly. $1500 wont get you much of a tv, you could get a cheap branded tv possibly for that but you get what you pay for with lcd tv's. In my optinon, brands to get: Sony, Samsung, Phillips. Brands to avoid: acer, sanyo, sharp.. thats just through personal opinion. I have a 42" samsung hd ready, and love it :)

sbiddle

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#137844 13-Jun-2008 17:09

There are plenty of deals going at present for 42" Plasma's - I've seen a few brand now for under $1500.

As for a 720p vs a full HD 1080p model the reality is with a 42" screen you simply aren't going to spot the difference.

ajobbins

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#137850 13-Jun-2008 17:32

Don't forget tho, Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel, even if it is only an interlaced signal. "HD Ready" panels - those that have a resolution on 1366x768 or similar cannot display the 1080 lines and will scale the image down to the resolution of the panel, normally 768 lines. Your looking at well north of you budget for a 42" Full HD panel tho, even with the budget brands.

sbiddle

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#137857 13-Jun-2008 18:10

adamj: Don't forget tho, Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel, even if it is interlaced. "HD Ready" panels - those that have a resolution on 1366x768 or similar cannot display 1080 lines. Your looking at well north of you budget for a 42" Full HD panel tho, even with the budget brands.

I thought Sky were using both 720p and 1080i? Anybody know if the boxes will output what is onscreen or will force 1080i like the Zinwell Freeview ones?

1080i is a horrible standard. Give me 720p any day!

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#137870 13-Jun-2008 19:09

sbiddle:
adamj: Don't forget tho, Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel, even if it is interlaced. "HD Ready" panels - those that have a resolution on 1366x768 or similar cannot display 1080 lines. Your looking at well north of you budget for a 42" Full HD panel tho, even with the budget brands.

I thought Sky were using both 720p and 1080i? Anybody know if the boxes will output what is onscreen or will force 1080i like the Zinwell Freeview ones?

1080i is a horrible standard. Give me 720p any day!

1080i25 and 720p50 both have their merits. An advantage with 1080i is that you can put a 1080p24 movie into 1080i25 (speeded up slightly) and reconstruct it back into the exact progressive original at the display.

720p is supposed to have advantages for sport/action video but with deinterlacers improving all the time that's not likely to be such an advantage.

A lot of people don't report much difference in perceived resolution between 1080 and and 768 res. TVs at the 42" level. Often it comes down to the general qualities of the display.

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#137884 13-Jun-2008 20:37

Philips panels have been way out of date until recently. Samsung is good, but sony is the same panel but with better software. The sony D series is very nice for a hd ready (non 1080p) tv.

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johnstbr

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#137893 13-Jun-2008 22:01

I'm in a similar situation, in that I probably going to get a 42inch plamsa to go with the new mysky but can't decide if the extra cost for full HD is worth it. How much extra does full HD cost? Or does everyone reckon I should
tump up for a 50inch full HD TV and live the dream?

Crabman

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#137894 13-Jun-2008 22:02

Panasonic 7/70/700 series plasmas are on runout at the moment (80/800 due now-ish). the TH-42PV7 can be got for about $1500, only one hdmi tho' from memory. Advertised as "hd-ready"it is 1024x768.

Having watched TV3's HD programming on a similar plasma for a couple of months now, I'll be interested to see how SkyHD compares.

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muzza4

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#137897 13-Jun-2008 22:48

Thanks for these answers everyone.

This LCD TV is Full HD http://www.priceme.co.nz/Philips-42pfl7422-42-full-hd-LCD-TV/p-1366266.aspx?

Is it better to get high resolution or better quality?

Cheers

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#137919 14-Jun-2008 07:05

One other thing to factor in is whether you ever plan on hooking a PC up or not. This can be either an easy process or a nighbtmare depending on the TV and how fussy you are.

hazza87

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#138179 15-Jun-2008 15:50

adamj: Don't forget tho, Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel, even if it is interlaced. "HD Ready" panels - those that have a resolution on 1366x768 or similar cannot display 1080 lines. Your looking at well north of you budget for a 42" Full HD panel tho, even with the budget brands.

This is not true,
Sky have announced they will use 1080i for all their HD channels, this is a certainty now.
1080i will display on any tv with a resolution of 1024x768 or above (almost certainly - will advertise the resolutions it supports)
a 1368x768 resolution tv will display 1080i pictures just fine and with anything under 42" i would definetly say you might as well go for that resolution rather than pay alot extra for 1080p especially if you will mostly use it for SKY HD

I would also say that a sony d series is a good option.

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#138181 15-Jun-2008 15:57

hazza87:
adamj: Don't forget tho, Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel, even if it is interlaced. "HD Ready" panels - those that have a resolution on 1366x768 or similar cannot display 1080 lines. Your looking at well north of you budget for a 42" Full HD panel tho, even with the budget brands.

This is not true,
Sky have announced they will use 1080i for all their HD channels, this is a certainty now.
1080i will display on any tv with a resolution of 1024x768 or above (almost certainly - will advertise the resolutions it supports)
a 1368x768 resolution tv will display 1080i pictures just fine and with anything under 42" i would definetly say you might as well go for that resolution rather than pay alot extra for 1080p especially if you will mostly use it for SKY HD

I would also say that a sony d series is a good option.

Wrong. Yes alot of panels 768 line panels will accept a 1080i singal (Or even a 1080p signal as my Bravia does) however the panel simply cannot physically display more than 768 lines, which means a 1080 line picture is being scaled down to 768 lines for display. There is no way your panel can DISPLAY more lines than it physically has.

The number refers to the number of vertial lines of resolution, and the letter (I or P) referes to whether the image is Interlaced or Progressive. Interlaced scanning "paints" the picture on the screen by first filling in all the odd-numbered scan lines then filling in all the even-numbered scan lines. Done very quickly, the eye only sees one picture on the television. Unlike progressive scanning, which fills in each line before proceeding to the next line, interlaced scanning is not as stable and prone to artifacting. This is why a Progressive signal is considered better. However, with some good quality displays with good interlacers, the difference can be hard to see.

hazza87

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#138183 15-Jun-2008 16:07

That much is obvious, but you were incorrectly stating that you needed a FULL HD tv to receive SKY HD, which would clearly be a waste of money. The difference between 1080i on a FULL HD tv and a 1368x768 tv is completely unnoticable to most people especially at 42"

ajobbins

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#138186 15-Jun-2008 16:15

hazza87: That much is obvious, but you were incorrectly stating that you needed a FULL HD tv to receive SKY HD, which would clearly be a waste of money. The difference between 1080i on a FULL HD tv and a 1368x768 tv is completely unnoticable to most people especially at 42"

Don't misquote me. I never used the words 'needed' or 'recieve'. I stated "Sky's HD service will be 1080i and you will only get this resolution on a Full HD panel". There is nothing incorrect about that statement, however I have added to that post to clarify my point.

cyril7

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#138196 15-Jun-2008 16:45

By DVB specification (which is the standard deployed by NZ governance, so includes Sky and FreeView) any display capable of 720vertical lines or more is classed as HD capable.

Even though Sky and TV3s (or any other broadcaster for that matter) broadcasts are at 1080 due various filtering actions that will always occur at various parts of the broadast chain (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.

The BBC did test a couple of years ago to test both professional and joblogs ability to see the differnce in 42" displays of both 1080 and 720 resolution at typical 2-3m viewing distances. All test were done with source material and video chains/displays capable of delivering full resolutions of the test. The result was that no one could pick the change or of those that could they could not in a reliable manner, hence the BBC deemed for typical 42-50" displays 720 was more than sufficient. Take from that what you like YMMV.

Cyril

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