HD v HD Ready

shawpower

I'm looking at possibly getting myself a Panasonic TH-42PV70EY this weekend. The local store has them priced at €1999. However, I've seen prices online (Komplett at €1250 incl stand, Peats at €1499) which are a lot cheaper - more than usual for online v store comparisons. The only difference I can see on this is that the one I'm looking at is brand new and is HD while the ones online are just HD Ready.

Is it worth paying an extra €500 to move to full HD? I'm planning on getting SkySports HD, but from what I hear that isn't even fully HD yet either.

Also, what is the story on plasmas and the whole 1080p thing? I've heard that only LCD's can realistically attain it. Is this true, and if so what benefits are there?

On reading some of the threads around here there seems to be a lot of confusion on the whole resolution thing and what realworld affect it has. My impression from reading here is that the two resolutions you guys are saying is best are 1920x1080 & 1024x720. When I say best, I mean to get a 16x9 picture rather than widescreen. Am I right in this? If so, what difference does it make if you go for one over the other? Is most content aimed at one?

The Panasonic I'm looking at above seems to come in 1024x720. What does this mean to the naked eye?

Also I'll be plugging in an Xbox 360 into it. Am I looking at the right sort of box for this?

byte

Well Personally, I would prefer Full HD - 1080p. I haven't seen any screens that are 720 lines, instead they are mostly 768 lines, which would mean scaling would have to be involved somewhere.

HD Ready generally is screens with 768 lines, Full HD being 1080 lines (that said, AFAIK these will soon be known as HD Ready 1080p).

Id' go with the one in your local shop which seems to be 1080p, as you'll also be able to avail of the 5 year warranty (only available if you get a demonstration instore). Link

big_moe

the tv you're looking at is the TH-42PY70, its the full hd version.

i'd go for that as well, its well worth it for the extra ~500 quid. and also, that TV (the PY70) has extra features the PV70 doesnt have. composite video connections & s-vid connections, a headphone output & an SD card slot

the price of it is 1999, the PV70 is 1499. so your local place is spot on. (unless they are charging you 1999 for a pv70, in which case they have gotten confused!)

moe

mathias

the two resolutions you guys are saying is best are 1920x1080 & 1024x720.

I dont recall anyone ever saying that , maybe you made a mistake in the figures ,

The two native HD transmission content resolutions are 1280 x 720 and 1920 x 1080 ,

Also just to be clear , HD is anything with a vertical resolution over 720 lines , you need this and other things to label a TV HD ready ,

There is no difference between HD and HD ready , anyone that tells you any different is lying or trying in some way to con you.

Full HD is a made up term , its true that the highest form of HD currently is 1920 x 1080 , and this is likely to be the highest for some time , but there is no standard that calls this Full HD , what happens if in the future a higher res is introduced , will that be even Fuller HD ? Clearly nonsense , all you need to know is the native resolution of the set. Dont be assaulted with all this bull about HD , Full HD , HD ready or whatever , ask the native resolution.

Too keep it simple , there are two native resolutions on all decent HD TV's , they are

1366 x 768 ( very common , 16:9 ratio and very close to the first HD transmission standard of 1280 x 720 )
1920 x 1080 , currently the best but most expensive.

These are the native resolutions you want to see in any tv you are considering , anything else Id run a mile from.

mathias

Also, what is the story on plasmas and the whole 1080p thing? I've heard that only LCD's can realistically attain it. Is this true, and if so what benefits are there?

I Forgot to answer this part , No its not true that plasmas cant show 1080p,

Plasmas and LCD's are pretty equally matched these days , and both a capable of showing an excellent HD picture , there are pros and cons for each though

Where Plasmas are better than LCD's .

The Blacks , this is any dark scene in a movie , plasmas show detail better than LCD's however these days you may be hard pushed to notice it.

Movement , fast moving scenes tend to be done better on a plasma , again though , they are more closely matched these days.

Where LCD's are better than plasmas ,

Burn in , with a plasma , static parts to the image may burn into the screen , its common for a Plasma to have a burn in period , where for the first so many hours of viewing you keep the contrast very low to avoid burning a permanent part of the image onto the screen.
For this reason , its not wise to hook a brand new plasma up to a gaming console for hours at a time.
LCD's do not have this problem , so if you or your kids plan to do a lot of gaming , you want an LCD.

Native resolution ,
Some plasmas have awkward native resolutions like 1024 x 768 , but as in the previous post , dont even consider any major TV purchase without a native 16:9 resolution ,
1024 x 768 , while strictly speaking fits the HD ready requirements , is a 4:3 native resolution and to be honest I wouldnt consider shelling out a large amount of cash for any TV with a resolution like it.

shawpower

big_moe wrote: »

the tv you're looking at is the TH-42PY70, its the full hd version.

i'd go for that as well, its well worth it for the extra ~500 quid. and also, that TV (the PY70) has extra features the PV70 doesnt have. composite video connections & s-vid connections, a headphone output & an SD card slot

the price of it is 1999, the PV70 is 1499. so your local place is spot on. (unless they are charging you 1999 for a pv70, in which case they have gotten confused!)

moe

You are of course correct. The shop had misadvertised it. It is the TH-42PY70, with all the extra features you mention above.

I've made the purchase anyway. When I was in with them yesterday looking at it, they were giving me the Panasonic TH-42PY70 & Panasonic stand for €2,400.

When I went in today I got chatting with the boss and he was askimg me what quality signal I have. When I said I just used the Sky signal, he said I'd be fine. He said that people who use the standard analogue cable shouldn't fork out on a set like that as they won't get the true benefit of it, but with the satelite signal I'll get good pictures even at SD standard.

I mentioned about DVD's and he said that Panasonic had a DVD player that upscaled to HD quality. I expressed a bit of interest, but said I'd bought a DVD RW about a year ago so I didn't really think I'd spend the money on it. He said he'd throw it in for free! I know that a DVD upscaler isn't really HD, but since it was free I'm happy.

On the way to the till I was talking to him about how I've just bought an Xbox 360 and asked if he had any HDMI cables. He picked up one for the 360, and another for the DVD player and threw them in for free too! The price on the HDMI cables he picked up for me were €25 each! I'm not sure if that is standard or pricey, but since they were gratis, I'm not complaining.

I have to say that I'm delighted with the deal I got on the overall package. Oh, the extra icing on the cake is that it'll be delivered and assembled tomorrow for free.

Thanks for all the replies.

byte

Seems good enough. I presume you get the 5 year warranty thrown in too?

shawpower

byte wrote: »

Seems good enough. I presume you get the 5 year warranty thrown in too?

Forgot that bit too.