UPC & HD TVs??

Sixaside

Hi everyone,

does anyone here have a 38 inch+ HD LCD TV and are UPC customers also. I'vebeen thinking of getting a decent TV for a while but have a few concerns:

Nearly all of the major TV/Electronic shops seem to use Sky so I don't know whether the picture from the UPC DVR box will be of similiar quality, though the quality in the shops varies significantly from TV to TV anyway.

I watch a good bit of sport and from what I've seen the images get blurred when there is fast movement being portrayed on the screen. Has anyone else noticed this ? Can it be resolved through the picture settings on the TV itself?

Is there any advantage of getting full HD over other HD ready TVs? I read somewhere that the human eye can't differentiate between the picture quality between progresive scan and interlaced images? Maybe this is a myth?

Finally, does anyone know if UPC have plans to broadcast any channels in HD anytime soon?

Sorry for all the questions but I know the sort of answers I usually get from the store assistants and no product is as good as they make out!!!

Thanks,
Sixaside

ps. Sometimes I think that my old 32inch CRT TV has a better picture than any of the LCDs I see in the shops!!!

pps. I thought I'd see lots of similiar queries in this section so I may be posting this in the wrong place. Apologies if that's the case.

com7

i d have to agree with you about the crt i have a 32 " hd lcd and a 32 " (jvc)crt and for watching sports the crt is better the lcd s do nt seem to refresh as quick its sky i have by the way

murpho999

I have a 40" Samsung LCD with UPC DVR, and I have no problems with the picture quality.

Sports are fine too and I do not have any bluring.

I cannot accept that a good LCD has a worse picture that an old CRT.

Colour definition and picture quality are way better than CRT.

Make sure to buy a decent set, don't go and buy the cheapest.

Go to a store and pick a model and then google reviews of it. There are tons of sites offering advice on what tv to buy,

Also, do not judge a TV by display models in stores. Signal is split among all the TV's and is therefore weakened.

As for UPC. I am an ex Sky user. I cannot see any difference with the quality of the picture from either service. I would switch back to Sky if I could as they have superior services and products but I do not have an issue with picture quality.

As for HD, UPC are supposed to have it next year but they have missed deadlines on this before.

I have seen it on Sky and to be honest I do not see what all the fuss is about, I found it very hard to tell the difference with my own picture quality so I'm not really in a rush to get it.

Hope this helps.

squonk_ie

I have HD and the difference between SD and HD is startling. Are you sure you were not watching a SD programme on a HD channel?

Sixaside

Thanks for the replies. Food for thought.

It had crossed my mind that the signal must be split among all the display TVs in the shops so that's reassuring anyway!

rubadub

murpho999 wrote: »

I have a 40" Samsung LCD with UPC DVR, and I have no problems with the picture quality.

Sports are fine too and I do not have any bluring.

I have seen a 37" series 5 samsung and the picture was not great for football. Any particular settings you use? do you connect just via scart?

I have seen some new cable boxes have HDMI out and also have upscalers in them, dunno how much of an improvement these would be. You would think UPC would offer a decent box at a higher price.

Many do think CRT is better, it is just since it masks the flaws in the broadcast/signal/crap box. While LCD shows it for the crap it really is.

dunworth1

rubadub wrote: »

I have seen some new cable boxes have HDMI out and also have upscalers in them, dunno how much of an improvement these would be. You would think UPC would offer a decent box at a higher price

they will when there hd service comes

and dont say somthing like when is this going to happen or somthing like that
its takes time to do these thign they have to have talks with with who ever they will be geting the hd channels off

bk

dunworth1 wrote: »

they will when there hd service comes

and dont say somthing like when is this going to happen or somthing like that
its takes time to do these thign they have to have talks with with who ever they will be geting the hd channels off

Are UPC's new boxes MPEG4 capable?

Just because a box has HDMI, doesn't mean it can do MPEG4 and I assume UPC's HD service will be MPEG4.

MartMax

I have UPC DVR on a 42" plasma, Panasonic TH-42PV80 via scart connection and can say the quality is acceptable depending on the channels I watch. Certainly can't beat DVD playback or viewing on CRT tvs.

dunworth1

bk wrote: »

Are UPC's new boxes MPEG4 capable?

Just because a box has HDMI, doesn't mean it can do MPEG4 and I assume UPC's HD service will be MPEG4.

they will probably have different boxes for hd

Freddie59

mart_max wrote: »

I have UPC DVR on a 42" plasma, Panasonic TH-42PV80

They're the boys for it. I was looking at ANALOGUE cale on one the other night. The Panasonic's signal quality is staggering. Nearest thing I've seen to a CRT.

BostonB

rubadub wrote: »

I...Many do think CRT is better, it is just since it masks the flaws in the broadcast/signal/crap box. While LCD shows it for the crap it really is.

The CRT is the same resolution as the analog signal. Whereas the LCD has to rescale it which leads to pixelation. Most LCD's do this poorly, some do it very well. If the signal is standard definition but over compressed over digtial like NTL the pixelation can be exaggerated.

To get the best out of a LCD you want to use HD.