Difference between HD ready and Full HD

WIZE

Hi All

I will be getting NTL HD box but need a new TV

I plan to buy a HD ready tv

Will this work ?

booyah1024

hd ready isn't full hd.

there are 4 modes of HD.

720i
720p
1080i
1080p

generally a tv that can do all four modes is labeled FULL HD. whereas a HD READY tv will only do the first three at the most.


i'm not 100% sure what mode the ntl hd box broadcasts in but if it's like sky hd it will be 720p/i

Tea_Bag

yeah more than likely going to be 720p. in the states i believe they also only broadcast upto 720p, something to do with encoding or sommet.

celticfc

I would have imagined UPC/NTL would use 1080i like on Sky/satellite, but maybe not. Blu-Ray players and the like are 1080p (Best Quality).

HD Ready branding is the most ridiculous and misleading term ever.

When buying a HD TV, you would be best advised to go for a 1080p all day.

watty

there are 4 European modes of HD. ( the equivalent four USA modes, also 720p24 and 1080p24)

720i
720p
1080i
1080p

HD ready means it will DISPLAY all European modes. But may not have an HD screen. (1366 x768 is typical)

Full HD means it has a native 1920x1080 p screen and displays all the European modes. Quality may vary for 1080i which can be native (best) or deinterlacing to 1080p (worse to good depending on deinterlacing chip)

Virtually all European TV broadcast is 1080i

SD LCDS are 720 x576 or 864 x 480 ro some similar variant
Some HD sets can do USA modes (30i and 60p) and Cinema Modes (24p)

Elmo

What does SD look like on HD tv screens?

watty

Depends on the HDTV and size of it.

Upscalled (By TV or setbox or DVD) on a 60" HDTV @ 8ft it's slightly blurred but not blocky with obvious lines as it is on 60" SD projection without upscalling.


@ 6' distance On a 22" HD LCD much better than an cheap 22" SD LCD, but no better than a good 22" CRT.

It depends on the SD quality, SD Source resolution, upscaller quality etc.

SD can be 720, 704, 544, 384 or 320 pixels per line.
SD can be 576i lines or 288p lines doubled.
SD can be 4:3 or 16:9, which varies the effective native dots per line needed for display.

SD LCDs are fixed resolution so there are scaling issues. If it's a 720 x 576 line SD 16:9 LCD, then it has not enough resolution for 9 of the 10 possible resolutions. Also the source pixels may not line up with screen pixels reducing sharpness and creating fuzz (common on cable). A CRT doesn't have a fixed array of dots so any source resolution on SD makes no difference.

An HD Ready LCD is a minimum for SD on LCD really as it's upscaller chip should result in higher quality no mater the SD source resolution as the native resolution is 1366 x 768 typically. It will perform well with 4:3 content where the SD WS (16:9) LCD/Plasma loses nearly one half the sharpness and creates sampling artifacts..

For actual HD you want a 1920x1080 native resolution. Or 16:10 1920x1200 can be even better as it displays SD in higher quality.