HDMI Is Awesome

RidleyRider

So this morning I bought a crappy 2euro HDMI cable for my x box and holy god what a difference! I even rang a mate and woke him to tell him of the brilliance of it:p

The difference from the scart is amazing but I'd like to know why?

Why have any scart leads at all if HDMI is that good?

Kxiii

Yes sir it is.

May I be the first to welcome you to the 21st century. We have many wondrous things to show you.:p

But seriously it does make a huge difference. I can't wait to see what games will look like in 4k.

RidleyRider

Kxiii wrote: »

Yes sir it is.

May I be the first to welcome you to the 21st century. We have many wondrous things to show you.:p

But seriously it does make a huge difference. I can't wait to see what games will look like in 4k.

I'm slowly getting here:pac:

First I bought the x box, that broke, then a bigger backed telly, that broke along with my second x box:pac: So I got a third xbox and later went the hooooole 9 yards with a HD telly. The the third xbox broke:( 4 months of vigorous saving and here I am in HD gaming!:D

What a journey:pac:

What's this 4k you speak of?

Kxiii

RidleyRider wrote: »

What's this 4k you speak of?

It's going be the next standard in HD and should be in the next gen consoles. Here's a couple links, here and here

It means, convincing the misses that we REALLY do need a new tv as well.

RidleyRider

Kxiii wrote: »

It's going be the next standard in HD and should be in the next gen consoles. Here's a couple links, here and here

It means, convincing the misses that we REALLY do need a new tv as well.

I should have kept up to date with this century:pac:

Patsy fyre

RidleyRider wrote: »

I should have kept up to date with this century:pac:

There's wireless controllers these days also. Check em out op.

FreezeUp

OP, have you bought a hoverboard yet?

RidleyRider

Patsy fyre wrote: »

There's wireless controllers these days also. Check em out op.

I'm not that far behind:pac:

FreezeUp wrote: »

OP, have you bought a hoverboard yet?

A hoverboard? I get the feeling that you're being sarcastic so my reply shall be...

Its in the post:pac:

bennyc

RidleyRider wrote: »

So this morning I bought a crappy 2euro HDMI cable for my x box and holy god what a difference! I even rang a mate and woke him to tell him of the brilliance of it:p

The difference from the scart is amazing but I'd like to know why?

Why have any scart leads at all if HDMI is that good?

There is nothing crappy about a 2euro HDMI cable, its either a HDMI cable or its not. As someone in another thread posted, the difference between a 30 euro cable and a 2 euro cable is .... 28 euro

RidleyRider

bennyc wrote: »

There is nothing crappy about a 2euro HDMI cable, its either a HDMI cable or its not. As someone in another thread posted, the difference between a 30 euro cable and a 2 euro cable is .... 28 euro

True tbf

SteveDPirate

I still remember what it was like when I first HDMI'd my Xbox to my new TV. Played Project Gotham and Gears of War. Couldn't believe the clarity and colours!! It gave me headaches for a while! That was a years ago now. This is the stanard now.

RidleyRider

SteveDPirate wrote: »

I still remember what it was like when I first HDMI'd my Xbox to my new TV. Played Project Gotham and Gears of War. Couldn't believe the clarity and colours!! It gave me headaches for a while! That was a years ago now. This is the stanard now.

Going to play COD and Forza soon and see how things are! If it's anything like Fifa, I'm in for a treat!

Adamcp898

Yup I too many years used play my Xbox on a CRT TV with SCART but then I got a new, fancier HDTV and remember being in awe of how good Gears 2 looked. You really couldn't read text on a SCART connection without straining your eyes.

Patsy fyre

It's amazing how we adopt to different standards. Before I switched to HD I had no problem playing games. But as soon as I got used to HD it became impossible to play in SD.

Basically over night every SD tv because obsolete!!

sink

My first Xbox didn't even have scart, but component and I had it plugged into a 32" HD Ready TV. This was 05 before most people even had HD tv's, I had to have my friends round to show them the difference because they wouldn't believe me. That said I had been PC gaming for years on a 21" CRT monitor at 1600x1200 so I was well used to it.

bennyc

In fairness I went to a mates house who is a massive PC gamer , 26" X 2 and a pair of top end NVidia cards on SLI . He bought a 2K TV and had his xbox hooked in as a scart. He dosent really play xbox games just uses it as a media centre. Anyway he had this set up for over a year and never bothered to hook the XBox into the component of the 50" HDTV. Needless to say he was red in the face when we spent hours takig the piss. Until of course he showed us real gaming graphics of the PC set up :eek:.

Xcellor

RidleyRider wrote: »

So this morning I bought a crappy 2euro HDMI cable for my x box and holy god what a difference! I even rang a mate and woke him to tell him of the brilliance of it:p

The difference from the scart is amazing but I'd like to know why?

Why have any scart leads at all if HDMI is that good?

Wow. People still use scart.

Welcome to digital.

Makaveli

I still use one of these.

Retr0gamer

The difference between Scart and HDMI 720p isn't actually that much especially when quite a few games don't come close to running in 720p. Scart will give you crystal clear picture quality just at a lower resolution. You'll have no problem reading text either. The problem is that people confuse proper RGB scart with composite which is the yellow, red and white cables. If you are using composite you aren't even getting standard definition, you are getting something much worse.

If you still have a SDTV then get yourself a proper scart cable and you'll have visuals close to HD, although not as good. Composite just looks terrible.

With composite the black, white, red, green and blue signals come down the same wire, the yellow one. It means you get lots of interference and you get cross talk patterns that lead to dots running along the sides of opposed colours. Basically you get a blurry mess. Scart seperates those components into seperate signals in their own wires. HDMI does this digitally so even better again.

Here's some screenshots from old consoles to show the difference:

Composite:



RGB Scart

quad_red

Kxiii wrote: »

It's going be the next standard in HD and should be in the next gen consoles. Here's a couple links, here and here

It means, convincing the misses that we REALLY do need a new tv as well.

I hope not.

All the upgraded horsepower being sucked into shovelling out a massive increase in resolution sounds like a total waste of time.

Better effects, better phyics, better AI etc. Yeah!

From Super High Res to mega ridiculous High Res. Meh.

Tea 1000

quad_red wrote: »

I hope not.

All the upgraded horsepower being sucked into shovelling out a massive increase in resolution sounds like a total waste of time.

Better effects, better phyics, better AI etc. Yeah!

From Super High Res to mega ridiculous High Res. Meh.

There's an 8k TV in existence for quite a while too! Much higher res again than 4k!

Myrddin

4k is a long way off being consumer mainstream. You only see an advantage in screens in or over the 46" region too which just isn't practical for everyone. The next gen of consoles won't be focusing on 4k gameplay thats for sure

PhlegmyMoses

I recently upgraded from a Samsung HD ready jobby that could get 1080i to a full HD, 3d LG. This guy -> http://www.trustedreviews.com/lg-42lm670t_TV_review

I have the Xbox set to 1080p and all is great for the likes of Netflix etc. However, now when I'm playing Battlefield, it's like I am getting way more input lag than with the old TV. It's really noticeable when I'm in a tank or a chopper as it seems to lag and distort when I move quickly from side to side. I also noticed that the subtitles in a game I was playing the other day would do the same thing when I moved my character over them. Any ideas guys? Is it just a case of deal with it or will reducing to 720p be a better option for gaming?

Edit: Just read the review: High input lag at 100ms. That's almost certainly what's causing it, which sucks.

Kxiii

quad_red wrote: »

I hope not.

All the upgraded horsepower being sucked into shovelling out a massive increase in resolution sounds like a total waste of time.

Better effects, better phyics, better AI etc. Yeah!

From Super High Res to mega ridiculous High Res. Meh.

Why cant we have both?

quad_red

Kxiii wrote: »

Why cant we have both?

Cos the hardware would cost a grand.

This generation can't even deliver 1080p at 60fps. Hell, at times it could barely do 720p.

An affordable new console will not be able to deliverer 4k with high frame rates and lots of goodies.

Why not lock down 1080p and up the ante on everything else rather than become a slave to a standard that there's no TV sets to display it.

Keep 4K for movie playback or something.

Retr0gamer

The next consoles can only hope to do video playback at 4K. They don't have near enough video RAM to display in 4K.

Eurogamer did a 4K experiment trying to run new games on PC in 4K. When they did run the settings had to be dialed right down to get them to even display. Since the latest consoles are based on mobile technology you won't see them doing it any time soon considering high end PCs that are vastly superior have trouble with it.

TerrorFirmer

Anyone who thinks new generation of consoles will be 4k is simply deluded. It'd take an absolute monster of a PC to play a game at those settings; and when you consider that the upcoming gen of consoles are weaker than their predecessors in terms of relativity to the market of the time....current gen struggles at 720p most of the time. If 'next gen' achieved 30fps@1080 they'd be doing well enough.

Myrddin

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

If 'next gen' achieved 30fps@1080 they'd be doing well enough.

I think they'll be good for 60fps@1080p & from all the Orbis whispers etc, it seems thats their objective. Fully agree re 4k, it aint gonna happen

Retr0gamer

I imagine we'll be getting 1080p 30fps. As developers have noted this gen you can include a hell of a lot more detail in your game if you go from 60 to 30 FPS. As Insomniac has said, everyone ignored that Resistance 2 ran at a silky smooth 60 FPS while Killzone 2 everyone went bananas about the graphics and nothing was mentioned about how awfully laggy the 30FPS deffered rendering engine made the controls (or how **** the gameplay was).

Dravokivich

EnterNow wrote: »

4k is a long way off being consumer mainstream. You only see an advantage in screens in or over the 46" region too which just isn't practical for everyone. The next gen of consoles won't be focusing on 4k gameplay thats for sure

Another problem I've heard would be storage media. A mate of mine read somewhere that a standard length 4k movie would need about 1TB of space. Not too sure if that's true, but it really makes you think about the worth of it.

COYVB

Tea 1000 wrote: »

There's an 8k TV in existence for quite a while too! Much higher res again than 4k!

Sharp were showing it off at CES last month. I had to question the logic of displaying an 8K TV, regardless of how much of a prototype it was, at the same event you're trying to convince retailers and the media that your 4K TVs are the best things since sliced bread.

iColdFusion

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

I recently upgraded from a Samsung HD ready jobby that could get 1080i to a full HD, 3d LG. This guy -> http://www.trustedreviews.com/lg-42lm670t_TV_review

I have the Xbox set to 1080p and all is great for the likes of Netflix etc. However, now when I'm playing Battlefield, it's like I am getting way more input lag than with the old TV. It's really noticeable when I'm in a tank or a chopper as it seems to lag and distort when I move quickly from side to side. I also noticed that the subtitles in a game I was playing the other day would do the same thing when I moved my character over them. Any ideas guys? Is it just a case of deal with it or will reducing to 720p be a better option for gaming?

Edit: Just read the review: High input lag at 100ms. That's almost certainly what's causing it, which sucks.

Try setting the TV mode to PC / PC input, this normally turns off all the image processing reducing lag.

Reamer Fanny

Welcome to 2005... Oh wait

Sofiztikated

TBH, I just changed from the component to HDMI this week as well. Dealz €1.49 HDMI cables, yes please.

Well, I had HDMI before, but it shít itself, and I went back to the component.

Difference really is noticable.

PhlegmyMoses

iColdFusion wrote: »

Try setting the TV mode to PC / PC input, this normally turns off all the image processing reducing lag.

Will give it a go. There is a "Game" mode as well which I'll switch to and see if it makes a difference. The input lag is sooo bad, though. They apparently released a couple of updates for the TV which initially reduced the input lag significantly but a recent update has messed it up again. We'll see what happens. It's all the processing going on in the background with smart hubs and 3D and the likes causing it to lag really badly. Mine is a mid-range. Reckon you need to go to the higher end smart TVs to get something with feck all lag out of the box.

PhlegmyMoses

Sitec wrote: »

My Xbox is hooked up to a 32" LCD tv (1080P) through component, my Xbox never failed so it's an older model with no HDMI out.
If I bought a new Xbox would I see a difference through HDMI?

As long as your TV allows you to do 1080p over component, you will get 1080p as the cable supports it. It's usually the TV that prevents it but as long as it gives you the option in your Xbox video settings section to use 1080p, then you're fine.

And cheers to cold fusion, changing to that setting has completely changed everything, even streaming the Sky player. makes everything much smoother. Just need to feck around with the brightness etc to get it to how I like it as the setting naturally dulls everything.

riclad

I set my xbox to 720p mode,as most games are designed for 720 p on the xbox.I think theres very little difference between component and hdmi display from an xbox 360,from what i have read.
A scart cable on a hd tv ,gives only sdtv picture, ie its not capable of displaying a high def picture.

Tea 1000

COYVB wrote: »

Sharp were showing it off at CES last month. I had to question the logic of displaying an 8K TV, regardless of how much of a prototype it was, at the same event you're trying to convince retailers and the media that your 4K TVs are the best things since sliced bread.

I suppose it's an "in there first" type thing. People reading reviews in 2 or 3 years time about any new 8k TV will be probably reading about "Sharp had one 3 years ago, so brand x aren't the first..." so their name is out there!
Also maybe it'll panic people into "crap, I don't even have a 4k TV and the 8k ones are coming out???"
In any case, content for 4k will be rare and long time away. 8k Content will be lucky to see cinemas in the next 5 years, let alone living rooms!

GottaGetGatt

RidleyRider wrote: »

So this morning I bought a crappy 2euro HDMI cable for my x box and holy god what a difference! I even rang a mate and woke him to tell him of the brilliance of it:p

The difference from the scart is amazing but I'd like to know why?

Why have any scart leads at all if HDMI is that good?

What kind of xbox, do you have? I have the old one with no HDMI slot , must i buy a converter????

COYVB

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I suppose it's an "in there first" type thing. People reading reviews in 2 or 3 years time about any new 8k TV will be probably reading about "Sharp had one 3 years ago, so brand x aren't the first..." so their name is out there!
Also maybe it'll panic people into "crap, I don't even have a 4k TV and the 8k ones are coming out???"
In any case, content for 4k will be rare and long time away. 8k Content will be lucky to see cinemas in the next 5 years, let alone living rooms!

it'll be 3-5 years before 4k is affordable for most people, and another 5 before 8k rolls out. it all seems quite pointless. there's no need for them to actually release something for every step in the progression. how about we skip 8k and release 16k after 4k? that'd make more sense. the problem is that the tech is all moving way too fast; they can't release it in time before it's obsolete

Myrddin

The point of dimishing returns is going to be reached with 4/8k stuff. You need very large screens to see any benefit from them apparently.

And I shudder to think of how bad an 1080i tv signal would look on a 4k screen, & 1080i is with us for a while yet for tv signal.

COYVB

EnterNow wrote: »

The point of dimishing returns is going to be reached with 4/8k stuff. You need very large screens to see any benefit from them apparently.

And I shudder to think of how bad an 1080i tv signal would look on a 4k screen, & 1080i is with us for a while yet for tv signal.

I've seen 720p on 4K and it looks pretty damn good. All the 4K TVs I've seen have on-board graphical processing for upscaling, so I wouldn't be too concerned about 1080i.

However you're dead right about point of diminishing returns - there's no discernible difference between 4K and 8K right now from my experience, while there IS an improvement from HD to 4K, but not quite as big of one as you might think - I'd really need to see a native 4K game running on an 80"+ 4K TV to really see how big the difference is

raze_them_all_

Did you drive to your shop in a Delorian??

COYVB

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Did you drive to your shop in a Delorian??

I would've but I'm running short on the 1.21 gigawatts of power I need to get it going

Myrddin

COYVB wrote: »

I've seen 720p on 4K and it looks pretty damn good. All the 4K TVs I've seen have on-board graphical processing for upscaling, so I wouldn't be too concerned about 1080i.

However you're dead right about point of diminishing returns - there's no discernible difference between 4K and 8K right now from my experience, while there IS an improvement from HD to 4K, but not quite as big of one as you might think - I'd really need to see a native 4K game running on an 80"+ 4K TV to really see how big the difference is

Is the upscaling that good yeah? If you have a 4k screen & a 1080i/720p signal going into it, there's an awful lot of pixels/resolution missing. I remember moving to a HD plasma from a 1st gen SD one & thinking the tv stream was far better on the older one, as that screen was designed for our broadcasted resolution.

Your spot on re wanting to see a proper 4k game on an 80" screen, I'd say it would be jaw dropping. But when you have to go over 50" to see the benefits of it, its not exactly practical for everyone

COYVB

Yeah the upscaling is really, really good on LG, Sony and Sharp who were the guys I paid most attention to at CES. As I say, they've all got built in GPUs now - they're a far cry from previous TV tech.

We're approaching the fine line now where people will need to think long and hard about whether to go for a TV or a projector. 60-72" will be the norm in the coming years, but the space is the big thing for many. A projector is scaleable and nowhere near as space consuming, but it comes with its own barriers of entry

riclad

For most people,4k is no use,you,d need tv bigger than 40inch,
its very expensive.
IT would be nice if more tv was broadcast in hd 1080p .Maybe ps4,xbox 4, they,ll make all games in 1080p hd.
Theres no practical way right now to broadcast 4k tv,
not enough bandwidth.
More people watch films,streaming,netflix etc,or on satellite
than buy blueray films,
the average person does not go for the latest technology.
Otherwise we, d all be buying 3d tvs.

COYVB

Both new consoles will be 4K compatible, perhaps not immediately but there'll be potential for support through a firmware upgrade there. 4K is very expensive now, yes, but in 5 years you'll get an 80" 4K TV for about 700-1000 quid

re the 3DTV thing - you'll find most people buying new TVs ARE actually buying 3D ones, but only because the industry is forcing them to

And, just as a point of interest, a few South Korean TV stations are broadcasting in native over the air 4K right now.

Myrddin

COYVB wrote: »

Both new consoles will be 4K compatible

Perhaps for video playback at some stage...but if the rumours are to be believed the specs are nowhere near what'd be required for 4k gaming.

COYVB

EnterNow wrote: »

Perhaps for video playback at some stage...but if the rumours are to be believed the specs are nowhere near what'd be required for 4k gaming.

Don't rule it out

Myrddin

COYVB wrote: »

Don't rule it out

Are you aware of the horsepower needed to game at 4k?