Is HD TV picture quality worth paying for?

ravey1981

I have to admit i was in the "standard def" is good enough camp until I was watching the Barcelona/Real Madrid game and then the Masters at my mates house on Saturday. We compared the HD with the SD and HD was in a different league...its brilliant

I'm still not paying skys shy high fees though...

daviesee

oldwelshman wrote:

daviesee wrote:

I don't have HD but there are a couple of things to watch out for that I am aware of.

Freeview HD sounds good in principle but only if you have a dish. A standard ariel will not work for HD.

Your TV may not be able to give you the best results. You need a full HD TV 1080p minimum.
There will be Ultra HD soon, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hi-Vision.
So HD is old hat already :shock: Oh, and 3D TV as well......

HD ready just means it will show HD programmes, not that you are really getting HD.

1080 is true hd but lower resolution is also decent.
Forget 3d tv way too expensive and nothing to be broadcats for ages so whats the point of buying a 3d tv for £8k with nothing to watch?
Ulra HD will not be significantly better than hd, same as cameras with higher pixels, above 3meg pixels cannot see the difference, 6mpixels only good for cropping, the human eye has it'slimitations also.
3d will be good though eventually but by then my eyesight will be fooked probably

True. Depending on the size of your prints, or TV screen. As they get larger then definition does count.
As I have a 32" screen it doesn't matter too much but the amount of 50" screens in the streets around me tells me that others will feel differently.

Squillinossett

oldwelshman wrote:

daviesee wrote:

I don't have HD but there are a couple of things to watch out for that I am aware of.

Freeview HD sounds good in principle but only if you have a dish. A standard ariel will not work for HD.

Your TV may not be able to give you the best results. You need a full HD TV 1080p minimum.
There will be Ultra HD soon, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hi-Vision.
So HD is old hat already :shock: Oh, and 3D TV as well......

HD ready just means it will show HD programmes, not that you are really getting HD.

1080 is true hd but lower resolution is also decent.
Forget 3d tv way too expensive and nothing to be broadcats for ages so whats the point of buying a 3d tv for £8k with nothing to watch?Ulra HD will not be significantly better than hd, same as cameras with higher pixels, above 3meg pixels cannot see the difference, 6mpixels only good for cropping, the human eye has it'slimitations also.
3d will be good though eventually but by then my eyesight will be fooked probably

Its only £1800 for samsungs new 3DTV, with sky starting to broadcast 3D this year as well. 3D Blu-Ray player is only £300 as well, which is very cheap for new tech.

Squillinossett

mcj78 wrote:

I'm still happy with my Sony 32" 100hz triniton cathode-ray monster, last time my mates came round to watch the boxing or whatever a couple of them thought it was HD as it was a better quality of picture than their fancy HD setups at home, result. Then I dusted it yesterday & it looked 10x better again :shock:

How does it work anyway? Is it that there's always the same number of pixels displayed on "normal" broadcasts, so if your screen is bigger, unless you have HD or upscaling or whatever, you're getting the same number of pixels only they're covering a larger area - which is why my mates 50" plasma looks like lego in action?

Bring back black & white! (but not for snooker)

CRT still have superior picture qualitty to most flat screens, it boils down to the size of the until that has driven the popularity of plasma/LCD

fungus_the_muffin_man

stigofthedump wrote:

Davidsee wrote:
I don't have HD but there are a couple of things to watch out for that I am aware of.

Freeview HD sounds good in principle but only if you have a dish. A standard ariel will not work for HD.

Your TV may not be able to give you the best results. You need a full HD TV 1080p minimum. There will be Ultra HD soon, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hi-Vision.
So HD is old hat already Oh, and 3D TV as well......

HD ready just means it will show HD programmes, not that you are really getting HD.

I was told (in John Lewis) that no one broadcasts on full 1080 HD at present and there are no plans to in the foreseeable future. You can only use full HD with Bluray players and some games systems.

Stig you don't have to have a 1080p minimum at all.
Ours is a 42" 720 hd ready orion cheapish tv and the difference between normal digital and HD digital is very very clear to see. Cycling and other sports are just superb now that the picture is so much better. Even normal telly programmes are significantly clearer.

I honestly can't imagine the picture to get any better. I'd love to be able to compare it with a 1080 though.