Sky HD / HD TV options

[Admiral Huddy]

A Sumsung 40" 1080p LE40N87BD. I know it's an out-going model, but the only difference I could see between this and the M model is the contrast ratio is 15,000 not 10,000.

I paid £650 for it in the end.

[Desmo]

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

Which is better, using a HDMi Connector or HD component leads?

Whilst they can both achieve 1080p, HDMI is digital all the way whereas Component is analogue. Doesn't necassarily mean HDMI is always better for every situation though as some TV's will handle one connection better than another so can be very dependent on what TV you're using.

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

Great thanks. Lucikly, the TV I've just bought has two HMDi ports.

It should have 3 Check the side of the TV and there might be one there as well as two on the back.

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

I went into Currys to buy a HDMi cable and they where £49 .

No need to spend that much at all. On analogue signals, gold connectors and decent cable could make a big difference. HDMI is digital all the way so in theory the signal information it either arrives or it doesn't. A £5 cable should be as good as a £105 cable. There are arguments that go against this and it's too detailed to go into here, but for the average bloke on the street, there's no difference.

[Daz]

Random note - we paid a one off £30 for our BT Vision box (though it's offset by the minimum 12 months on BT broadband) which upscales to 720p and it's great. Fine if you only want to watch the freeview channels anyway. Think it's a 160GB drive inside for recording so that's ok too. There's a lot of on demand stuff but it's mostly chargeable unless you're willing to pay subs for it. Some free BBC catch up stuff though.

We're set for when/if ever they start broadcasting HD on Freeview anyway. We only use it when we aren't playing games/listening to music/watching downloaded shizzle anyway. Our telly usage doesn't warrant any monthly subs!

[Pickers]

Sounds interesting Daz. How does it pick up signal? Through telephone, or through normal aerial?

[Daz]

It's just a Freeview PVR box as normal - plug your aerial in and away you go. The on demand stuff comes down your broadband. Pseudo IPTV.

http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/btvision.html

That's a pretty good page on it. Lots of info on the other BT stuff too..

[Feek]

Frequencycast is in my iTunes podcast list

[Admiral Huddy]

Originally Posted by Desmo

No need to spend that much at all. On analogue signals, gold connectors and decent cable could make a big difference. HDMI is digital all the way so in theory the signal information it either arrives or it doesn't. A £5 cable should be as good as a £105 cable. There are arguments that go against this and it's too detailed to go into here, but for the average bloke on the street, there's no difference.

good point which I never thought of. However, if the signal quality is low, then surely the digital conversion would have to perform more error correction which would decrease the quality.

Last night, the normal channels didn't look as good as they did the night before and there was certainly a slight flicker that I hadn't noticed. It's almost like there isn't a happy medium. It either looks awesome or not so good. HD channels look stunning though. I guess I'll have to get to know what some of the settings mean.

Also, are the normal channels on V+ upscaled to 720p or 1080p? Or are they broadcasted as standard PAL?

I'm still confused as to what the broadcasting intension are for HD.. "HD ready".. but ready for when and what exactly???

[Pickers]

As I understand it "HD ready" simply means it has HD inputs for any HD device (DVD, set top box, next gen consoles, etc) In time, TV decoders will have HD decoders which decode SD and HD transmissions. As for upscaling, I only know that our V+ box in HD mode (I'm told) does some form of signal cleaning. You can select either 720 or 1080 in the settings menu. Try 720, and see what effect that has on Standard Definition channels.

[Desmo]

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

good point which I never thought of. However, if the signal quality is low, then surely the digital conversion would have to perform more error correction which would decrease the quality.

Yeah, that's the more technical side of things I was skipping over. And it's a debate that will run and run. Some will say that as it's digital it either works or it doesn't. Others say that the error correction has to have an impact to quality. I say that the average bloke on the street won't notice any difference. You need to be a real audio/videophile with high end equipment to see any differences.

Originally Posted by Pickers

As I understand it "HD ready" simply means it has HD inputs for any HD device (DVD, set top box, next gen consoles, etc)

HD Ready is a basic set of specs a TV needs to hit to be able to carry the HD Ready logo.

Must have 720 horizontal lines.
Must have an HD Analogue input. (Component)
Must have an HD Digital input. (HDMI or DVI that supports HDCP)

That's it basically.