Recompression is indeed problematic, but saying a recompressed stream is not “true” 1080p is silly. A totally black frame is legitimate 1080p if its at 1920x1080 and progressive. I understand you’re talking about the quality of the stream, and I agree this is a problem, but saying something is or is not “true” 1080p based on that is not correct.
missed the window…
When your game renders more than the framerate of your display you can get video tearing, where the top part of the screen is one frame, and the bottom part is the next frame.
Gigi and others…Be aware that unless you have an HDMI or DVI-D w/HDCP connection between DVD player and TV, you will not get any upconversion at all of your regular DVDs. Only 480p.
What about component video? The HD signal into my TV from the cable box is through component and it looks amazing.
I’ve got a 26" 720p TV in my bedroom and I can tell a huge difference over an SDTV. Everything is much sharper and colors are more accurate and “pop” better. Some XBox 360 games have text that is unable to be read on an SDTV, but my small HDTV shows the text perfectly.
A component connection can have a great looking HDTV signal, but HDMI is required by law if you want to upconvert a DVD.
This was the one I was looking at – it says HDMI cable and HDMI output. I figured it’s a good price for when I start buying Blu-Rays, but would work for the DVDs I have. Would this HDMI business work?
This is great info. Does anyone know anything about LED/LCD TVs? I am looking at one that is 55", 240HZ 1080P, the picture looks great in the store but I don’t know if it looks a great percentage better than cheaper models.
$150 isn’t a great price. They’re going to hit $100 for Christmas. And head to monoprice.com for your HDMI cable needs - less than $10 is all you need to spend.
Gigi, as long as your TV has HDMI input you should be fine. In addition to maybe holding out for deals around Christmas, you might also want to hold out for a player that allows Netflix streaming, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Cite? I’ve never heard this.
There’s a couple technical reasons I recommend 1080p sets over 720p sets.
The first is that 720p sets AREN’T 720p sets. With very few exceptions, they actually have 768 lines, and they stretch the 720p signal to fit that. Most of the time, this isn’t an issue, but occasionally it makes things like text or small details look blurrier than they should.
720p sets are also much weaker for connecting a PC to, both for the stretching mentioned above (although some sets have a PC mode to stop stretching) and because the resolution is simply pretty low. Likewise, they’re not as good for displaying digital photos. These two scenarios may seem unlikely now, but I think they’ll be increasingly popular in the next few years. Five years from now, I think a lot of people with 720p sets will be kicking themselves because their TVs can’t handle these tasks as well.
The biggest advantage of 120hz displays is actually for playing movies. Because 120 is divisible by both 24 and 60, 120hz sets can display both 60fps (TV / videogame) content AND 24fps (movie) content at their native framerates, without any pulldown necessary.
It’s not a big deal for most folks by any stretch, but native 24 fps playback is a big issue for some serious movie folks.
Quick question: Does everybody agree with this? Because displaying digital photos is about the only reason I’m ever going to get hi def. The space I have is about 33 inches. If this is true, I’ll go for 1080p over anything else when I finally take the plunge (but it won’t be for a couple years, anyway).
It is not law per se, it is HDCP - High Definition Content Protection.
A DVD player cannot output an unconverted DVD over Component. It will not upconvert. It will at best display 480p.
Note that cable boxes, satellite boxes ect. will provide 1080i over component with no problem.
Lunar Saltlick - In a couple years, the price difference will be pretty negligible.
Also - make sure you’re measuring the 33" right. Not only is it the diagonal length, it’s the diagonal length for a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Ah, thank you. And I suppose there will be a whole new set of considerations in two or three years anyway.
At this point, the trend seems to be heading towards adding new gadgets and such to current tech. (Like Netflix or Hulu or other media streaming options.) Not really a huge deal, and they’ll attach them to premium items rather than smaller 32" screens.
There was a 26" from Sony available today for $200, but it sold out pretty quickly.
Lunar, some sets have built in SD card readers, which might be useful if you’re intent is to display digital photos. I’m not sure how widespread that feature is in smaller sets, though.
That would require internet access at home, right?