I’m trying to make decisions myself, too. Will devices that deliver 1080p work on lesser devices, such as the 1080i or the 720p? Obviously there’ll have to be some scan conversion, but I guess I’m asking, “what’s the norm?” Do 720p-only TV’s automatically resolve the 1080p or 1080i information for lower quality display, or would I need to ensure that my device attached to the TV delivers the correct, downgraded signal?
Currently all of my TV is delivered by an XBox, and I know I have some HD cables for it – I think it’s 1080i. If I bought a 720p TV, would it work with the HD cables, or would I still have to use the analogue ins and outs?
Yeah, I can build an awesome, 5-tuner cable/DirecTV/HDTV backend MythTV box and deliver the video and DVD and Music and Photo collection all over the house, but I have no friggin clue as to the best way to make it on a big screen.
I’d worry about getting a good picture and a good warrantee. There are probably 50 companies that sell TVs, but only a handful of factories that make them. It’s mostly branding.
Last I heard, it was Feb 15, 2009. I still think the majority of TV owners still have no idea that all their non-HDTV sets will become useless then (providing Congress does not extend it again).
So, what will happen to the millions and millions of perfectly good TV sets that will suddenly be good only for door stops?
Will the guvm’nt create special landfills for them?
I may be wrong (I was once),but I understood that once all broadcasting goes HD, analog sets won’t be able to pick up any signals. That would make them somewhat useless.
At worst, they’ll need a converter box, and that’s only for folks who get their signals from the air (effectively no one, in my neck of the woods, due to the mountains).
If they’re getting cable (as opposed to antenna signals), they won’t even need that, the cable company will take care of either converting the signal at their end, or you’ll be using their box at your end. Some cable companies have been forcing the transition to “digital” for years, and you haven’t had to replace your TV in order to take advantage of it.
OK, Time, that’s somewhat of a relief, but, does that still apply to the (really) old TVs that are not “HD-ready”?
My main set is, so I know a set-top box will convert it (if indeed the cable company does not), but I have a couple of smaller good Sony TVs in the kitchen and guestroom, about which I was concerned.
It’s not that all broadcasting is going HD, just that all broadcasting is going digital. Yes, you will have to have a digital tuner, but if you buy a new TV these days, even one that isn’t HD, it will most likely have a digital tuner. So if I still have my 19" TV in a few years and cancel my satellite subscription (this would hold also with cable), I won’t be able to use the old rabbit ears or roof antenna and the in-TV tuner. It’s not a problem if I’m getting everything through a cable or satellite company. You won’t need an HD tuner, just an ATSC tuner.
In addition to what asterion said, the set-top converters will also down-convert into 480i (old-style) if necessary.
“Not HD-Ready” probably describes the vast majority of televisions in service today; TVs don’t fail very often, and people often keep them for decades. Even amon the “HD-Ready” TV’s, there are various levels of HD-readiness, so there’s really a mixed bag of stuff out there, all of which will need to be supported.
Yes. I have analog cable and a 27" standard TV, and I don’t plan on replacing it until an HDTV set with the same screen area costs less than $400 and HDCP (the encryption that keeps you from recording or viewing HD content with “unauthorized” devices) has been defeated.
These have a wealth of information and discussion about all sorts of equipment and formats.
As for myself, I have a Toshiba 42HM66 HDTV. This is a rear projection DLP with a native resolution of 720p (the best a DLP can do). It is served by a DirecTV HR10-250, the HD TiVo for DirecTV. Sadly, these are hard to come by as DirecTV is rolling out the HR20, a non-TiVo DVR. My TiVo outputs in 480i (standard def), 480p (enhanced def), 720p (HD) and 1080i (also HD). My set can receive all of these formats. I set the TiVo for 1080i, even though the TV downconverts to 720p. I like that picture better than having the TiVo downconverting the 1080i it’s getting from the satellite. Even when watching an SD program, the TV thinks its getting 1080i and it displays it appropriately. DirecTV has no plans to offer 1080p any time in the future, and I doubt it has the capacity to deliver 1080p even if it wanted to. My local podunk cable company doesn’t offer HD service at all and I live too far from a metropolitan area to receive digital signal over-the-air.
I also have an “upconverting” DVD player. This takes standard DVD’s (which I believe are 480p) and upconverts them to 720p (or 1080i, if I asked it to). It then delivers this to the HDTV via an HDMI cable. The picture is incredible. The source material isn’t HD, but the resulting picture is as near to HD as possible. I have no interest in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until the hardware and software prices come down and the format has stabilized. Right now, some studios release in HD-DVD and others release in Blu-Ray. The two formats are not compatible and one player will not play both. The titles themselves are more expensive than their SD counterparts. The improvement in picture isn’t worth the cost, IMHO. I’ll wait for early-adopters to drive the price down.
“upconverting” DVD players do sound interesting. Was never sure exactly how it worked. Or if it made any real difference. Good to know it does make a significant difference.
Next DVD player I buy (and most all of them are cheap as dirt anymore) will be an upconverting type.
I really don’t know how the upconverting DVD players work, they’re basically taking a 480-pixel image and converting it to a 720-pixel or 1080-pixel image. Where does the extra info come from? Does the player just make it up?
That said, I have an Oppo upconverting DVD player on my 42" Samsung plasma and the picture is beautiful.
On the same note, is there a loss of quality when upconverting? Like will the 720p broadcast look better on a 720p TV instead of a 1080p TV? Is it going to make the image look stretched, like people do with regular broadcasts to make them fill a widescreen TV?
Different channels broadcast at different standards. DiscoveryHD and HDNet are in 1080i, while ESPN, ABC, and others are in 720p. Both are high definition broadcasts. My HR10-250 converts everything it gets to 1080i and sends it to my TV, which then drops it to 720p.
The difference between i and p is how the picture is refreshed. With 720p, there are 720 lines of pixels in the picture and every line is refreshed each time. This is progressive scanning; each line is progressively scanned from the line before it. With i, you have interlaced scanning. In this approach, only every other line is refreshed with each scan. So, in 1080i, only 540 lines are refreshed with each scan. So, 1080i has more lines, but each line is refreshed fewer times. 720p has fewer overall lines, but more lines are refreshed each time. Obviously 1080p is the most lines with the most refreshes. One can see how that is an enormous amount of data to push compared to the other formats. 720p is supposed to be better for sports and action because it captures movement better (via more screen refreshes). 1080i is supposed to better for nature documentaries because there is more detail in the picture (via more lines). I think that the best thing to do is properly calibrate a TV to make a picture that is most pleasing to you.
I have no idea where an upconverting DVD player gets the extra information to make an HD signal. All I know is, it looks awesome on my TV.
Upconverting DVD players:
Yes, they just “make up” the extra information. But if you have a (for example) native 720p display, it has to make up the info if it was fed a 480 (i or p) signal.
In general it is better for the DVD player to do it since it has access to the raw digital information on the DVD.
The HR20 is DirecTV’s own brand of DVR. It does not run on TiVo’s software, as DirecTV has severed its relationship with TiVo. This is a cause of much sorrow, lament, frustration, and gnashing of teeth for those of us who are TiVo devotees. TiVo’s stand-alone boxes won’t work with DirecTV equipment. The DirecTV HR10-250 (which I have) runs TiVo software, but is being phased out. It currently will not receive HD locals (if they are even offered in your DMA) nor will it receive HD RSN’s (Regional Sports Networks). In the next year to eighteen months, DirecTV will be adding new national HD channels as new satellites are launched and put into service. The HD TiVo will not be able to use this new and expanding content because it is being transmitted in MPEG-4, which the TiVo cannot decode.
Therefore, the only choice for DVR users with DirecTV is to get the HR20 as it is rolled out. It is not available nationwide, though it will be by the end of 2006. An excellent review of the HR20 can be found here. DirecTV’s pricing is inconsistent at best. Many people paid $1000 or more for the HR10-250 that I have. I paid a whopping $19.95. Some people paid even less. HD locals in my DMA (Austin) were just added a few weeks ago. The deal that I know of is a $99 “lease upgrade fee”. I don’t know if that only applies to existing HD subscribers, though.
Besides the HR20, a new dish is required. The dish is a 5-LNB monster that will not fit on your existing mast. I haven’t added it yet, but I likely will in the next year or so.
So, if you like what you see about the HR20, call DirecTV and see what deal you can work out.
Coming late to the thread I only wanted to add this:
Sure, bigger is better, when we’re talking about movies, consol games and other stuff with high production values. But you gotta ask yourself - Do I really want to watch 60 minutes or old MASH re-runs on a 6’ screen?
I was all set for a Sanyo projetor, when I realized that the answer was “NO” and that I would need to have an ordinary tv set (for watching news) *and * the projector (which is not that expensive, but the bulbs are @ extortion prices).
So Instead, I got a 40" Samsung HDTV LCD set. It’s miraculous, it’s big (from 3’ away) and the picture is great. More isn’t always better.
