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Standard definition on HD TV
Homer Hotspur
Posts: 124 Forum Member
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About to take delivery of a new Sony LCD HDTV. (32ex503).
Actual Freeview HD does not start here until April. What can I expect from the standard def freeview channels compared to the quality on my current CRT set. I also have a BT Vision box with an HDMI socket. Will there be any benefit in connecting this to the TV via HDMI leads?
Thanks
Actual Freeview HD does not start here until April. What can I expect from the standard def freeview channels compared to the quality on my current CRT set. I also have a BT Vision box with an HDMI socket. Will there be any benefit in connecting this to the TV via HDMI leads?
Thanks
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That's because your old CRT set is probably doing a good job of "filtering" what it shows.
But your new set will show all the compression artefacts in great detail, and demonstrate to you how most of the SD channels are broadcast with far too little bandwidth.
I have a Sony and the SD PQ is not that good, my old toshiba was far better, its the HDPQ which is great, skyhd its hard to judge as there is a lot of crap PQ but if you put in one of the good PQ blu rays the Picture will blow you away.
Almost all my viewing is in HD so the inferior SD dont affect me a lot.
I've recently upgraded to a 40" and it's still perfectly acceptable.
I've never had the urge to get Sky HD as I like being blown away whenever I put on a Blu-ray and don't want to become desensitised to HD.
Considering they still regularly show B&W films more than 40 years after colour, I seriously doubt SD is disappearing anytime soon - in fact I doubt anyone alive here will see it.
The uk is behind the times a bit...don't take that to be how it is. Even iphones take hd video these days. The us has been broadcasting shows in hd for almost a decade, that is the backlog of hd material already created. It will be a blink of an eye before anything worth watching is all in hd. Anything left isn't worth watching closely. Even archive material will be at the very least upscaled carefully by stations, and shows like star trek the original series or seinfeld are already being restored to hd, being that they were film sourced this is possible.
Transition will be fast, the stations are catching up as not to be left behind, the cameras are now relatively cheap, and no one wants to be caught doing another life on mars where they destroyed their future bluray release revenues with sd quality.
Need I remind you, bbc planet earth was shot 4 years ago. Material captured in hidef and best watched on hidef.
B&W films look awesome in hd. Old films look amazing when restored, the bluray releases of things like the wizard of oz, or even chaplins stuff look incredible, you really have to see it. So old material holding people back is really not how it is. If it is worth watching again, chances are it will be restored to its full glory, and watching it in sd is just rather sad compared.
the BT vision and the standard freeview sd channels are all from the sd source and need to be scaled to fit the new hd/hd ready screen. Clearly the basic sd freeview from the tv's own freeview tuner is scaled internally.
External devices connected using scart also rely on the tv to scale the image up.
But external devices connected using HDMI can scale the image first and then simply transfer it to the tv screen via the cable without the tv doing anything else.
So it depends on how good the BT box scaler is Vs the built in one in the tv.
I have a panasonic freeview hdd/dvdr recorder (SD only) and it provides a better picture through HDMI rather than using scart (or phono). So in my situation the Panny has a slightly better scaler than the one in the sony tv that its connected to.
I think part of it is that HDMI is digital and scart/phonos are not. The latter (esp scart) suffers from noise, cross talk, and various other analogue effects that get added along the wire. HDMI either works perfect or not at all, so nothing should be lost (or added) as the signal goes up the cable.
They have broadcast some 40’s and 50’s B/W films on CH 4 HD in HD and they look great, still black and white of course but pin sharp, be it with black boards down each side of the screen, pin sharp all the same.
Not at all, we may be behind the USA, but that's because they went HD first - but they had much more need to.
All the SD programming isn't just going to 'disappear', just like the B&W programming hasn't disappeared.
It took many years for the USA to make a decent percentage of new programmes in HD, the same applies here - as time goes by more and more will be made in HD, and that's what's happening.
But it doesn't mean SD will go - there's far too much SD programming still out there.
Yea but how much new B&W programming of relevance is aired today.... Don't make it more than it is, a few programs will suffer..the reruns, but most people watch new material and so it will matter less and less. It didn't take many years for the US to transition, as I said, every prime time show of note quickly became HD, as well as any documentary with half a budget. PBS embraced HD whole heartedly. What took a while? Day time talk shows and other stuff you didn't have to look at closely anyways. Just look at your favorite big shows, like 24, those were all shot in HD from the start....being that it was 2001 for the first season...that was quite a while back. Csi was also shot on hd and that was 2000! Jay leno the top late night talk show was in 1080i in 1999! It did not take years, the major networks began shooting their major shows on hd early on for simultaneous broadcast to prepare for the transition. This was long before hdtv's were cheap. Just shows how the island bubble effect is distorting your notion of how tech has actually been moving. Because the uk is so far behind it will be catching up finally in the next few years rather rapidly, as others have already blazed the trail on how to do this, and because it has to...the uk is that far behind. Even cheap local news in larger cities in the us have been in hd for years now. Its damned shameful that things like top gear don't have hd material for reruns now. Short sighted nonsense....
There isn't "far too much" programming out there in the uk. There are a few channels in the uk. How many are there in the us? Even smaller cable station channels have had hd material as well for quite a while now.
There are FAR more rerun channels than there are new channels - I would suggest you are vastly oversimplifying the situation/
It took a good few years for the USA to change, and even now there's plenty of SD about - there are even entire HD channels in the USA that never show a single HD programme - in the USA upscaled SD is incorrectly called HD.
As I recall, when the UK went HD (2006) the USA was then only producing something like 50% of new programming in HD - if they have had HD for almost ten years, that was 50% longer than the UK has had it. At only four years (as in the UK) the USA HD production was a LOT lower than 50%.
Perhaps you would care to put a figure on "the end of SD", claiming it "won't last for long" is a little vague
You are seriously mischaracterizing the situation by claiming the uk has had hd for 4 years. The roll out of us hd was not on a very limited trial basis like in the uk, where it was only avaliable for a couple hundred homes + satellite in the first period. The US HD transition happened rather quickly in the major markets free to broadcast for most viewers within range simultaneously with sd, it was universal access transition. Only small towns had no hd terrestrial for a while.
Sure there are some sd channels still, but who cares if the shopping or jesus channel are in sd or hd, almost no one. But anything worth watching like csi was shot and broadcast in hd since 2001~, whereas the bbc barely sent out a signal to a few hundred people in 2006 for a "test". Shows like top gear only got a "test" arctic episode in hd, the rest has been shot in sd until 2009:( As I said, even daily late show tv like Jay Leno has been shot on HD since 1999. That is how far behind the uk is, there is no way around it.
Almost all my viewing is in HD so to me and to many others I guess SD is irrelevent. It all depends on a persons TV watching habits.
If I had watched a lot of SD I would have gone for a plasma, but most of my viewing is in HD and personally I think HD always looks better on a LCD than a plasma.
If you're fine with a severely restricted choice, then that's fair enough - personally I just watch programmes I like, regardless of their origins.
I wouldn't say 'always', but certainly generally it is.
You haven't seen much plasma if you think lcd looks better in hd.
Only in store displays with the ceiling lights ablaze does plasma suffer.
How do I get a severely restricted choice
Know enough people with plasma screens and I much prefer the HD picture of my sony set. A few people I know who had plasma's have changed to LCD when they upgraded, but I suppose its down to personal choice.
You must me joking...style over substance IMHO
You seem like a lot of fun........:D
Is Corrie in HD
Don't watch it, but I seem to remember noticing that it wasn't on the EPG - and isn't Corrie the 'biggest' programme there is. Rather shoots your claim down in flames
BTW, I see you mentioned CSI, I love CSI - and do watch that.
Well you said it yourself, if all you watch is "all the big programmes" then your viewing choices are severely limited. Of course that may not bother you which is fair enough but some of us wrinklies like to watch much older or "minority" stuff.
I watch it! Most of my programmes are watched in HD. Those that are watched in SD look horrible in comparison.
ditto - if i like the content I wouldnt not tune in just for it being in SD rather than HD. There's loads of old classics on DVD/SD like Steptoe & Son - of which all but the colour episodes were are poor quality and only Black & White, but so what - if you want to see it, you either have it like that, or not at all.
However, as several people have said, the quality is usually not too good, because the compression is over-done. Particularly on the ITV and other commercial channels, which are trying to "put a quart into a pint pot".
Partly, the reason is that the DVB-T system used for digital tv doesn;t work properly, a point I repeatedly make!