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Is Full HD needed for Freesat? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Valencia - Spain
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Is Full HD needed for Freesat?
I have to confess to being a little thick on the subject of HD. I have heard of HD ready and Full HD and thought that HD ready tvs simply had a lower resolution than full HD ones.
My confusion began when looking for a new TV with a friend. He has BT Infinity and sometimes uses Freeview. On hearing this the guy in the shop (Currys) said there was no point getting a full HD set unless he wanted to watch Blue Ray - (which he does not want) as HDTV is only broadcast in 720 then up-scaled to full HD. We were therefore advised a cheaper and better option would to go for an HD ready set rather than a full HD one. OK so what's that got to do with Freesat? - well I use Freesat for myself and use a 42" Plasma HD ready set which I think gives a good picture through my Humax Foxsat HD although the TV is now a few years old and lacks modern connectability and features. Would there be any point in upgrading to a full HD one? I suppose the basic question is what is the quality of TV broadcasts - freesat or freeview - and does it matter what type of set you get. |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Sep 2006
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The broadcasts, both Freeview and Freesat, are not full HD (1080p). Some boxes can upscale the received signal to full HD, which might in some circumstances give you a better picture. So a HD ready set is capable of delivering the received HD signal.
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#3 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
The broadcasts, both Freeview and Freesat, are not full HD (1080p). Some boxes can upscale the received signal to full HD, which might in some circumstances give you a better picture. So a HD ready set is capable of delivering the received HD signal.
All HD ready TV's will display 1080i content but not at full resolution. Having said that on smaller screen TV's the difference in picture quality is minute. A quality HD Ready display will have a superior picture to a Full-HD panel. |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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Quote:
I have to confess to being a little thick on the subject of HD. I have heard of HD ready and Full HD and thought that HD ready tvs simply had a lower resolution than full HD ones.
. Quote:
My confusion began when looking for a new TV with a friend. He has BT Infinity and sometimes uses Freeview. On hearing this the guy in the shop (Currys) said there was no point getting a full HD set unless he wanted to watch Blue Ray - (which he does not want) as HDTV is only broadcast in 720 then up-scaled to full HD. All broadcast HD in the UK is Full HD (1920x1080). Quote:
We were therefore advised a cheaper and better option would to go for an HD ready set rather than a full HD one. Quote:
OK so what's that got to do with Freesat? - well I use Freesat for myself and use a 42" Plasma HD ready set which I think gives a good picture through my Humax Foxsat HD although the TV is now a few years old and lacks modern connectability and features. Would there be any point in upgrading to a full HD one? ![]() Quote:
I suppose the basic question is what is the quality of TV broadcasts - freesat or freeview - and does it matter what type of set you get. |
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#5 |
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Thanks to all the above- very interesting and informative. Still not sure 100% what the difference is between 1080i and 1080p - and does it make a difference to the viewer?
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#6 |
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Quote:
Thanks to all the above- very interesting and informative. Still not sure 100% what the difference is between 1080i and 1080p - and does it make a difference to the viewer?
![]() 1080P50 is better (but not used) as it provides double the number of frames per second, and BluRay can do 24 frames per second (which is film standard, so avoids any 'complications'). But mostly it's nothing to worry about, and you're unlikely to be able to tell which is which. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Feb 2008
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Many thanks Nigel - at least we base our decision on some proper information - not the crap the Curry's person was spouting.!!!
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#8 |
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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Quote:
Thanks to all the above- very interesting and informative. Still not sure 100% what the difference is between 1080i and 1080p - and does it make a difference to the viewer?
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#9 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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I personally find it a little better set to 1080p but also remember many freesat boxes play media files from a USB device so 1080p output can be useful for that.
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#10 |
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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Quote:
Unless the source is 1080P then the Freesat box will simply be converting (de-interlacing) it rather than the TV doing it.
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#11 |
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Join Date: Sep 2006
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Quote:
Still not sure 100% what the difference is between 1080i and 1080p
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#12 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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That's understandable given that other posters here, quite correctly, describe 1080i broadcasts as Full HD, while shops describe 1080i sets as HD Ready (example being my Samsung bought 5 years ago). 1080p sets being described as Full HD (example my Panasonic bought last year). That's the context in which I posted above.
HD Ready sets are sometimes inaccurately called 720p not 1080i. The original; HD Ready spec called for these to display 1080i content (up to 1920 x 1080 - 1440 x 1080 was common at the time - These are 50 fields/second (25fps)). Interlacing sends a frame in two fields one with the odd lines in it and the second the even ones. 720p 1280 x 720 at 50 frames/second (720p50) The latter was never implemented by broadcasters. The minimum vertical resolution was 720 lines. In fact displays with 720 lines were and are rare (a few early plasma TV's), the majority have 768 lines. Freeview-HD using the new DVB-T2 system was designed to allow the use of progressive transmissions (The whole frame is sent in line order 1,2,3 ---- 1080 ), but only at 25fps (1080p25). Freeview-HD now switches on the fly depending on the source video between 1080i and 1080p. There is no support for 1080p50 on Freeview-HD Most satellite boxes don't support progressive signals so all satellite sources are interlaced. The original HD-Ready spec is now joined by 1080P HD-READY. Unlilke the original spec these sets have Full-HD panels and support 1920 x 1080 progressive signals at 24, 25, 50 and 60 frames/second. 24fps is what Blu-ray discs use, if your TV isn't 24P capable the player resamples the output to 60fps which adds some motion artefacts. |
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#13 |
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In many cases the source could be 1080p which was my point.
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#14 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Quote:
In many cases the source could be 1080p which was my point.
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#15 |
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Join Date: Sep 2006
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Quote:
You are completely confused
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