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Not sure what HD ready means? |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: N.W England
Posts: 356
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Not sure what HD ready means?
I have a Sony Bravia kdl-22ex302 TV in my living room and currently use it with a Topfield PVR. I'm told the Topfield doesn't do HD and that to see HD on my Sony I need a PVR which does HD. I see that I could get a Digital Stream DHR8206U for around £80 and that this can do HD.
Am I right in thinking that if I got the DS PVR I could see HD on my TV? Also is HD worth bothering with on a 22" TV? |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 425
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Quote:
I have a Sony Bravia kdl-22ex302 TV in my living room and currently use it with a Topfield PVR. I'm told the Topfield doesn't do HD and that to see HD on my Sony I need a PVR which does HD. I see that I could get a Digital Stream DHR8206U for around £80 and that this can do HD.
Am I right in thinking that if I got the DS PVR I could see HD on my TV? Also is HD worth bothering with on a 22" TV? |
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: N.W England
Posts: 356
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Quote:
I think you need a bigger TV
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#4 |
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Posts: 7,519
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Unless you are sitting on top of the TV you will not see any great improvement going HD ...
But if you want it get yourself a Freeview HD + pvr . Or a you view box... |
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#5 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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The official definition of HD is a vertical resolution of a minimum of 720 lines compared to SD's maximum of 576 lines.
The original TV's had to be capable of displaying the following broadcast formats with a minimum display format of 720 lines. 720p 1280 x 720 at 50 fps in a progressive format 1080i 1440 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080i at 25fps The two are roughly equivalent, the doubled framerate of 720p gives less motion artefacts that compensates for the lower number of pixels. To gain any advantage from such a small TV you would need to sit very close to the TV. Full-HD (retina) tablets give a superb picture (You view these from a very close distance). |
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#6 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
I'm happy with 22".
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#7 |
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: N.W England
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Quote:
How far away do you sit from such a tiny TV ?
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#8 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
About 3 metres.
The epg is overlaid on the picture at a resolution of 1920 a 1080 pixels. At 3M on your TV the text will be very tiny. Even someone that does not need to go to specsavers will find it very hard to read (think last line on the opticians chart )Basically if you want a HD box connected by HDMI you need at least a 32" TV, or more likely a 40" TV. |
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#9 |
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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Thanks for the advice. It seems I wouldn' t benefit from an HD PVR.
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#10 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
Thanks for the advice. It seems I wouldn' t benefit from an HD PVR.
Can I recommend a pair of binoculars
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#11 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,597
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I use my Digital Stream as my main Freeview PVR, keeping my old Toppy for radio. Note that the DS is an old model and iPlayer no longer works on it and its support for the IPTV channels is patchy. But for £80 it is not bad when used as a basic Freeview HD PVR.
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#12 |
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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On the contrary, you would benefit from a vastly superior picture if you had a reasonable size TV, you just don't realise it. Your TV is so small, it reminds me of the original TV's like the 14" CRT TV's, I remember the big magnifying glasses in front of the TV to get a larger picture.
Can I recommend a pair of binoculars ![]() |
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#13 |
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Join Date: Oct 2012
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I remember the magnifier screens. I also remember how impressed I was when we got a 17" RGD when ITV first started. Maybe that's why I'm happy with my comparatively enormous 22".
Hardly ever watch TV - but that might or will change when my Chromecast arrives tomorrow. I watch youtube on my laptop much more than TV For me anything bigger than 24" or 26" just begins to dominate a room. |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Apr 2007
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I have a couple of what must be around 22" in rooms - although one has just been replaced by a 32" as someone gave us a crappy HD Ready TV that I hope will be better when I get a better box and use the HDMI cable.
I was quite happy with that when the wife wanted the main TV for her Docu's and now i'm struggling to get used to this 32" in a small room. |
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#15 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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I have a 50 inch HD Ready plasma TV (1024x768) that I watch from 3 metres and it's absolutely fabulous, providing all the detail I need from that distance. Even the best SD channels look softer or very much softer from there, but full HD would provide no benefit for me (so I saved a couple of hundred quid). On a 22 inch TV like the O/P has, anything more than bog standard SD would be a waste of time and money at 3 metres.
On the other hand, I watch full HD TV from a tuner card in my PC, on a 27 inch 1080p monitor at less than a metre (34 inches to be precise) and I see all the detail that 1080p can provide. SD looks soft and pixellated from there and I often shrink the window below full screen when on SD material. However, it's apparent when watching full HD close-up like that, that any significant movement including panning or zooming lowers the resolution so full HD only maintains full HD spatial resolution on fairly static scenes anyway and is thus overrated. 720p/50 would have produced a better compromise IMO but hey, the broadcasters always think they know better and all adopted the same damned standard for everything... it would have been nice to have a bit of choice on this to let the general public decide which they preferred! |
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#16 |
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 8,103
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Quote:
Not surprised you can't see any difference. If you get a HD box, chances are you would really struggle to read the epg which being designed for display on a HD TV of a size that most with average eyesite could easily read. You need to understand the on screen overlays from a HD TV channel assume you have a TV that at least is within the ability of mere humans to resolve at reasonable viewing distances.
The epg is overlaid on the picture at a resolution of 1920 a 1080 pixels. At 3M on your TV the text will be very tiny. Even someone that does not need to go to specsavers will find it very hard to read (think last line on the opticians chart )Basically if you want a HD box connected by HDMI you need at least a 32" TV, or more likely a 40" TV. Even if the benefits are not noticeable all the time, at least they would be in the knowledge they are watching the best possible picture available - personally I'd say go for it. |
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#17 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
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Looking at a Sony HD ready KDL-22EX553 showing the triathlon on BBC1 at the moment. At 3m you can see the difference between HD & SD on the helicopter shots quite clearly, less so on other shots. Difference not that noticeable on C4 racing. 3m is a long way from a 22 inch TV of course, even my analogue modulator doesn't look bad at that range.
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#18 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 2,697
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Quote:
The official definition of HD is a vertical resolution of a minimum of 720 lines compared to SD's maximum of 576 lines.
The original TV's had to be capable of displaying the following broadcast formats with a minimum display format of 720 lines. 720p 1280 x 720 at 50 fps in a progressive format 1080i 1440 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080i at 25fps The two are roughly equivalent, the doubled framerate of 720p gives less motion artefacts that compensates for the lower number of pixels. To gain any advantage from such a small TV you would need to sit very close to the TV. Full-HD (retina) tablets give a superb picture (You view these from a very close distance). |
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#19 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
We have a 22" in the kitchen and can easily read EPG text at 4m, granted it would be difficult to distinguish between SD and HD even at the op's 3m distance so major benefits would be few and far between, but there is HD content that looks better than SD where the difference is more noticeable like football on ITV.
Even if the benefits are not noticeable all the time, at least they would be in the knowledge they are watching the best possible picture available - personally I'd say go for it. |
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#20 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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Quote:
And this is were people get confused as a HD Ready set at 1280 x 720 simply cannot display 1080i at 1920 x 1080. There isn't enough pixels.
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#21 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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Quote:
You will find it very very difficult to find a TV with 1280 x 720 pixels. Only a very few early Plasmas had 720 lines. Virtually all HD TV's with a lower resolution than 1080 lines have 768 lines.
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#22 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Of course but then that wasn't my point was it. The same still stand for any resolution lower than 1920 x 1080.
A decent HD Ready set provides a far better picture (in both SD and HD) than a cheap Full HD set does - bigger numbers don't mean better, far from it. It's also completely distance related as well, to get any benefit at all from Full HD you have to view from considerably closer (probably only one screen size away?) than you do with an HD Ready set - and people generally don't. |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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Quote:
And why do you see that as a problem?.
A decent HD Ready set provides a far better picture (in both SD and HD) than a cheap Full HD set does - bigger numbers don't mean better, far from it. It's also completely distance related as well, to get any benefit at all from Full HD you have to view from considerably closer (probably only one screen size away?) than you do with an HD Ready set - and people generally don't. ![]() I never said otherwise ![]() Again I never said otherwise ![]() Go back and reread my first post and the quote. "The original TV's had to be capable of displaying the following broadcast formats with a minimum display format of 720 lines. 720p 1280 x 720 at 50 fps in a progressive format 1080i 1440 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080i at 25fps" I was pointing out that it gets confusing when a HD Ready set can't actually display 1080i. |
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#24 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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I was pointing out that it gets confusing when a HD Ready set can't actually display 1080i.
If a HD Ready TV can't display 1080i you would not see a picture. You are confusing a broadcast/video transmission with a display resolution. They are not the same. By the same argument you could say a HD TV cannot display a 576i SD video nor a 1280 x 720 HD picture. For many years most HD broadcasts were 1440 x 1080 pixels, are you saying a full-HD 1920 x 1080 display could not display the result. You are confusing the ability to display the source video with the ability to display the source with a 1:1 pixel ratio. There is no colour monitor/TV that can do this (Including CRT displays), including PC monitors and any other colour video display, from anything other than a source that matches the screen resolution and additionally has a refresh rate that the display is capable of synchronising to. The point is that the display has a fixed resolution, in every case if the signal does not match the screen it has to be rescaled. |
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#25 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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You have entirely missed the point.
If a HD Ready TV can't display 1080i you would not see a picture. You are confusing a broadcast/video transmission with a display resolution. They are not the same. By the same argument you could say a HD TV cannot display a 576i SD video nor a 1280 x 720 HD picture. For many years most HD broadcasts were 1440 x 1080 pixels, are you saying a full-HD 1920 x 1080 display could not display the result. You are confusing the ability to display the source video with the ability to display the source with a 1:1 pixel ratio. There is no colour monitor/TV that can do this (Including CRT displays), including PC monitors and any other colour video display, from anything other than a source that matches the screen resolution and additionally has a refresh rate that the display is capable of synchronising to. The point is that the display has a fixed resolution, in every case if the signal does not match the screen it has to be rescaled. |
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