[juandan]

I was going to buy a 26" 720p HD tv, but a friend told me its not
full HD unless its a 1080p HD tv and they only make 1080p in 37" 0r about, is this true?

[Biffo the Bear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by juandan

I was going to buy a 26" 720p HD tv, but a friend told me its not
full HD unless its a 1080p HD tv and they only make 1080p in 37" 0r about, is this true?

Not sure about the sizes, but 1080p is the maximum quality HD that is (affordably) available. There was a higher resolution planned as far as I recall, but the costs involved in producing it would've been too high or something, I'm not sure.

I've seen arguments that there's little difference between a tv that has 1080i and one which has 1080p. As I understand it, the 1080i is where you've got a 720p resolution with 'artificial' lines inserted to create the illusion that it's 1080p.

However, I've just moved onto using HD and plumped for a 1080p set, for the sake of anti-aging, as it were, and couldn't really tell you if there was any massive difference between 1080i and 1080p.

What I can say is that HD content at 1080p does look simply amazing. You do actually have to see it to believe it!

[Chris Frost]

In some respects your friend is correct, but that isn't the whole story. Screen size and viewing distance have a big effect on perceived resolution.

A 26" 720p set fed from SkyHD or Bluray and viewed from a normal distance, say 10ft +, will look just as beautifully detailed as would a 1080p screen of the same size if it were available.

Once you can't see the pixels then the resolution issue becomes moot. I'd be surprised if you can see the pixels on a 720p at anything more than 3ft


Do you know what will make a bigger difference to your viewing experience than absolute resolution? The answer; having the TV correctly adjusted for picture quality.

I see so many LCD TVs where the picture is just awful because the brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness controls are set wrong. The worst offending settings are the factory defaults. 'Dynamic', 'Vivid', 'Sports' etc all screw up the picture terribly. It's the same for most of the digital enhancement features. Most of it just adds digital artifacts and rubbish to the picture that shouldn't be there.

If you TV costs anything more than a couple of hundred quid then invest £14 in a copy of Digital Video Essentials for PAL. It will help you set up the TV as good as it just using the ordinary controls.

Regards

Chris Frost

[juandan]

Thanks for the advice