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Will I get any benefit from a Freesat HD box?


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Old 22-09-2008, 23:15
Phil S
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I have been reading on here about screen displays and the difference between 1080p and 720p and 1080i but I admit got rather confussed by some rather clever people.

I have a Panasonic Plasma TH37PX70 TV which is HD Ready at 1024x720 (not Full HD) which gives excellent pictures with SD content.

I understand that Freesat HD is delivered at 1080i (correct me if I'm wrong)

What I don't understand is will I get an appreciable HD quality picture with my TV which does accept 1080 signals but will only display them at 720p - by scaling I suppose which I also don't fully understand?

Would Freesat HD look any better on a Full HD 1080p TV or is 1080p unneccesary where Freesat HD is concerned?

I'm thinking of buying a Freesat HD box but got totally confused and hope that some of you clever people will put me straight.

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Old 22-09-2008, 23:57
ntlhellworld
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many plasmas have strange odd resolutions, its not at all unusual.

you should still see a noticeable improvement with a HD source.

-Chris
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Old 23-09-2008, 02:02
bobcar
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You will definitely get a benefit from the HD programmes purely on the basis of the better bit rates etc.

Your TV is 1080p in the sense it will accept 1080p signals (though that is irrelevant for Sky HD anyway) but considering that it's a 37" you are unlikely to get any extra benefit if you had a 1920x1080p panel. It all depends how close you sit compared to the size of your TV.

All scaling means is that if you have a TV that has 720 lines like yours and it receives 1080 lines then it has to combine these lines to form a 720 line picture - it's still much better than the standard definition resolution which is 576 lines. (It's better than is seems)
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Old 23-09-2008, 10:05
OranguMaTang
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You will see a better picture but only for the HD channels of which there are very few on Freesat. SD won't look much different through Freesat.
If you really want HD, which will look fantastic on your TV, take the plunge and get SKY HD. At least then you can watch some decent HD content and take full advantage of what your TV is capable of.
1080p is only really of use on large screens (50" plus) unless perhaps you sit very close or use it as a computer monitor.
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Old 25-09-2008, 12:00
niall campbell
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you could get a 2nd hand sky HD box which will give you freesat HD channels for free on a normal Sky subscription

its a good recording device

and you can control it from a 2nd room and more , which freesat cant !!


you also get regional news as opposed to the problems with freesat
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Old 25-09-2008, 12:04
fixerman
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you could get a 2nd hand sky HD box which will give you freesat HD channels for free on a normal Sky subscription

its a good recording device

and you can control it from a 2nd room and more , which freesat cant !!


you also get regional news as opposed to the problems with freesat
But you will have to pay SKY £10 a month to enable the record facility or take out a SKY subscription.
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Old 03-10-2008, 20:58
edbcar
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You will see a better picture but only for the HD channels of which there are very few on Freesat. SD won't look much different through Freesat.
If you really want HD, which will look fantastic on your TV, take the plunge and get SKY HD. At least then you can watch some decent HD content and take full advantage of what your TV is capable of.
1080p is only really of use on large screens (50" plus) unless perhaps you sit very close or use it as a computer monitor.
I have found that the picture quality through freesat with sd programmes is very good compared to freeview, might be different with other tv's or freesat boxes but the diff. is considerable!
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Old 04-10-2008, 18:40
skrjones
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Can I ask if the Freesat HD boxes actually transmit themselves to 720p or is a non 1080i TV having to do the work?
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Old 04-10-2008, 19:20
Nigel Goodwin
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Can I ask if the Freesat HD boxes actually transmit themselves to 720p or is a non 1080i TV having to do the work?
I'm a little confused what you're asking, but a Freesat HD box can be set to output 1080i, 720P, or 576P/i.

The box scales the picture, if required, to that format, then the TV scales it (again, if required) to make it fit it's actual screen resolution.
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Old 08-10-2008, 11:03
Matt Quinn
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Can I ask if the Freesat HD boxes actually transmit themselves to 720p or is a non 1080i TV having to do the work?
As Nigel said you can set the box to output any of 1080, 720, or 576 resolutions. This facility is provided mainly for sets that can't accept a 1080 input.

However of yours will even if it's not natively a 1080 set it's probably best just to feed it the 1080 signal and let the set's internal scaler do its stuff.....

I have been reading on here about screen displays and the difference between 1080p and 720p and 1080i but I admit got rather confussed by some rather clever people.
One thing that really emerges from all these discussions is that people in general are TRULY confused mainly by people who are either wholly unqualified to pontificate on what they preach, have themselves half-misunderstood what they've heard or (more typically) have an agenda to defend their own buying/selling decisions as the way the truth and the light....

Although there are real advantages to owning a 'true' 1080 panel the ability to accept and display a 1080 signal is in itself enough to benefit from devices which output this resolution. As far as I'm aware ALL "HD READY" sets fall into this category indeed to be labelled HD READY a set MUST at least accept a 1080i signal.

My advice is simply don't get too bogged down in this stuff.
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Old 08-10-2008, 11:31
Nigel Goodwin
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My advice is simply don't get too bogged down in this stuff.
My advice would be to try all the different settings, and see which you find you personally prefer - they are customer settings, and made to be set by the customer as they wish.

For a start though, and how I would set it if I installed one, 1080i is a good bet.

Also don't get too carried away over, get it how you like and enjoy the programmes - it's far too easy to spend all your life fiddling with the settings
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Old 08-10-2008, 12:58
niall campbell
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and satellite boxes of all makes usually give a better picture than freeview
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Old 08-10-2008, 13:06
skrjones
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As Nigel said you can set the box to output any of 1080, 720, or 576 resolutions. This facility is provided mainly for sets that can't accept a 1080 input.

However of yours will even if it's not natively a 1080 set it's probably best just to feed it the 1080 signal and let the set's internal scaler do its stuff.....

One thing that really emerges from all these discussions is that people in general are TRULY confused mainly by people who are either wholly unqualified to pontificate on what they preach, have themselves half-misunderstood what they've heard or (more typically) have an agenda to defend their own buying/selling decisions as the way the truth and the light....

Although there are real advantages to owning a 'true' 1080 panel the ability to accept and display a 1080 signal is in itself enough to benefit from devices which output this resolution. As far as I'm aware ALL "HD READY" sets fall into this category indeed to be labelled HD READY a set MUST at least accept a 1080i signal.

My advice is simply don't get too bogged down in this stuff.
Thanks to both of you. I know that my upscaling DVD player causes the TV havoc if it is set to 1080 so will make sure it is at 720p if it causes problems.
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Old 08-10-2008, 18:01
MAW
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It's your DVD player that's weird, not the TV. The PX70 is known to work fine with skyHD and freesat, and TBH any 1080i/50 source I've thrown at them.
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