Full HD Vs HD ready

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I have an HD box and an HD ready TV, so I assume that HD ready and full HD Tvs would be the same as the HD box is decoding the signal?

Any experts on this out there?

[DJWilson]

HD Ready is 720p and Full HD 1020P.

[Paul S]

Hi Darren,

Quite a minefield of Full HD & HD-Ready.

HD falls into 2 main categories, either 720 or 1080. The i or p afterwards related to whether the screen interlaces the lines (scans every other one) or progressively scans each line.

HD ready either means that the screen can cope with HD signals and interprets them to the screen size or that the screen can display 720i/p HD signals. You may find that inputting a resolution higher than this will result in the image not being displayed.

Full HD means that the screen can cope with and display 1080p resolution.

The best way to determine what resolution the screen is, is to look at the pixel count and see if the number is higher (or equal to) 720, generally the smaller screens will be 768 pixels.

If your box outputs on HDMI cable and the TV has an HDMI then you should be ok, just set the output to 720i/p first then try higher.

Hope this helps

Paul

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Hi Darren,

Quite a minefield of Full HD & HD-Ready.

HD falls into 2 main categories, either 720 or 1080. The i or p afterwards related to whether the screen interlaces the lines (scans every other one) or progressively scans each line.

HD ready either means that the screen can cope with HD signals and interprets them to the screen size or that the screen can display 720i/p HD signals. You may find that inputting a resolution higher than this will result in the image not being displayed.

Full HD means that the screen can cope with and display 1080p resolution.

The best way to determine what resolution the screen is, is to look at the pixel count and see if the number is higher (or equal to) 720, generally the smaller screens will be 768 pixels.

If your box outputs on HDMI cable and the TV has an HDMI then you should be ok, just set the output to 720i/p first then try higher.

Hope this helps

Paul

Thanks Paul.

I do use an HDMI cable.

I have an HD ready TV but am thinking about upgrading it to a larger screen, but was wondering whether going full HD was worth it. The Sky HD box is already set to 1080 and I'm using it with an HD ready TV and it appears to be fine.

What I am trying to determine is, is it worth the extra £250+ for a full HD or will the cheaper HD ready be fine with the H box.

[Gareth]

Haha my ex-field of professionalism is called upon.

Sky+HD is not full HD (1080p) and this is the same for the Xbox for example. Although they transmit HD signals they are not true HD. The full HD pictures you will require something along the lines of a blu-ray play or PS3 for example.

I would personally say that it is worth going for a Full HD (1080p) screen for the future. At the extra price of £250 it would need to be well justified though as this is quite a rise. Which TV's were you looking at?

Gareth

[Tom]

I think that if you watch a lot of sport or films on Sky then spend the extra and get the Full HD. Totally worth it for that but if you hardly watch the TV, just stick with HD Ready, like myself. lol. :D

[discomobiledj]

Argos 1080p full HD tv £299.99 hitachi. This is a 32" tv, not sure what size you are looking for.

[Paul S]

My personal opinion, is that the difference between 1080 vs 720 on anything less than a 40" screen is hardly noticeable. Even then the source needs to be top notch so something like blu-ray instead of Sky or Virgin HD, I believe they only broadcast in 720 and interpolate up to 1080 (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

Even then its worth investigating how to set the screen up properly to get the best from it, this can either be done with some specialist kit, or by having a look around some of the specialist forums. If you want any pointers then give me a shout.

Cheers

Paul

[Gareth]

Argos 1080p full HD tv £299.99 hitachi. This is a 32" tv, not sure what size you are looking for.

I think he would be looking for a TV to last more than 12 months. ;)

Gareth

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Sky+HD is not full HD (1080p)

Explain more please?


Argos 1080p full HD tv £299.99 hitachi. This is a 32" tv, not sure what size you are looking for.

50" +. I already have a 42" Panasonic Viera HD ready.

[Gareth]

I don't mean this in a bad way but tell me if you need me to explain this further.

Sky HD esentially upscales a 720p picture to mimic true HD. For this they actually transmit the picture at a 1080i resolution. Thus it is not actually true HD. Don't get me wrong you will notice a big difference in the HD channels compared to the normal channels especially with a 50" TV. An example of this is Sky Sports where you will see a clearer more smooth picture.

What I would say (to make your own mind up) is pop into your local Currys store for example where they have a demo setup. Make it sound like you are going to purchase the TV along with Sky and ask them to set this up for you. They will jump at this opportunity because profit margins from sky to a retail store is huge for sky sales. From this you would be able to see for yourself the difference between the standard channels and the HD channels.

Gareth

[Mark Wild]

Sky HD is 720p or 1080i Darren, the only thing that supports 1080p is Bluray mate. I just bought a 50 inch 1080i plasma as the guy at Comet said unless you watch alot of Bluray films it's pointless at the moment. Buying for future reasons seemed a little pointless, as technology moves on so quick and the T.V I buy now will only be worth a fraction of the price when eventually everything is in 1080p. LED t.v's are all the rage now apparently, but a lovely price tag to boot.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

From this you would be able to see for yourself the difference between the standard channels and the HD channels.


I already know the difference - I have Sky HD. That's not what I am wanting to find out!


Sky HD is 720p or 1080i Darren, the only thing that supports 1080p is Bluray mate. I just bought a 50 inch 1080i plasma as the guy at Comet said unless you watch alot of Bluray films it's pointless at the moment.

Right, that's what I wanted to know. :thumbsup:

I don't have a Blueray player, so I might as well go for another HD ready TV.

[Excalibur]

Does anybody know what resolution my poor tired old eyes are, cos if they're not HD ready, I'm stuffed? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Vectis]

For a TV to be "Full HD" it needs to have 1080 (or more) pixels in the vertical scan and support a Progressive or 'p' signal type. On a 16:9 format widescreen TV this usually means the capability to display 1920x1080 pixels. 1080p refers to the fact that the signal contains 1080 lines of information. The "i" suffix means that some info is missing and is 'interpolated' from the surrounding pixels or in other words the display electronics is "best guessing" the missing information. That's easy when the surrounding image is all black, or white, for example, but for fast-moving multi-coloured images this can lead to a degradation in picture quality especially as the electronics has to be fast enough to do this processing in real time. A 'p' signal has no missing info.

Most "HD Ready" screens tend to have lesser resolutions, eg 1680x1050 or 1280x960 and cannot therefore represent a 1080p signal without throwing some information away or 'downscaling'.

HTH

[Vectis]

Does anybody know what resolution my poor tired old eyes are, cos if they're not HD ready, I'm stuffed? :confused: :confused: :confused:

About 576 megapixels :eek: (http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/engineers-develop-working-electronic-eyeball)

Which makes "full HD" at 1920x1080= just over 2 megapixels a bit sad really...