Full HD, Should I Wait?

Squonk

New member
Dec 17, 2007
6
0
0
Visit site
Hi,

I’m in a bit of a quandary and would appreciate some advice.

My 8 year old CRT TV has started to develop a fault which means it’s a 55:50 chance as to whether it switches on or not, so I’m now in the market for a new set.

The size of screen I will go for is 32” and rightly or wrongly I’m a big fan of Panasonic, and if I was to buy a set today it would be the Panasonic TX-32LXD700. This set is of course HD Ready, so my question is, should I buy this set now or wait until Panasonic introduce a 32” Full HD set, whenever that may be?

I suppose I will be buying an HD disc player in the next 2 to 3 years but other than that I have no plans in the near future of getting an HD source, unless HD appears on Freeview soon. However, if this new set lasts for another 8 years like my current set, that will take us to a time where HD broadcast will be the norm, so should I future proof myself now by waiting for a 32” Full HD set?

Also, with existing television broadcasts, i.e. not HD, will I notice any difference in picture quality between HD ready and Full HD sets as I presume there is more digital processing involved in up-scaling to Full HD as opposed to HD ready?

So that’s my quandary, HD Ready now or wait for Full HD, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
 

Clare Newsome

New member
Jun 4, 2007
1,657
0
0
Visit site
Firstly, the cases for the Panasonic TX- 32LXD700:

1) It's our favourite 32in set, so you're onto a winner there.

2) It's also a set that's happy to take native 1080p (Full HD) content from HD players/potential future HD broadcasts (don't hold your breath...), and downscale it to suit its HD Ready resolution.

3) It's also a damn-fine TV today, with a strong Freeview tuner. And yes, by being 'only' HD Ready, it's having to do less upscaling of TV and standard DVD content than a Full HD set would. Not that you'll find a selection of 32in Full HD sets out there yet (of which more later).

4) Even at the next-size of set up - 37in - where we can compare Full HD to HD Ready sets, you'd be hard-pushed to tell the difference between a Full HD and HD Ready set running HD content at normal viewing distances. Some would argue this even applies to 42in sets.....

And now the case against:

We probably will see Full HD flatscreens at this size being announced at January's Consumer Electronics Show - though they'll carry a large price premium in the short-term. As well as being fully equipped for everything Full HD (for example true 24fps support), these sets are likely to be even better performers all-round - plus use less electricity, which is something manufacturers seem to be (rightly) focussing on for the future.

We're not, however, likely to see such sets in the UK shops much before Easter.
 

Squonk

New member
Dec 17, 2007
6
0
0
Visit site
That's absolutely brilliant Clare, thank you.

So the fact that Full HD 32" sets from Panasonic won't be available until at least next Easter and then at a price premium together with the fact that the TX- 32LXD700 will happily down-scale 1080p at 24fps has pretty much made up my mind to buy this set in the up coming January sales, assuming I can find it in stock at the right price of course!
Thanks again for your quick reply.
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts