HD ready TV and blu ray

[arty]

Ok here is the thing... I have a fairly old plasma display (pioneer PDP 436 XDE) that isn't full HD compatible and the question is this,

Is it worth spending the extra money on a Blu ray player £400 - £500 or just stick with a circa £300 machine, in other words would I see a difference in picture quality with the better players even though my display wont accept native 1080P

 

[Anonymous]

I have a HD Ready TV too and enjoy glorious pictures with my Pana BD-35 blu-ray player. Since you have a Pioneer display, I would suggest maybe the BDP-51FD, or one of new Pioneer blu-ray players.

The reason I suggest a Pioneer is because I feel Pioneer blu-rays work best with Pioneer displays - based on my observation, that is.

 

[Anonymous]

Ive got the same display and believe me, its definately worth it. That is an excellent panel and a prime candidate for the "pixel count isnt everything" school of thought. I have seen many "full HD" Displays that were, quite frankly rubbish compared to this simple "HD ready" display.

 

[arty]

Thanks for the advice so far... I was hoping to pick up one of the new pioneer decks depending on reviews and cash flow!

Any comments from the what hi fi team

 

[Anonymous]

eddmac:Ive got the same display and believe me, its definately worth it. That is an excellent panel and a prime candidate for the "pixel count isnt everything" school of thought. I have seen many "full HD" Displays that were, quite frankly rubbish compared to this simple "HD ready" display.

Totally agree

 

[digigriffin]

As long as you are happy with the blu ray picture why change?

I could spot telecine judder on my HD-Ready on blu-ray so the change to Full-HD allowed my to see blu-ray at 24p which is only possible when ouput is 1080p?

 

[arty]

Thats just the point - I don't have a bluray deck yet!

Just wondering if there is any point paying for a better mechine if I can't make use of the 24fps and 1080p output

 

[Frank Harvey]

The jump from SD to HD is the biggest jump you'll make, even if it is just 720p. You do have a good screen, and as a few have already said, you'll be surprised how good your screen is once you add a BD player. 24fps isn't the be all and end all.

Many would debate the merits of 1080p over 720p at 40/43".

 

[Clare Newsome]

I agree that Blu-ray is definitely worth a punt on your TV - especially as so many of the modern BD players are great at upscaling DVD, too.

Plenty of inspiration round the corner in our next issue (out next Wednesday; with subscribers from this Friday), which includes a Blu-ray player Supertest, including new-season Pioneer and Sony models.

If you're still in doubt, why not borrow a Blu-ray player/discs from a friend/retailer to see how you find it on your screen?

 

[Anonymous]

eddmac:Ive got the same display and believe me, its definately worth it. That is an excellent panel and a prime candidate for the "pixel count isnt everything" school of thought. I have seen many "full HD" Displays that were, quite frankly rubbish compared to this simple "HD ready" display.

+1

I too have the PDP-436 XDE and I paired it with the Denon 2500BT - set to output 720p - and the results are simply stunning.

 

[aliEnRIK]

I have a 42" Pioneer and the difference is staggering at times (Mines only 768 too)

I would definitely say its worth it (Dependent on the bluray encoding of course)

I put 'ICE AGE' in hidef on yesterday just to see what the quality was like, and it was far and away better than the dvd version

 

[TKratz]

digigriffin:

I could spot telecine judder on my HD-Ready on blu-ray so the change to Full-HD allowed my to see blu-ray at 24p which is only possible when ouput is 1080p?

But this is most likely due to lack of 1080p24 support on your TV rather than screen resolution. Your TV doesn't need to be FullHD to have 1080p24 support, but if your TV lack this functionality playing 1080p24 material will create judder when played at 50 Hertz. It is very individual how much people are annoyed by this though and some might not even notice.

As already said a couple of times, the difference between 720p and 1080p is questionable at screen sizes of 40-42 inches. You can read more about why here: http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229341535

When WhatHifi tested the difference between HD ready and FullHD (was it around 1 year ago?) I also assume screen sizes of at least 50 inches were used.