Is 1080p worth it?

[admin_exported]

Firstly, given the size of room I am only going as big as 32inches when buying a tv. Second, I will mainly be using it for Freeview and DVDs (I may invest in a BluRay machine too) and I will not be having HD from Sky or game consoles. I have several question:

I did read somewhere that 1080p is only worth it on screens as large as 42. Is that true?

Does 1080i do justice to BluRay DVD?

Thanks for any help

Ian

 

[professorhat]

Yes and Yes IMO

 

[professorhat]

Just qualify that with a "as long as you've got a decent HD Ready TV" statement.

Ahem

 

[Andy Clough]

1080i will be fine on an HD-ready 32in TV. Wouldn't worry about 1080p at that screen size frankly.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure that there aren't any 1080p 32" tvs on the market at the moment anyway, so you can't actually watch true (native) 1080p on a 32" tv. Obviously there are plenty of 32" tvs that will accept a 1080p signal and then downscale, but none will display 1080p natively. The highest actual resolution you can get at 32" is 720p, which, to answer your question, is fine at this size. Having said that, it is a good idea to make sure your tv will accept a 1080p/24fps signal, more for the benefits of 24fps than the 1080p resolution, which doesn't make any difference because, just to reiterate, it has to be downscaled to 720p on a 32" tv as none of them have native resolutions of 1080p.

 

[Anonymous]

So would it be worth getting something like Sky HD for a 32" HD Ready TV or is it just as well to stay with SD?

 

[Anonymous]

To me it would be worth it because the HD channels look a lot better than the SD ones on any screen size. I had a 26" Samsung LCD at the time I got Sky HD and the HD looked great and, to my eyes, even the SD channels looked a bit better; perhaps it was the HDMI connection or the upscaling that the Sky HD box does. The issue will be how much you watch sport, movies and docs because the choice is still quite small for the £10/month charge. Having said that, BBC HDdoes a few hours a day and CH HD is amazing (even though it's mostly non-HD stuff on there the scaling is so good that the SD is in a different league from usual).

The other thing is that Sky only output 1080i anyway so your 2 options are either to set the box to 720p and get a perfect pixel match with your TV, or to set the box to 1080i and let the TV scale it down. Either way a 32" "HD Ready" TV is a good match for Sky's current HD service.

Hope this helps (I'm not too hot with the technical stuff so I only pass on things I've heard other cleverer people say LOL)

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rob!

What you say makes sense.

I won't be bothering with Sky HD for now. Hoping it won't be too long before HD comes to Freeview !

 

[Anonymous]

Scotsgirl I hate to be a spoilsport, but you could be waiting a loooooooooooong time for HD on Freeview. If only it was up to me..... Hmm. I would have to get rid of all the shopping channels, and all the channels would have to be on either for 24 hours, or close at a certain time but retain dignity by not hosting rip-off phone-in competitions. Also, I would get rid of all those duplicate channels which none actually work anyway. I would have a smaller amount of channels, but there would be a much higher standard of programming. After all, when analogue is switched off, it will be the UK's primary public tv service. I would have it so there were just a handful of channels, mainly from the three main broadcasters: BBC, ITV and Channel 4. There would be no need for all the +1 versions of channels because everyone will have hard-disk recorders with multiple tuners. Every channel would be broadcasted simultaniously in both standard-def and high-def, although even the standard-def versions would be of a much higher quality and much higher bit-rate than they are now. There would be a line-up something like this:

1. BBC ONE

2. BBC TWO

3. ITV1

4. Channel 4

5. Five

6. ITV2

7. BBC THREE

8. E4

9. More4

10. ITV3

11. BBC FOUR

12. ITV4

13. Virgin 1

14. Five US

15. BBC News 24

16. Sky News

17. BBC ONE HD

18. BBC TWO HD

19. BBC THREE HD

20. BBC FOUR HD

21. ITV HD 1

22. ITV HD 2

23. Channel 4 HD

24. E4 HD

25. More4 HD

26. Five HD

27. Virgin HD

28. BBC News 24 HD

29. Sky News HD

And that's it! No need for any more channels 'coz it's all about the quality, not quantity!

Yeah man, that's the way it should be!

 

[Cofnchtr]

Hi,

So you would have no dedicated movie or sports channels??

It wouldn't be an attractive carrot to change to your HD freeview if SD freeview still offered these. I can however see your point about the 'extra' +1 channels.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.

 

[Andy Clough]

[quote user="Scotsgirl"]Hoping it won't be too long before HD comes to Freeview !

[/quote]

Unfortunately, the situation re HD Freeview is more complex than it might seem, as you can read here.

 

[Alec]

BenjaminHart - why broadcast in hd and sd simultaneously? I mean, if people will have recorders with multiple tuners (which i dont think most do have, which is why the +1s are handy occasionally; and how many is multiple...?), why wouldnt they have hd...? anyway, im jst being picky now. sorry. but i do agree loads of channels (for my tastes anyway), could be done away with.

 

[Anonymous]

multiple = any thing more than 1

OK I get the point - no need for SD channels at all. They could just make sure that all the Freeview boxes can downscale for people without HD TVs. Anyway I was only wondering. They really do need to get rid of some of the rubbish though.