Panny Freesat HD or not HD

[admin_exported]

Hi Everyone

Taking my first step into flatscreen ownership. Don't want subscription Sky or Virgin, therefor I have no sattelite dish. Comet currently doing a good online deal. Panny TX32LZD81 plus installation £620. Walked into Comet at 5pm ( Saturday ) to discuss with salesman, who promptly talked his company out of a sale by telling me that the Freesat receiver could not convert the HD signal into HD picture so lumbering me with SD picture only. Surely not !
Any advice would be greatly welcome. Thanks.

 

[The_Lhc]

Seems pretty unlikely, the Freesat tuner delivers HD channels as HD, but SD channels only as SD (it'll upscale I guess but it's not going to be as good as HD channels).

However you said you don't have a dish, so perhaps he meant the FreeVIEW tuner (it has one of those as well I believe), in which case he's right, that'll be SD only.

 

[simonlewis]

sounds like the salesman was wrong you can recieve BBC HD & ITV HD on panasonics freesat PZ81 range.

 

[Anonymous]

After salesman said what he had to say, I emphasized again my reason for showing an interest in that particular model ie: house has no dish, but he remained adamant and suggested I wait a couple of months untill something called Foxsat came onto the market, enabling the user to record/playback in HD.
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

 

[True Blue]

Yet another well trained warrenty salesman (sorry Comet employee). The 81's are freesat and you do require a dish. If you are going to be playing blu ray as your HD material then you do not need one of these models try an 80 instead which is HD ready or and 85 which is Full HD.

 

[Clare Newsome]

And the Foxsat HDR (a Freesat tuner combined with a hard-disk recorder) is already on the market - maybe he was pointing out (in a rather hamfisted way) that the Panasonic '81 Freesat sets only allow you to watch Freesat, not record it?

Anyhow, you can read our review of the Humax Foxsat PVR here

 

[Anonymous]

What strikes me with this thread is the way resellers continue to sell kit without the means to demo it or the sales person speaking from a position of authority. Having a set in store without a dish connected is wasting their time and yours.

Anyone who has seen the PX81 series in person knows what the set is capable of and having a dish connected would have answered all your questions. The PX81's display BBCHD on channel 108 beautifully, although ITV HD is more of a part time hobby.

The Foxsat which is made by Humax is at the moment the only recording HD receiver. You can of course attach this £300 device to any hdmi equipped TV and enjoy freesat and therein lies a problem. There is currently a gap in the market for a dual feed (well H & V feed) satellite distribution system, because when you've got several freesat recievers you probably don't want several dishes or multiple long runs.

Go and buy the panny. Its great for the money, but check prices from web resellers who have shops, I found mine £400 less than Comet.

Andy