Daveo

Do I need 1080p capability when buying a new lcd/plasma tv?

I'm not a gadget freak, I just want something to play my Xbox 360 on and possibly watch sky HD in the future.

It just seems to me that the goalposts keep getting moved regarding is it HD ready, is it not, if you see what I mean.

Comments/advice appreciated.

sti-04!!

I would say yes to be honest.

Try AV Forums Home for some friendly advise.

Petem95

If you are looking at getting a 40/42" screen or bigger then I would say yes.

Sony Centres usually have a 1080p screen on display running off a decent feed, and you'd be surprised at the improvement over standard HD.

Saying that smaller screens simply dont need the higher resolution really, but Im not sure Ive seen a 1080p 32" screen available anyway.

Geezer

The 1080p screens do seem to have better quality, it depends on the feed (since I have recently found it), so if you are watching 720p or 1080i, 1080p doesn't seem to make much difference. You say you have Xbox 360, well cannot output in 1080p anyway, so take that into consideration.

I didn't think the Sony one was that good, the Phillips stuff loks good but it ain't cheap.

Geezer

Leslie

Progressive scan will always be better than interlaced which is a cheap way to get the 1080 lines. Interlaced delays the full picture build up which can mean blurring on moving pictures, rather in the same way that the response time on an LCD causes the same problem.

Les

kittle

im running a 37" samsung lcd with 720p/1080i.... and looks great to me! Do tent to use the 720p more and mainly for ps3/ blue ray dvd's. the 1080p will look even better but the price tag comes with it. Look at how many hd inputs there are, most have 1 or 2 hdmi and a componenet. You can get splitters etc for about £60 to let you connect 3 diff hdmi into the one.

Shark Man

Seeing that is the way things are heading, I say yes.

I've not been overbowled by 720 on the larger sized screens, unless its a really high end model. So if your having a large screen, take that into consideration.

If you ever get to see one on demo, take a look at the Pioneer PDP-5000EX, ok, its a plasma, but a damn good one though.

Also in theory 1080 should make an ideal monitor for PC (if you use a PC for a media centre), seeing that most native resolutions on computers applications these days buzz round 1024 lines, a 1080 line screen should therefore be ideal (although, yet to see a PC running on a 1080p screen).

KiwiGTI

No, not worth it. The content isn't being delivered much yet and the extra expense isn't justified.

Broadcast 1080p will not be happening for many years, if at all. Most content from HD-DVD etc is just upscaled at the moment too.

Pretty much the view at AVForums.com too.

ScoobyDoo555

At present I would tend to agree with Kiwi. Not really worth it UNLESS you have to have the latest kit.

Realistically, 1080p won't be in wide circulation for a while (years) - by that time your "state of the art" 1080p TV will be a dinosaur

I ummd and ahh'd over this at Christmas when I got mine, and eventually went for a Panasonic 42" plasma.

It plays my 360, DVD & Wii in component/HD, my Macs (if I choose to run them through the screen) and anything else.

I wasn't prepared to pay the expensive premium for 1080p - a function that I wouldn't use. No PS3 (nor will there be). Waiting for the battle between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray to be won.

Until then, I'm happy

Dan

Shark Man

There's two ways of looking at it IMO: It depends if you like to buy a new TV every 2-3 years. Or buy one and run with it for longer (or until it dies).

I generally do the latter (which is why I still have a top-end CRT and an awful 1st gen plasma) The CRT was £1K worth and the Plasma £4.5k worth in its heyday. Like most used electrical goods its worth nothing after a few years.

When either blow up (here's hoping ), I'll buy the lastest stuff, like before. Costwise it pans out to be about the same as buying yesturday's technology and replacing it more regulary to keep up to speed.

Say if I bought the PDP-5000EX now (actually, more likely next year), its currently selling at about £4-5K, same price as the 1st gen Plasma that is now five years old. So that will be costing me £4.5K every 6 years.

Alternatively I could have bought several lesser spec Tvs every two to three years at £2K and be no worse off financially. Its just down to how patient/tolerant you are with regard to sticking with teh same old TV for a bit longer.

StickyMicky

the reason why i went with a 720 set which can downscale 1080 if needed in the future.

i think most 360 games are made for 720 anyway? which was thew main reason i wanted a higher def set, i have just watched an old DVD on mine and the quality was shocking, putting black hawk down in was fine, worth thinking about

depends what your main content is

StickyMicky

my old 32" £300 widescreen CRT has just died after about 14 years (i think, i dont think i even had a drivers licence when i bought it)

it started going a bit nuts when it was cold, like it needed an old cars choke to help it warm up

did my proud that thing, until i dumped it in a skip this morning

paulr

Isn't SKYHD in 1080?

Shark Man

It's a great feeling

We got rid of our 14" monitors that have been gathering dust for god knows how long....Was great fun slam-dunking them into the skip

(not good on mother earth, but you give me another easy environment freindly solution....thats funs and destructive )

hades

I believe some sky HD is 1080i, none in 1080p. Lots is 720p. However, ultimately, something in 1080i should look better on a screen with 1080 lines, as it still effectively gets downscaled onto a set with only 720 vertical pixel rows. (This obviously doesn't apply so much to something that was 720 to start with and upscaled)

StickyMicky

the strange thing is, that the VCR that came free with the CRT, has only ever been used about 3 times and is pretty much brand new, like a well looked after cosworth

The Zohan

Exactly the advice i had from a mate who knows about these things

BigGT3Fan

My understanding is that all HD TV (sky, cable and terrestrial HD when that comes some time later) will be/is 720p for the foreseeable. There are no plans to broadcast in either 1080 format.

1080 is only worth it if you have Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, an XBOX 360 or a PS3, or a PC that will output 1080 resolution.

I bought a 1080p TV as I have a PS3 and PC with HD output, if I didn't have either of these things, (i.e. just using for HD TV) then I'd have bought a 720p

HTH

Alex

Sleazy Badger

Excellent advice above.

Base your choice on your predominant source(s).

Neil W

I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD which I bought a year ago. Recently purchased a PS3 and when I play PS3 games they are in 720p and blu-ray plays in 1080i but the TV will not recognise 1080p.

Whats the difference between 720p and 1080i?? e.g which is best viewing.

I must say though that Planet Earth Blu-Ray is superb.

kittle

1080 is higher res, but 720p has a progressive scan so will seem smooth with no/less ghosting, jumping etc

Shark Man

As above, but kits left out the important "i" which stands for interlaced - where the odd lines on a screen are displayed in one sweep, then the even lines are displayed in the second sweep. So only half the bandwidth is required to display on all the lines. The cost is as mentioned, flicker (unless the screen compensates for it - which most do ) or picture unstability. Progressive scan does the whole lot in one go.

It's down to the TV's processing circuitry to dicate if it displays 1080i better than 720p.

TopBanana

You probably want it if you're going to watch Blu-Ray / HD-DVD films on it, or run a PS3 or next generation console on it. Whether you want to pay the extra for it is up to you!

ChefDude

I have a related question:

We bought a 720 32" HD tv with a normal dvd player with an HDMI link - fantastic quality but, tbh (we sit 4m away from our tv), a bigger screen was too pixelly at that distance.

would a 1080p bigger screen + blu ray player upscaling normal dvds be less pixelly? ie; we'd like a bigger tv to play normal dvds, but the image not be pixelly looking. is that possible?

ChefDude

(btw, we have over a thousand dvd films and we will want to watch them again lol)

PeteBrant

You can pick up upscaling DVD players cheap as chips - You don't need to fork out for a BluRay player.

ChefDude

but there's no point using legacy kit with a shiny 1080p tv though - we can then watch full HD movies then, yes?

would a larger tv be pixelly at 1080?

InvisibleMan

do blu-ray players upscale dvds to 1080? The cynic in me thought that it wouldnt have been in sonys best interest in allowing people to reuse their dvds in better quality rather than repurchasing in hd...

PeteBrant

Well , no, ideally you get a BluRay player - But this will have no advantage over an upscaling DVD player for your existing collection.

As to whether a 1080p set will appear less pixelly... That's quite an involved question.

The benefit of 1080p over 720p depends entirely on the size of the screen and the distance you are from it. For example, if you have a 40" screen and you are 15 foot away from it, there is every likelyhood you will see no discernable difference between the two resolutions. The closer you get, or the bigger screen you have, the more likely you are to be able to see a difference.

As for it being less pixelly, this all depends on your source, if you are upscaling DVDs then yes, they will appear less pixelly, although obvously not as good as a true HD source.

SO basically, it all depends on your living room arrangements as to whether a 1080p set will give any advantage over a 720p set.

PeteBrant

Yup, some upscale to 720p, some to 1080p