Is the V+ box true HD

[theslasher]

I have a 32" lcd which i know is only HD ready and cant display 1080p,
Question is my mate has just brought a 40" sony LCD and when watching HD content on the V+ box the sony states it is in 1080i.
When switchin on his blue ray his telly states 1080p true HD so my question is is the V+ true hd as its outputting 1080i which is interlaced not progesive so any answer?
So basicaly does the V+ box just upscales to 1080i and not show 1080p.

[SMHarman]

HD is 720p 1080i and 1080p. 1080p cannot be broadcast at the moment due to bandwidth constraints on broadcast technology.
Yes the V+ is true HD though there is only one HD channel (BBC HD) and HD VOD content.

[theslasher]

Thanks for the reply i myself have had V+ for over a year and lol i now the very small amount of channles i though that true HD was a progresive signal eg 720P 1080P i thought 730i and 1080i were intrlaced which means the piture has been up scaled to hd quality so does this mean the Sky HD box can not revive 1080p.

Originally Posted by theslasher

..... does this mean the Sky HD box cannot receive 1080p.

Correct.

[mr,m]

So can someone please explain,in simple terms, the advantages of the v+ box??
I have a 37" 1090p Tosh,just to clarify,I am not really bothered about recording stuff,I am only interested in quality.Will a V+ box give me a better picture,simple as!

[SMHarman]

Tough one to answer.
On the BBC HD chanel - yes it will. On the HD VOD - yes it will.
VM does not supply HD through any other route so the DVR is the only HD box in their lineup (the US cable co's have non DVR HD boxes nowdays).
On the rest of the channels - maybe, see your TV already upscales the SD 480i content from the box to fill the 720 / 1080 lines of the bigger TV. The V+ box can do this as well but may do it better than the TV.

Originally Posted by mr,m

..Will a V+ box give me a better picture,simple as!

better than what?

miles better than any other tuner you plug into it & probably better than the built-in tuner (majority of peoples experience)

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by JethroUK

better than what?

miles better than any other tuner you plug into it & probably better than the built-in tuner (majority of peoples experience)

I was assuming he meant a standard V box, thus upscaling would be perfomed by the V+ box not the TV.

Originally Posted by SMHarman

I was assuming he meant.....

Well we can only guess what he meant

Originally Posted by SMHarman

....a standard V box, thus upscaling would be perfomed by the V+ box not the TV.

aside upscaling, std V Box (or Sky+) would be connected over scart vs HDMI, so in all departments V+ streets ahead in picture qual

Simple as! (as the man said)

If that's what he meant

.

[SMHarman]

Wheras if he was on Cablevision over in the US he could get a non DVR cable decoder with HDMI. In fact all boxes are now HDMI / HD so if you change your telly you just plug it in the different route and change the start channel from 4 to 704.

[moroboshi]

'HD' broadcasting tops out at 1080i, but any decent TV should be able to stick that together into something stable. You should only notice that it's interlaced when you pause what you are watching, at which point the interlace will stop and the picture will be half it's perceived resolution.

Some people keep harping on about the V+'s scaler but in my experience it's mediocre and does nothing to help the massively over compressed and low resolution SD channels which make up 99.99999999999% of Virgin's service. The scaler in my TV (Pioneer plasma) is absolutely leagues ahead, but I have to have the V+ set to 1080i so I can receive BBC HD in all it's middle of the road, over compressed glory.

The only way to really see what HD can do at the moment is to watch a good blu-ray disc. As a comparison, BBC HD will be running at around 15mbits at most, and in the ancient MPEG 2 codec (which needs very, very high bitrates to achieve good results). Plus it only comes with compressed 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. A good BD will be 45 mbits MPEG 4/H.264/AVC video, with lossless DTS Master or lossless Dolby True HD audio.

Depends how bothered about quality you are I guess. Personally I want to feed my TV the best, so I buy blu-rays and just use the V+ box for BBC HD. Other people seem happy with the super compressed 1mbit MPEG 2 standard def channels with stereo sound.

[mr,m]

Sorry I should have been clearer.Yes I currenly have a standard v box,I am a bit new to this hd stuff as my old tv passed away.As I understand it from the posts on here my new tv already upscales the standard box
So really as I'm not interested in recording stuff,would it be all that much better to upgrade? Thanks for your already interesting replies.

[demented]

Depends how good your tv is at upscaling, mine certainly isn't as good as the v+ at doing it so decent sd channels look much better. I think there are other advantages to the v+ over the v that aren't to do with recording. The first is upscaling, the second hd and the third is how much speedier and more stable the v+ is compared to the v boxes.

[SnoopZ]

I was was under the impression that the V+ connected over HDMI upscaled and the standard V box connected via scart didn't?

[demented]

True, another way of saying the same thing. On the v+ it is an interesting test trying out the 3 formats. HDMI is so much better than scart, even for standard def.