HD ready ?

[flashgordon]

just think of all those peps who spent a fortune on alledged HD ready plasma and LCD tvs only to find they are not really *ready* at all but need the dreaded sky /virgin HD box and then find that there set is not 100 hz but at 50hz .which means they dont get the best picture after spending several thousand on there 50 inch sets. and just to confuse the issue a new FREEVIEW box is due out,rumopur has it this will be HD. which means all those sets with the old freeview and hd ready will be out of date..

[shawty]

Its called techonolgy. To be honest, people spending hundreds or thousands on TV's should understand or educate themselves on the product before jumping in.

[thrombanks]

It depends on how often u updrade your technology .. I've just upgrade to a 37" LCD with Freeview from and 25" CRT and I'm well satisfied. also with Upscaling DVD players all my discs play in much better quality.

Just as bad as people who get fooled into buying those "1080p" HD Sets, but dont see the fact it has an extremely low contrast ratio and poor response time, so blacks look awful on it.

Marking 1366x728 LCD/Plasma and labelling it as "HD Ready" is wrong imo.

[pedantic]

Originally Posted by TraxData

Just as bad as people who get fooled into buying those "1080p" HD Sets, but dont see the fact it has an extremely low contrast ratio and poor response time, so blacks look awful on it.

Depending on the choice of set, blacks can look rather good. Here's a review of mine. It's also worth pointing out that resolution isn't everything, when it comes to picture quality, it's the processing that counts. And mine does it very well indeed.

Originally Posted by TraxData

Just as bad as people who get fooled into buying those "1080p" HD Sets, but dont see the fact it has an extremely low contrast ratio and poor response time, so blacks look awful on it.

Marking 1366x728 LCD/Plasma and labelling it as "HD Ready" is wrong imo.

Its even worse than that. 720p full res is 1280x720, but to qualify as HD Ready it only has to have 720lines. It can actually have less than 1280 horizontal pixels and still qualify as HD Ready.

[Stephen]

Erm... HD Ready just means that it is ready to accept a HD signal by HDMI or component at 720p or higher.

It doesn't mean anything else and by your original post that is what you are implying.

Also a new freeview HD box wouldn't make all the existing ones obsolete as it is simply an add on box and doesn't not actually effect your existing TV in anyway.

Originally Posted by DarthYoda

Erm... HD Ready just means that it is ready to accept a HD signal by HDMI or component at 720p or higher.

It doesn't mean anything else and by your original post that is what you are implying.

Also a new freeview HD box wouldn't make all the existing ones obsolete as it is simply an add on box and doesn't not actually effect your existing TV in anyway.

Who is this aimed at? If me then have a look here http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/a...you-ready.html

Part way down you will see that the screen has to support an input of 1280x720p but only has to display 720 lines, it does not have to display the full 1280 horizontal pixels and still qualifies as HD Ready.

[Stephen]

I was aiming it at the OP not yourself.

Originally Posted by pedantic

Depending on the choice of set, blacks can look rather good. Here's a review of mine. It's also worth pointing out that resolution isn't everything, when it comes to picture quality, it's the processing that counts. And mine does it very well indeed.

That set is quite well known for having "banding" though.

But i know that is fixed in newer models/shipments.

Big fan of pioneer i must admit, sony lcds/plasmas are very poor though.

[keithwalton]

For a TV to be HD Ready, it must be able to receive a high definition signal (usually hdmi) so any new freeview box will plugin in via that. The new freeview box has been delayed though as there was going to be a test box but this was unlikely to be compatible with the final version so they scrapped the idea.

1366x768 panels are deliberately designed for 720p with slight overscan (not sure why an lcd needs overscan but hey)
they're hardly pointless though i've run some high def content through mine from my pc and it looks fantastic, not forgetting all those consoles that prefer 720p atm.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

For a TV to be HD Ready, it must be able to receive a high definition signal (usually hdmi) so any new freeview box will plugin in via that. The new freeview box has been delayed though as there was going to be a test box but this was unlikely to be compatible with the final version so they scrapped the idea.

1366x768 panels are deliberately designed for 720p with slight overscan (not sure why an lcd needs overscan but hey)
they're hardly pointless though i've run some high def content through mine from my pc and it looks fantastic, not forgetting all those consoles that prefer 720p atm.

Try running 1080p content through it, the quality difference isnt all that noticeable on most things, run the same thing through a proper HDTV and come back saying the picture looks fantastic

[popper]

try downloading and pushing the 1920HD elephants dream Encode
through your kit and report back, that way everyones working from the same free content to fairly compare.
http://orange.blender.org/download

i did a quick look for the official spec that defines what 'HDready' must conform to in the UK, but could only find this off a retail URL.

im pritty sure the 'it is ready to accept a HD signal by HDMI or component at 720p or higher' is/was? wrong as i remember reading the official spec some time ago were it stated HDMI must be Present to qualify for the HDReady sticker....

however they may have lowered the official stance on that, as its looking like lots of lost revenue from the masses of kit lacking HDMI on the market if they didnt lower the bar to OFFICIALLY getting the all important HD ready sticker to cover trading standards/fit for purpose etc.

http://www.dvdlibrary.co.uk/hd_ready.htm
"
...
HD-ready HDTV -The biggest change to television since colour

High Definition Broadcasts will start soon in the UK and will most likely be broadcast by satellite via SKY TV initially, with the BBC most likely following sometime thereafter... most current tv sets sold in the UK will not be compatible with the higher quality signal of 720p. HD-ready labelling of TV displays will now take place in retail shops selling suitable plasma and lcd televisions, as follows:
19th January 2005, The EICTA issued a spec sheet 'Conditions for High Definition Labelling of Display Services' and the associated HD Ready label shown below.


A display unit must meet with the following specifications to be classified as 'HD-Ready'.

These are the minimum specifications:

1. Min. native resolution should be 720 physical lines in wide aspect ratio
2. Display must accept all of the following HD inputs: YPbPr1, and either DVI or HDMI
3. HD inputs should accept 1280x720 @50/60Hz (720p), and 1920x1080 @50/60Hz interlaced (1080i)
4. DVI and HDMI input must support HDCP content protection.

HD ready products sold by the following big brand manufacturer's listed as follows:

• Pioneer Plasma Tv, PDP436XDE, PDP506XDE PDP427XD, PDP507XD, PDP5000EX HD-Ready PLASMA
• Panasonic Plasma Tv, TH37PV500, TH42PV500, TH50PV500, TH37PX60, TH42PX60, TH50PX60, TH37PX70, TH42PX70, TH50PX70
• Panasonic LCD Tv, TX26LX500HD, TX32LX500HD, TX26LXD52, TX32LXD52, TX23LXD60, TX26LXD60, TX32LXD60, TX26LXD70, TX32LXD70

These models are true HD-Ready sets which are compatible with the HDMI connection to be used by SKY TV. There are a large number of non-HD ready screens and projectors out there, and their owners think that they are HD-Ready.

But, very few of the low-end plasmas can resolve HD signal. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether or not any of the screens sold so far can cope with the HDCP content protection that will be used by broadcasters and future HD disc releases.

Sky have announced that they will be using HDCP for premium services. So, this is a particularly gray area that needs to be investigated further. more info will be added here as available! For more information on High Definition TV see our HDTV page!"