Bullets 'n' Babes

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin ... hp?id=9454

It doesn't say if they'll be Full HD or HD Ready. It seems a bit premature when it won't work until 2010 earliest but I guess if you're buying a new TV anyway.

Aww what, I just presumed my HDTV would be able to accept HD Freeview. Bah.

Are you being serious or sarcastic? It's hard to tell.

If you're being serious ALL Digital TVs produced today and for the foreseeable future HD or not have SD Freeview tuners in them. It's the panel that can accepted a HD Ready or Full HD resolution not the Digital or Analogue tuners.

I was being serious; it never occurred to me that I'd need a special receiver for it.

I'm afraid so.

Hence new Sky HD boxes instead of using the existing boxes. It's also likely Freeview HD (like SKy HD) will be MPEG4 instead of MPEG2 for Freeview and Sky.

I'd imagine new separate STBs will also be released too. You'll need one for Recording too, in other words all current Recorders won't be compatible either.

I'd prefer having Freeview HD in a Recorder than TV if I had to choose.

We already had Freeview HD for 18months and yes it uses H.264.

Whats the difference between it being full HD and HD ready?
Maybe by the time I get one (couple years maybe?), HD ready ones will be cheaper.

grim_tales wrote:Whats the difference between it being full HD and HD ready?

The resolution the TV can handle.

All HD Discs (if they're BD or HD-DVD) are encoded in 1920x1080. On a HD Ready TV this is downscaled to the lower resolution.

There is evidence to show the human eye cannot pick up a resolution that high though. Think of DD5.1 vs. DTS, it's very open to debate whether you need FULL HD. I can tell you FULL HD TVs are almost twice the price. Presume it's HD Ready unless it specifically says otherwise (the price is usually a good indicator).

TV Resolutions:

SD NTSC - 720x480 (if 16:9)
SD PAL - 720x576 (if 16:9)
HD Ready TV - 1368x768
FULL HD TV - 1920x1080

HD Resolutions:

1280x720p
1920x1080i
1920x1080p

It gets slightly confusing when you consider the HD resolution below 1920x1080 is actually 1280x720 (not 1368x768) but as they're roughly the same it's easier to think of it as FULL HD means 1920x1080p (or 1080p) and HD Ready means 1280x720p (or 720p). A HD Ready TV also happens to support 1920x1080i (or 1080i) which is Interlaced instead of Progressive (so every other line is black). Obviously FULL HD can also accept a 1280x720p and 1920x1080i resolution too.

1920x1080i and 1280x720p are considered "roughly" the same quality (one is a lower resolution but Progressive, one is a higher resolution but Interlaced). It's the FULL 1920x1080p that is considered the holy grail (again presuming you can actually see it).

Both TV sets accept a 1920x1080 resolution but on a HD Ready TV it's down converted to 1368x768 so you don't actually see all the resolution on the HD Disc.

I've simplified it a little to try and not make it confusing. This is referring to HD Discs, HD broadcasts over the air very much depends on the broadcaster (some use official resolutions, others completely different ones).

I hope that helps.

grim_tales wrote:Maybe by the time I get one (couple years maybe?), HD ready ones will be cheaper.

Don't expect them to me miles cheaper, unlike DVD Players there is a market price for TVs that just doesn't go below a certain point.

bradavon wrote:There is evidence to show the human eye cannot pick up a resolution that high though. Think of DD5.1 vs. DTS, it's very open to debate whether you need FULL HD. I can tell you FULL HD TVs are almost twice the price..

That only applies till you get to a certain screen size. The larger the screen, the higher the resolution is required for optimal quality, as simple as that. It's not really comparable to DD and DTS.

Nowadays, most HDTVs being released are 1080p anyway, so the price thing isn't as much of an issue now.

gasteropod wrote:That only applies till you get to a certain screen size. The larger the screen, the higher the resolution is required for optimal quality, as simple as that.

I see your point but don't think it works that way exactly. That and SD Freeview/Sky looks better on HD Ready. I've read enough reports from both points of view to say it's just like DD5.1 vs. DTS . Have a read what Ironmonkey thinks:

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... c&start=27

gasteropod wrote:Nowadays, most HDTVs being released are 1080p anyway, so the price thing isn't as much of an issue now.

No they're not, quite the opposite in fact. It's two distinct price brackets.

Maybe where you looked was the exception rather than the rule?

bradavon wrote:That and SD Freeview/Sky looks better on HD Ready.

That sounds about right, but I didn't buy an HDTV for its SD abilities

bradavon wrote:The resolution the TV can handle.

Actually, not quite. Its the native resolution of the set. This is important, as lots of HD Ready / Full HD TVs can "handle" other resolutions, like my Panasonic.

bradavon wrote: SD NTSC - 720x480 (if 16:9)
SD PAL - 720x576 (if 16:9)
HD Ready TV - 1368x768
FULL HD TV - 1920x1080

Actually a HD Ready TV can have any number of resolutions, the most common being 1024x720, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1366x768. There are even some 1024x1024 panels doing the rounds. For a TV to be HD Ready, it has to have at least 720 lines. The horizontal pixel resolution doesn't matter according to the spec laid out.

bradavon wrote: 1280x720p
1920x1080i
1920x1080p

And now there's 2160p! Panasonic in Japan have made a 150" plasma which has to UPSCALE FULL HD material to fit the screen resolution.

bradavon wrote:1920x1080i and 1280x720p are considered "roughly" the same quality (one is a lower resolution but Progressive, one is a higher resolution but Interlaced). It's the FULL 1920x1080p that is considered the holy grail (again presuming you can actually see it).

Yep, & like I've said to many people before, 1080p is not necessary (even on big screens).

gasteropod wrote:That sounds about right, but I didn't buy an HDTV for its SD abilities

Yes but you've got to remember that probably 95% of people who buy HD TVs don't watch anything but SD material. Most customers I talk to at work believe they'll be watching HD as soon as they plug a new HD TV into their aerial socket at home.

gasteropod wrote:That sounds about right, but I didn't buy an HDTV for its SD abilities

You don't watch any SD content? I watch far more SD than HD and even will when I get a HD Player. I even suspect once Freeview HD is out a hell of a lot of it will still be SD.

IronMonkey wrote:Actually, not quite. Its the native resolution of the set. This is important, as lots of HD Ready / Full HD TVs can "handle" other resolutions, like my Panasonic.

I was trying not to make it too complicated. I think I failed there.

bradavon wrote:Actually a HD Ready TV can have any number of resolutions, the most common being 1024x720, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1366x768. There are even some 1024x1024 panels doing the rounds. For a TV to be HD Ready, it has to have at least 720 lines. The horizontal pixel resolution doesn't matter according to the spec laid out.

Again I was trying to keep it simple , but you're right it's best to try and give all the information.

bradavon wrote:There is evidence to show the human eye cannot pick up a resolution that high though. Think of DD5.1 vs. DTS, it's very open to debate whether you need FULL HD. I can tell you FULL HD TVs are almost twice the price. Presume it's HD Ready unless it specifically says otherwise (the price is usually a good indicator).

I'd love to see this evidence (read: anecdotal nonsense). If someone can't tell the difference it's not because there isn't one it's because of their eyesight, same goes for DD and DTS though in that case it's their hearing or the encodes themselves.

Sorry evidence was probably the wrong word to use. I meant like DTS/DD5.1 there is enough user feedback from both sides to make it an open case for both points of view.

There is evidence to show that the louder audio is the more likely someone is to prefer it. Not because it's any better quality but because human ears are being stimulated more and therefore the sound is being enhanced. As in the case of some DTS soundtracks, certainly not all though IMO.

bradavon wrote:You don't watch any SD content?

That's not what I said is it. The quality of SD on my HDTV is good enough for me, I bought it for 1080p sources (e.g. Blu-ray).

1080p is as far away from 720 as 720 is from SD, so I don't know how anyone can try and argue that there's little to no difference. It's all about the size of the screen you watch it on, and that's final!!!

gasteropod wrote:That's not what I said is it.

I know but SD upscaled is what the majority of TV we watch is. Unless you watch more Films than TV?

gasteropod wrote:1080p is as far away from 720

Have you tried outputting 720p? How does it differ? In your case remember even 720p is being upscaled to 1920x1080 so it's not "exactly" the same as how a HD Ready TV handles it.

gasteropod wrote:as 720 is from SD

Not really. SD PAL is 720x576 but HD Ready is 1280x720. That's a lot higher. If 1280x720 was the same as SD there'd be no point in HD Ready TVs.

gasteropod wrote:It's all about the size of the screen you watch it on, and that's final!!!

The same way they can argue against DTS. It's all down to how fussy people are, what they notice and what they don't, how good their eye sight is.

Did you try out the equivalent HD Ready TV before buying a FULL HD one? I've yet to see FULL HD in action so am strictly on the fence.