where to buy HDTV
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From: Cherry Hill, NJ
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two things i havent heard said yet:
1. a high contrast ratio makes the image look much better. samsung does a great job of getting higher contrast ratios on their tvs.
2. a 720p hdtv won't pick up the HD cable that's broadcast in 1080i
and i'm going to track this topic. my brother lent us his until he gets back from iraq, and that's coming up in about 2 months, so i'll be in the market soon.
1. a high contrast ratio makes the image look much better. samsung does a great job of getting higher contrast ratios on their tvs.
2. a 720p hdtv won't pick up the HD cable that's broadcast in 1080i
and i'm going to track this topic. my brother lent us his until he gets back from iraq, and that's coming up in about 2 months, so i'll be in the market soon.
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From: Connecticut
Originally Posted by ace123,Apr 16 2008, 03:52 PM
two things i havent heard said yet:
1. a high contrast ratio makes the image look much better. samsung does a great job of getting higher contrast ratios on their tvs.
2. a 720p hdtv won't pick up the HD cable that's broadcast in 1080i
and i'm going to track this topic. my brother lent us his until he gets back from iraq, and that's coming up in about 2 months, so i'll be in the market soon.
1. a high contrast ratio makes the image look much better. samsung does a great job of getting higher contrast ratios on their tvs.
2. a 720p hdtv won't pick up the HD cable that's broadcast in 1080i
and i'm going to track this topic. my brother lent us his until he gets back from iraq, and that's coming up in about 2 months, so i'll be in the market soon.
And any new 720p set is going to accept a 1080i, and most big screens will accept a 1080p signal (probably 37" or bigger? maybe 42"). They will just downscale it to fix the native 720p resolution.
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From: Albuquerque, NM
Originally Posted by vtec9,Apr 16 2008, 06:17 AM
Who came up with it? Oh, I don't know.. God? Or whomever you believe created the physical structure of our eyes.
And I'll just say it flat out, your post is wrong on many levels.
It's true new panels are better than those from several years ago.. but companies are still making 720p panels today with the newer technology, and they cost less, so your argument about that goes out the window.
Who said anything about being too close? I said simply that your eye has limits. If there are two 42" tvs identical in every way (contrast, brightness, etc, etc) except one has 720p resolution and is playing 720p content and the other has 1080p resolution and is playing 1080p content.. you will not be able to see a difference if you stand 10" away unless you have much better than 20/20 vision. It is physically impossible.
And I don't know where you're getting this FPS info from, but it's wrong. 720p broadcasts are filmed at 60 fps.. thats 720 lines every 60th of a second. 1080i is 60fps as well, but since it's interlaced, you're really getting only 540 lines every 60th of a second, and 1080 lines every 30th of a second. There is no broadcast 1080p sources, only from a PC or Blu-Ray/HD-DVD. All HD movies on disc are filmed at 24fps. It doesn't matter what your player outputs (24fps, 60fps), the content is 24fps, not 60 as you mentioned.
And on a good TV, you really can't see a difference between 1080i and 1080p. You cannot compare compressed 1080i to uncompressed 1080p. There are high def dvd players that only output the 1080p source as 1080i, and if you have a quality TV that can deinterlace pretty well, you will not see a difference.
And DVDs are not 720p.. they are 480.. 720x480 is 480, not 720.
And I'll just say it flat out, your post is wrong on many levels.
It's true new panels are better than those from several years ago.. but companies are still making 720p panels today with the newer technology, and they cost less, so your argument about that goes out the window.
Who said anything about being too close? I said simply that your eye has limits. If there are two 42" tvs identical in every way (contrast, brightness, etc, etc) except one has 720p resolution and is playing 720p content and the other has 1080p resolution and is playing 1080p content.. you will not be able to see a difference if you stand 10" away unless you have much better than 20/20 vision. It is physically impossible.
And I don't know where you're getting this FPS info from, but it's wrong. 720p broadcasts are filmed at 60 fps.. thats 720 lines every 60th of a second. 1080i is 60fps as well, but since it's interlaced, you're really getting only 540 lines every 60th of a second, and 1080 lines every 30th of a second. There is no broadcast 1080p sources, only from a PC or Blu-Ray/HD-DVD. All HD movies on disc are filmed at 24fps. It doesn't matter what your player outputs (24fps, 60fps), the content is 24fps, not 60 as you mentioned.
And on a good TV, you really can't see a difference between 1080i and 1080p. You cannot compare compressed 1080i to uncompressed 1080p. There are high def dvd players that only output the 1080p source as 1080i, and if you have a quality TV that can deinterlace pretty well, you will not see a difference.
And DVDs are not 720p.. they are 480.. 720x480 is 480, not 720.
I think he was getting 60 fps from the fact that almost all flat panels these days are 60hz, and only a couple of new Sonys and Samsungs are using 120hz refresh rates (which look badass). Also, someone else mentioned it, if you have a 1080i signal over satellite or cable, and a 720p tv, your signal is getting downconverted by your tv (horizontal lines of resolution are getting dropped to fit on your tv). Even if your source is "only" 1080i, you need a tv with 1080 vertical pixel count to see all the detail being transmitted, without conversion. This means 1080p. Not to mention that if you have a 1080p source, like blu-ray, hd-dvd, or PS3 or whatever, why NOT have a tv that is capable of displaying the true signal that it's being fed? Even if you are rarely close enough to the tv to see the difference between 720p and 1080p (an argument i'm still skeptical about, but i'll bite), why not have the best resolution you can, for those times you're just walking past and can say, "damn, that picture is sharp!"
But in my case this argument doesn't affect me anymore because I ended up with a 42" Toshiba Regza 1080p 530RVU, which was $1199 from Crutchfield with no tax and free white glove shipping.
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From: Connecticut
if you want to say damn that looks good while walking by, but you never actually sit close enough to take advantage of it.. then by all means, spend the extra money on a 1080p set 
The argument about why not to have a set capable of displaying every pixel from your 1080p or 1080i source makes no sense though. The real question is why buy a more expensive TV when you will not be able to see the pixels anyway!!!
And all this hoopla over 120hz LCDs is just that.. hoopla. They still cannot display motion as well as a 60hz plasma (or the 72hz pioneer plasmas), or a 120hz RPTV. Tests have proven this.. during fast motion 1080p tests, no screen can display all 1080 lines accurately every frame, but LCDs are at the very bottom in terms of performance.
They are certainly better than the 60Hz counterparts, but not worthy of lasting praise IMO.
Personally I sit 6.5-7.5ft from my 1080p 50" plasma and I soak up all 1080 lines of sweet high definition goodness!!
The argument about why not to have a set capable of displaying every pixel from your 1080p or 1080i source makes no sense though. The real question is why buy a more expensive TV when you will not be able to see the pixels anyway!!!
And all this hoopla over 120hz LCDs is just that.. hoopla. They still cannot display motion as well as a 60hz plasma (or the 72hz pioneer plasmas), or a 120hz RPTV. Tests have proven this.. during fast motion 1080p tests, no screen can display all 1080 lines accurately every frame, but LCDs are at the very bottom in terms of performance.
They are certainly better than the 60Hz counterparts, but not worthy of lasting praise IMO.
Personally I sit 6.5-7.5ft from my 1080p 50" plasma and I soak up all 1080 lines of sweet high definition goodness!!
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Originally Posted by vtec9,Apr 16 2008, 02:09 PM
And any new 720p set is going to accept a 1080i, and most big screens will accept a 1080p signal (probably 37" or bigger? maybe 42"). They will just downscale it to fix the native 720p resolution.
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From: Land of Cincinnati Chili
I think that the next step is 2160 x 3840. Not specifically for resolution (although nice on a huge projector) but it's just mathematically simpler. No mathematical wizardry required, just line doubling and tripling and no line interpolation required. Obviously, the current HD standards were picked with that in mind.
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From: Connecticut
Originally Posted by flitcroft,Apr 23 2008, 12:30 AM
I understand the cell structure of TVs and also understand human eyes on a cellular level but that still doesn't mean that I have to buy arbitrary distance ratios that depend on many factors other than distance and screen size (to name a few: signal material and quality, ambient light, local contrast, screen quality, and vision).