There have been a few posts about HDTV recently and seeing as I am bored here at work and it's late I thought I'd write down some stuff I know.
In aeons past TV was transmitted in 480i NTSC in the US and 576i PAL in Europe (the i stands for interlaced) The resolution of said US picture was 640x480 or 720x576i in Europe.
Your old television draws lines on the screen 60 times a second. If your TV's resolution was 8x6, it would look like this:
X X X X X X X X
O O O O O O O O
X X X X X X X X
O O O O O O O O
X X X X X X X X
O O O O O O O O
An interlaced TV means that the first 1/60th of a second, the TV draws the odd numbered lines, like this:
X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X
The second 1/60th of a second it draws the even numbered lines, like this:
O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O
Then along came HD-High Definition telly, at 720p and 1080p (the p stands for progressive) This means that the picture is drawn once completely every 1/60th of a second thereby creating a better picture.
The 1/60th in the above examples is the refresh rate. The higher the refresh rate the better the picture.
The only thing you need to be aware of is that some older Televisions (and some current cheaper TV's) have a native resolution they display at and if they receive a signal they don't understand will down convert back to standard 480i.
e.g. I play an Xbox game which outputs at 720p but my TV is natively set at 1080i, it will down convert the picture to 480i. Which means I get a pants picture.
That being said most TV's will now up convert the picture to their native format.
1080p v 720p
1080p is marketed as "True HD" and so it is...sort of.
720p resolution = 1280x720
1080p resolution = 1920x1080
So basically with 1080p you get a lot more detail. However if you buy a TV with a screen size of under 45" you aren't going to notice the difference between a 1080p picture and a 720p picture.
Why? because the pixels are so damned tightly packed together already in a 720p that there isn't a whole lot of improvement bunging more in will do.
Basically the closer the lines of pixels are together the clearer picture.
Also most devices (except blueray players) will only output at a maximum of 720p..SkyHD included.
You will only use your 1080p picture when you watch a blueray.
I posted this in another thread, but here it is again.
If you are going to sit 6 foot away from your telly do not buy a 50" telly you are wasting your time.
There is also a viewing distance calculator here
http://myhometheater.homestead.com/v...alculator.html
to double check.
Cables.
Do not buy gold coated, diamond encrusted cables. Buy the cheapest ones you can get and use them. Unless you have the hearing of a bat you will not notice the difference. (my opinion) Speakers make much more of a difference than cables.
Connections
Use HDMI for picture and sound. Make sure your new TV has HDMI 1.3a connectors (its the latest standard) and the only type that will support true HD sound. If you don't have 1.3a then use optical cables for your sound output if you can and stick with the HDMI for your picture.
Plasma or LCD
Most manufactures stopped making Plasma TV's.
The disadvantages of Plasma's are:
Burn in - if you leave a picture on the screen for a long time it will burn onto the screen.
Halflife - the picture quality will degrade over time (a very long time)
The advantages are better blacks (although not as good as a traditional CRT telly) and colour display overall.
No dead pixels (the plague of large LCD TV's, still)
LCD. Usually thinner than a plasma and not susceptible to screen burn.
The disadvantages are that the blacks are often grey and if you have a response time of over 10ms you will see ghosting on the screen (note: I've not seen a LCD with over 10ms response time in years.)
Basically if you want the best picture you can get, go buy an old tube CRT television that your Grandad still uses. Otherwise go Plasma if you buy over 42" and LCD under that. (My opinion again of course)
Manufacturers I would look at:
Sony, Panasonic, Samsung.
EDIT: thanks axman
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