Another new TV Thread.

[Rubber Bullets]

Sorry, but this time a bit different. I have already bought the TV. This one, and I am very happy with it. It had very positive reviews on Amazon as well as Which? and Trusted Reviews etc.

Despite having a pretty big sitting room we decided to go with 32" as we didn't want to TV to dominate the room too much. I also preferred the 720p model with 100Hz refresh to the 1080p one with only 50Hz refresh for about £100 more.

I currently have normal Sky+ and an OK LiteOn DVD recorder/player, as well as a MG-35 HDD media player for all my divX films etc.

Anyway the question is what, if anything, to get next.

How much better would Sky HD look? Would it be worth the extra £10 a month.

Will an upscaling DVD player sent through an HDMI link look better than the existing DVD signal through a SCART and upscaled by the TV? (Actually DVDs do look much better than on my old CRT TV already).

Would Bluray scaled down from 1080 to 720 look better than normal DVD upscaled?

I wouldn't mind a PS3 but money is an issue at the moment and so it is inlikely to happen for a while, and even then I may have to get a Wii due to pressure from other pars of the household

RB

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Not that it'll make much difference but I meant this one.

RB

 

[old.user4556]

How much better would Sky HD look? Would it be worth the extra £10 a month.

Yes, but to make the most of it you should a) get a reasonably big TV and b) sit quite close to get the most of it.

Will an upscaling DVD player sent through an HDMI link look better than the existing DVD signal through a SCART and upscaled by the TV? (Actually DVDs do look much better than on my old CRT TV already).

Depends on the TV and how good it's scaler is. My Sony DVD player looked pretty much the same when I went from SCART RGB to HDMI. The benefit will come from moving from interlaced to an upscaled progressive signal; but you're still polishing a turd.


Would Bluray scaled down from 1080 to 720 look better than normal DVD upscaled?

Ohhhhh yes, but again depends on the TV - the bigger the better

Comments in bold.

 

[Zenith.UK]

How much better would Sky HD look? Would it be worth the extra £10 a month.

Sky HD would be a noticeable step up in visual quality. You're currently using a SCART lead to send the analogue signal to your TV whereas SkyHD uses a HDMI lead which sends a digital signal to the TV. The difference in colour tones would be the first thing you'd notice. The next thing is to decide which device upscales SD content better... SkyHD box sending SD as normal and your TV upscales it, or your SkyHD box sends out an upscaled image for your TV to display as is. That is purely down to your personal choice as one combination may give you better visual quality than the other (due to differences in how they upscale).
If you have the movies and/or sports packages then it would make more sense to take on the HD channels to go with your HDTV. So what if the HD channels are transmitted in 1080i... the SkyHD box downscales 1080i gracefully to 720p.


Will an upscaling DVD player sent through an HDMI link look better than the existing DVD signal through a SCART and upscaled by the TV? (Actually DVDs do look much better than on my old CRT TV already).

HELL YES! Your TV does a good job of scaling up DVD rez to fill the screen but SCART simply cannot compare to the signal sent via HDMI. An upscaling DVD player with HDMI output is designed to upscale the image well and send the appropriate rez to your screen so all the screen has to do is display the image without processing.


Would Bluray scaled down from 1080 to 720 look better than normal DVD upscaled?

I would have thought so. Think of it this way, DVD has 576 interlaced lines of data. When you're upscaling it, all you're doing is magnifying what you had to start with. Bluray has 1080 progressive lines of data so it already has finer detail and you're shrinking it down to fit 720p. The bluray image can afford to lose some detail because it had a lot of detail to start with.
So DVD upscaled has less image detail than bluray downscaled. The difference is down to personal preference.


I wouldn't mind a PS3 but money is an issue at the moment and so it is inlikely to happen for a while, and even then I may have to get a Wii due to pressure from other pars of the household

I've already made it clear on this forum how I feel about PS3's )), but they are one of the best combined bluray players, DVD upscalers and video media players (stream video from your media PC). The fact it is a console as well is a nice plus point.

Questions in bold italics.

One thing to bear in mind is that upscaling your DVD to 1080i/p then letting your TV downscale to 720p may introduce visual artifacts similar to poorly encoded mpegs. Where possible, try and keep upscaling and downscaling to the best rez of TV display (720p) and let your TV show the image with no processing. I have a 1080p screen and it receives 1080p from the PS3 and 1080i from the SkyHD box... all the TV is doing is showing the image as sent from the source devices.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Many thanks to both of you. Excellent answers and you've given me much to think about.

RB

 

[Bodhi]

For me, the only reason I'm looking at a HD telly is for PS3. I've seen Wipeout HD running at 60 fps in 1080p, and I must admit, I did a little sex wee. Because of this I reckon I'll get myself either a Samsung or an LG Scarlet before the end of the month. I was looking at the Pannys, but my current 28" CRT is a Panasonic and its a bag of shite. Picture quality is OK (as long as you've never seena Wega) but the build quality is shocking. THe stand has disintegrated, the remote doesnt work and the front panel has fallen off. On a 6 year old tely, I count that as pretty poor. If only my work did Bravias....

So basically, save for a PS3. The fact that you get BlueRay, media streaming, PVR (if you get a PlayTV) etc is just a bonus.

 

[Bodhi]

And in a flurry of double posting I have decided upon my new telly.

KDL-32W4000 (KDL32W4000) : Technical Specifications : TV and projectors : Sony

Oh yes, she will be mine.


(Not at that fucking price though)

 

[Zenith.UK]

Electro Saver have it for £581. Never heard of them though.
Item Details

Richer Sounds have it for £619.95 with 1 year warranty, or £681.90 with 5 years warranty. I *have* heard of these and I trust them.
SONY KDL32W400 at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

 

[Bodhi]

Oh dear. Sony will be very disapointed. I've just ordered one of these through work.

LG Scarlet | 37LG6000 : LG UK

Silly spec from the price, and the LG monitors we use at work seem excellent, so I've taken the plunge. There was a 2 week wait on the Samsung I was after and I am impatient to have 1080p in my life. It should arrive tomorrow, so I will let you know how I get on.

 

[old.user4556]

I can't believe you're cheating on Sony

 

[Bodhi]

She's too expensive for my budget

 

[Ch3tan]

Not seen any reviews from that, but based on previous models I have seen, LG Tv's suck donkey balls when it comes to picture quality.

Think you would have been better off with the samsungs.

 

[Edmond]

My 3 month old LG 22" monitor has lost a few pixels already

 

[Bodhi]

LG 37LG6000 Review

That and a good deal through work made my mind up. Can't say I'm disappointed - the weather girl who's just been on ITV weather's tits looked fantastic! Seriously though, SD is just as good as on my old 100Hz Panasonic CRT, and the PS3 looks fantastic. Replays on GT5 look like episodes of Top Gear without the cocking about, and Wipeout HD is jaw dropping. Only the lack of analogue audio outputs grates, but I can just wire my PS3 and Sky Box into my amp instead.

Looks pretty good to me.

 

[dysfunction]

lol Bodhi...those pictures are out of focus!

 

[Dark Orb Choir]

why did you take the tv and ps3 to your grandads house to take pictures, loving the curtains ;-)

 

[Bodhi]

Live at home now, so have to suffer my folks' taste in curtains. Thankfully you don't notice them when the PS3 is on