High Definition Tele

Site Subscriber Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 728

Check Out some high def trailers at
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

Amazing quality!

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

dont. use. the. URL. tags.

Site Subscriber Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 1141

Neal wrote:

sony stuff is slickly designed and marketed, but very very poor reliability compared to say panasonic, in my experience.

Well I rep for Panasonic and their 500 series HD TV's so I'd have to agree Wink

I like old school sony stuff though, their big 28/32/36" TV's are bomb proof and can be picked up for next to nowt on ebay if you don't need the slimness of LCD/Plasma

Level 8 User Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 278

astrojon007 wrote:

Got in a new hard drive from Sony today which they have kindly loaded with some proper bo high def footage.

It's absolutely awesome. The very reason that we sell Sony stuff is because they have the best picture quality on the market. I have seen the new spanky top of the range sony stuff running dvds but high def just puts it all to shame. It really is like looking through a window.

Just though I'd mention it as it absolutely blew me away when I saw it. Quite a freaky experience to be honest. If anyone gets a chance to go into a local sony centre do it it's well worth a look.

Just wondering how it compares to Digital (Freeview) viewed on a laptop.
That combination is vastly superior to terrestrial TV, and Digital TV viewed on a TV.

I have one of these http://www.nebula-electronics.com/ it is quality piece of kit. It allows streaming over a network, the internet and (when daisy chained with another) allows recording of multiple channels on different MUXes.

I suppose the way to compare these technologies is to check the resolution specs.

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

Addie wrote:

I like old school sony stuff though, their big 28/32/36" TV's are bomb proof and can be picked up for next to nowt on ebay if you don't need the slimness of LCD/Plasma

I have an old sony 28" tv, i had a philips 32" widescreen but couldn't stand the shape lol

Level 8 User Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 278

Just had a look:

The formats used in HDTV are:

720p - 1280x720 pixels progressive
1080i - 1920x1080 pixels interlaced
1080p - 1920x1080 pixels progressive

The format used in SDTV (also digital) are:

480i - 704x480 pixels interlaced
480p - 704x480 pixels progressive

So this means that the picture viewed on a laptop at 480? from 1M will probably look similar to a big HDTV showing 1080 at 4M.

Not sure if this is correct though.

No matter, it is a significant step forward.

Site Subscriber Joined: 29 Mar 2005 Posts: 731

HDTV actually covers a range of qualitys from

720 x 1080 up to 1920 x 1080

As with the current sky system they can change the quality (mulitplexing)as per the channel content (hence why motors tv is shite and sky movies are pretty good)

Also interlaced is done with processors doing "guess work" ie the picture is more like 540x360 but it fills in the gaps in the middle with what it "thinks" should be there. So if a line has black above and blue below the line in between becomes something in between those colours.(So you can take a standard DVD and "doctor" it into HD "interlaced")

As well as that the software running the screens makes more difference to the picture than the resolution rating of the panel. Hence why the top brands are better than the unknowns like techwood also why the Sony's have a hugely better picture than Samsung despite them making the panels in the same factory.

Apart from that there is no doubt that in the picture quality on the Sony Bravia LCD's IS the best on the market. Because of this Sky have signed a deal with Sony so that they are the main advertisers for HDTV when Sky release it. Very Happy

HD makes Freeview look like a bad kiddies drawing no matter how you view it. For want of a better description it really is like looking through a window.

I do agree with you guys that playstaion and in car stuff is pretty pants from Sony....that's why we don't sell it. I work for an independant and we sell what we believe to be the best product based on 40 years of selling and servicing. We only sell home entertainment stuff from Sony ~(TV's, Hi-Fi's, MP3 players etc) and whenever we deal with another manufacturer like philips, samsung or panasonic (the only others we would deal with) we have nothing but problems.

Looking it up today the average age of Sony sets we repair are 12-15 years old compared to the next best being panasonic at 8-11 years old.

Yes I do have a lot of spare time on my hands this evening but I think this should answer some Q's.

The one thing we always maintain at work is offer honest advice so if a customer honestly believes another manufacturers TV is better then fine that's up to them, personally I'm goin with my boss and 40 years experience.

Ooh ooh almost forgot....even though those trailers look great on a pc screen it just doesn't do HD justice, when you see it on a proper LCD tele you'll know what I mean.