Buying a Flat Panel Display (LCD/Plasma/LED etc)

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by zakaaaaasss

yeah, i have also observed that..


Is that true? do they come down by such huge margins?

umm yeah. in feb when i was buying a 40" bordeaux it was listed in vijay sales as 115,000. finally got it in exchange of a 29"crt for 93,000. even got the samsung hdmi dvd player in that much.

[zakaaaaasss]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

which is why they have "Full HD" tvs in the market.

what is the difference between 'FULL HD' and 'HD Ready'? Most of the LCDs i have come across are mentioned as HD Ready.

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by zakaaaaasss

what is the difference between 'FULL HD' and 'HD Ready'? Most of the LCDs i have come across are mentioned as HD Ready.

hd ready means it can play 720p.(1280 x 760 or something like that).
full hd is 1080p. (1920 x 1080)

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

hd ready means it can play 720p.(1280 x 760 or something like that).
full hd is 1080p. (1920 x 1080)

Can we convert "HD ready" to HD ( 1080p) using HDMI cable? If yes, which formats they work in? Satellite tv? DVD?

[Shan2nu]

what is the difference between 'FULL HD' and 'HD Ready'? Most of the LCDs i have come across are mentioned as HD Ready.

From what i know, an HD ready tv can support HD video but does not come with a HD Tuner (which lets you watch HD cable channels). But since India has yet to get HD cable, it's not that big a prob.

Another diff is the screen resolution. Full HD tv can support upto 1920x1080 resolution where as HD Ready sets support 1280x720, 1020x768 etc.

A 1920x1080 video will let you see more details on a 1920x1080 screen than on a 1280x720 screen of the same size.

But for this diff to be more visible, you need to watch them on a large screen TV. Bigger the screen, higher the screen and video resolution required.

Thats the reason why cable channels look better on a 21" SDTV than on a 40" HDTV, simply bcoz cable resolution isn't good enuf to give a sharp image beyond a certain screen size (irrespective of screen resolution).

Shan2nu

[Shan2nu]

Can we convert "HD ready" to HD ( 1080p) using HDMI cable? If yes, which formats they work in? Satellite tv? DVD?

If your HD Ready set has a max of 720 horizontal lines, you can't possibly increase it to 1080 lines. You'd have to buy a new tv that comes with 1080 lines.

Don't get me wrong, 720p is also HD and will look great if you're watching a 720p video, but it's like this.....an Enzo Ferrari is a super car, a Bugatti Veyron is also a supercar, but that doesn't mean their performance output is the same, does it?

720p is the lower end of HD resolution and 1080p is the top end of HD resolution. And as the screen sizes keep increasing screen resolution has to increase as well, so 1920x1080 might be the in-thing today, the same way 1280x720 used to be the in thing when it first hit the market.

Imax videos on the other hand run at approximately 10000x7000 resolution. It's gonna take ages to make a screen that supports that format.

Shan2nu

[Maibaa]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Can we convert "HD ready" to HD ( 1080p) using HDMI cable? If yes, which formats they work in? Satellite tv? DVD?

As Shan2nu said, "HD ready" means there is no inbuilt HD Tuner in the TV set. You need a HD set-top box that can decode HD signals from cable/Satellite to the "HD ready" TV.

720p / 1080i / 1080p are all different HD resolutions with 1080p being the highest resolution available to consumers today. That is why 1080p is called 'Full HD".

The "p" and "i" stand for progressive scan and interlaced scan respectively that describes how a picture frame is generated on the monitor. Progressive scan gives better display than interlaced.

HDMI cables only carry digital video and audio signals b/w various devices that have HDMI ports. The display resolution really depends on the TV.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

If your HD Ready set has a max of 720 horizontal lines, you can't possibly increase it to 1080 lines. You'd have to buy a new tv that comes with 1080 lines.

Don't get me wrong, 720p is also HD and will look great if you're watching a 720p video, but it's like this.....an Enzo Ferrari is a super car, a Bugatti Veyron is also a supercar, but that doesn't mean their performance output is the same, does it?

720p is the lower end of HD resolution and 1080p is the top end of HD resolution. And as the screen sizes keep increasing screen resoultion has to increase as well, so 1920x1080 might be the in-thing today, the same way 1280x720 used to be the in thing when it first hit the market.

Imax videos on the other hand runs at approximately 10000x7000 resolution. It's gonna take ages to make a screen that supports that format.

Shan2nu

Shan2nu, that was some feedback . So a HD ready tv can only output the same ( 720p) so what is the actually use of a HDMI cable? Lets do this for comparison sake and for understanding of other people who make have same type of doubts.

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Sony PS3 Game = How does this look? Please select from (Average, Good, Awesome)

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Normal DVD video+ HDMI cable used= Whats the difference here?

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p)+ Satellite TV+ Composite or HDMI ( dunno the difference)= Whats going to be the image output from this combination

Sorry if above sounds laymanish, just trying to get some grip on these technologies

[zakaaaaasss]

wow thats loads of information...thanks shantanu, akshay.

one more query...i see that there is great difference in pricing between philips and samsung. how is the overall performance for philips? i mean in compasirion with samsung (atleast for now since i guess it is market leaders) are they worth the money?

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by zakaaaaasss

wow thats loads of information...thanks shantanu, akshay.

one more query...i see that there is great difference in pricing between philips and samsung. how is the overall performance for philips? i mean in compasirion with samsung (atleast for now since i guess it is market leaders) are they worth the money?

personally i dont like philips. their ambilight is good bu not worth the cash. samsung is a good overall buy. sharp has the best picture and commands a big premium over the rest. the sony bravias are also good but i didnt like them and bought the samsung over it. to each one his own.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Shan2nu, that was some feedback . So a HD ready tv can only output the same ( 720p) so what is the actually use of a HDMI cable? Lets do this for comparison sake and for understanding of other people who make have same type of doubts.

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Sony PS3 Game = How does this look? Please select from (Average, Good, Awesome)

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Normal DVD video+ HDMI cable used= Whats the difference here?

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p)+ Satellite TV+ Composite or HDMI ( dunno the difference)= Whats going to be the image output from this combination

Sorry if above sounds laymanish, just trying to get some grip on these technologies

1) the ps3 can support upto 1080p. it will look between good and awesome on a 720p but to unleash its full potential a 1080p is a must.

2) the dvd players which use hdmi also upscale the dvd to 720p(some to 1080p). the picture quality is not as good as hd even though they claim it to be hd but its better than normal dvd video.

hdmi and composite are just two different cables that carry hd video and sound. hdmi is supposed to be better and its much neater since its only one cable. its also digital and i think composite is analog.

3) there are no STBs that have a composite or an hdmi connection. even if they do they must stream hd content otherwise there is not going to be any difference.

[Shan2nu]

So a HD ready tv can only output the same ( 720p) so what is the actually use of a HDMI cable?

Thats bcoz regular cables can't transfer video data beyond 480p. Even for 720p you need a HD cable (HDMI or Component).

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Sony PS3 Game = How does this look? Please select from (Average, Good, Awesome)

It'l look good in 720p. But for it to look awesome, you'l need a TV and PS3 game that run at 1920x1080.

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p) + Normal DVD video+ HDMI cable used= Whats the difference here?

You'l prob get the same vid quality that you got from the 480p PS3 resolution. There won't be any sharpness to the image and you'l notice an increase in pixelation.

40" LCD ( HD Ready-720p)+ Satellite TV+ Composite or HDMI ( dunno the difference)= Whats going to be the image output from this combination

Firstly, composite is your regular yellow, red, white cable that almost eveyrone uses. The cable used for HD data transfer is called "component".

Again, satellite tv in India mainly runs at 480p so the picture quality won't be any better than watching a dvd, but it'l be far more impressive than watching a vcd on the same screen.

In order to get the best picture quality, you'l need to have any one of these :

1. 40" LCD Full HD (1920x1080) + Bluray/HD Dvd player + Component/HDMI cable

2. 40" LCD Full HD (1920x1080) + PC/Laptop with Full HD capability and HDMI/Component output + HDMI/Component cable

3. 40" LCD Full HD (1920x1080) + HD Satellite Cable

Shan2nu

[akshay1234]

EDIT - in the above post of mine ive written composite instead of component. sorry about that. mods can you do the needful?

[black12rr]

@shan2nu ... So only 40" and above can give "Full HD " ?
or can a 32" LCD also give 1920*1080 resolution?

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by black12rr

@shan2nu ... So only 40" and above can give "Full HD " ?
or can a 32" LCD also give 1920*1080 resolution?

its possible from a 32" but i dont think anyone is making them now.

[Shan2nu]

@shan2nu ... So only 40" and above can give "Full HD " ?
or can a 32" LCD also give 1920*1080 resolution?

As the veiwing area gets smaller, it's need to have a high resolution screen reduces.

If you watch a regular DVD on a 21" screen, it'l look sharp and good. But if you want to get the same sharpness on a 40" screen, you can't possibly do that with a DVD, you'l need a video feed and tv screen which can provide 1.9 times the resolution of the DVD and the 21" TV.

So, 480 x 1.9 = 912 lines, but since your TV and HD DVD are capable of 1080 lines, the clarity and sharpness you'l see on your 40" screen will be even better and more detailed.

So, a 32" screen could prob get away with 720 lines where as anything beyond 40" might need better resolution in order to provide video clarity equal to or better than the 720p you saw on the 32" screen.

It's like this, lets say a 800kg car uses 175mm tyres to pull 0.9 Gs while cornering, now if we increase the weight of the car to 1500kgs and drive it with the same tyres, there's no way it can pull the same Gs around the same corner due to the excess weight. For this 1500kg car to match the cornering Gs of the 800kg car, you'd need to considerably increase the width of the tyres.

Heavier the car, broader the tyres required - bigger the screen, higher the resolution required.

Shan2nu