HDTV's - Anyone getting one now?

[slug]

This 32" HD ready TV is a good example of how you can get HD ready TV's at 32 inches at around 500 pounds, here 550 but with free delivery and impressive 3 year breakdown coverage, both of which could often cost more in the region of 200 pounds.

 

I am slightly confused in that the one 100 pounds up has 'HDMI' and I really hope this isn't something really important because I don't want to pay the extra and intend to use this device just as a second monitor on the DVI graphics output on my computer.

 

As far as HDTV and HD-DVD/bluray are concerned, I don't expect to be using either for a long while, certainly not until highdef recordable hardware/media become commonplace, affordable and there is no longer an undecided format war.

 

BUt, I'm hoping to be able to use this for highdef PC games, (DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS IS IN SOME WAY A BAD IDEA?MISCONCEPTION?)

and it will be good to have this the same res as a computer monitor, for viewing pictures, high def media from the internet etc. It will also be good to know that it will be suitable for hidef media when it becomes available.

 

The brand seems to be a good example of a cheaper make, this review indicates as such.

 

I can't see how this would be a terrible mistake, maybe it would be a good idea to wait until January sales and see if there are 37 inch models at affordable price but they are a good deal more expensive now and I can't see them coming down by then.

 

32 inches is a dignified size and I think this model in particular would be a good choice for anyone wanting to get an HDTV now, without buying something that's just going to turn out to plummet in price.

 

Any thoughts? My particular area of concern is in confirming that it is appropriate to use this as a second computer monitor and that it will be able to handle hidef pc games, otherwise it will have little advantage over 800x600 tvs that are above DVD resolution.

[TetsuoShima]

Keep in mind that current HDMI interfaces are spec 1.1, there is allready a new spec in development, going to be released early next year and it will NOT be compatible with the old spec, new spec is 1.3.

 

Might want to hold out a bit longer....

[Guest Mrthumps]

I'll probably wait it out until I have no chhoice but to get one. I saw the HDTV at my parents house and maybe it's just my eyesight but I didn't see that much of a difference to warrant running out and buying a $2000 tv set right this minute.

 

 

[slug]

both of these comments are actually kindof pushing me to get this.

 

If HDMI is about to be improved then it doesn't bother me getting this which doesn't have it over something which is more expensive and does have it but will be obselete soon anyway.

 

The irony is that I want an HDTV with no real expectation of using it for HDTV in the next half decade. Its still in its infancy in Britan and in that time I'll probably be living in shared houses where I'll be lucky if we have a roof ariel and I can get freeview in my room.

 

What I want this for really is to serve as a big computer monitor and I would appreciate any input into whether it will serve me as that.

 

With regards to the second comment, this costs half $2000, which is nice, that is if the exchange rate is still 50 pence to the dollar, so this is in a range that I consider affordable. I was going to go for a 800x600 projector but I just got annoyed by all the problems with lighting and bulb redundancy.

[dizzyg]

we dont even get HDTV broadcasts in S.A yet you can buy the TV's .. and they not badly priced. the one i got was R25 000 a sony plasma

[Hilander72]

I considered buying a HD-ready TV, but what's the point (yet)...

There's hardly any improvment in picture quality compared with an old tube (the source determines the quality).

HDTV broadcast is not available here until x-mas and then only a few selected shows/events are broadcast in true HDTV.

 

So I bought a HD-ready projector instead (LG BN-315, 1280x768) which cost me less than $1700.

Having thousands of "close personal friends" with HD/bluray movies the choise was obvious. :)

[slug]

Can anyone shed light on the feasability of using an HDTV as a big computer monitor, also used to play games?

[bones2097]

humm look at the specs... seems you get a response time of 10 ms.......

 

 

i think this would cause some motion blur in games.. (anyone???)....

normal lcd monitors for games boast a 4 ms response time... made this point seeing your

gona play games...

 

i would have thought 10 ms would not be good for normal tv either since over here the standard refreash rate is at 50 Hz that comes to around 20ms (newer normal tvs have around 100+), whats the refreash rate on your monitor??? 100-200 Hz?? so HD is at least 4 times sharper, shouldn't the respones time be closer to 4ms???

 

 

sorry if i lost ppl i tend to want the best deal,,, even when thing are cheap cuz deep down inside i know it costed the manufacture 20 bucks... ;)

 

[slug]

Ahah, thankyou, this is the sort of thing I need to know, I checked my monitor and it was set at around 75, which I thought was standard, so I bumbed it up to 180.

 

I checked Call of Duty 2, and the maximum refresh rate was 75, so I had previously assumed that this was standard, so I don't know, maybe refresh rates for games are usually this level, and refresh rates are bearly used past 75 for any applications.

 

Do you know what DVD refresh rate is, or any kind of method to convert ms response to hz refresh rate.

Maybe I need to shpo around. Thankyou for drawing this to my attention.

 

 

Edit)

 

The model up which costs 100 pounds more has HDMI and states to have an 8ms response, that this is the best response available and I haven't found anything with a response better than 8ms, which would suggest that this is indeed true.

 

So, is a 20% difference really worth the extra? If I was running at 75hz and wasn't bothered maybe not, but I may have been running a sub par system. Or , is the whole idea flawed and I'd best wait for HDTV response times to come down to the region of 4ms?

[MrDad]

Can anyone shed light on the feasability of using an HDTV as a big computer monitor' date=' also used to play games?[/quote']

 

I have a Olevia 32" LCD HDTV with similiar specs (NTSC tuner and no SCART connectors as I'm in North America) hooked up to a PC through a DVI input. I'm not a game player, and the closest I've come to it is with the PS2, which it handled pretty well. I didn't notice any ghosting with Need for Speed or Midnight Club. Hopefully that will give you some sort of baseline to work from. When I watch movies on it or pull a window over, though, it is amazingly clear.

 

HDMI carries a digital video and audio signal while DVI just has the video signal. the only difference is the physical construction of the connectors and the audio signal. There are DVI to HDMI adapters to bridge the two connectors. Anyway, I've yet to see a video card with a HDMI output. If I'm not mistaken, HDCP 1.1 (soon to be 1.3)is an attempt to plug the analog hole with DRM. Blu-ray/HD DVD players and other devices, for example, will not transmit a true high definition signal to a non-HDCP compliant display, but instead a degraded signal comparable to standard DVD resolution.

 

 

[slug]

Ah crap!

 

I thought they'd abandoned the whole HD DVD copy protection built into the display device thing because it was going to piss off anyone who'd already bought a HDTV that wasn't compliant.

 

So, to go bluray/HD, this would require a new graphics card AND HDCP compliant TV, (I"m assuming here that HDCP and HDMI are one and the same)

 

I'm just about ready to give up, or assume that I'm gonna definitley need something HDMI compatable if I want a TV that isn't gonna be totally useless when bluray/hddvd become in any way popular.

 

To be honest, I'm only interested in Bluray/HD if there is some way around the copy protection. I'm not paying good money for rereleases.

 

 

Edit)

 

I see what you mean more now, that HDMI isn't really different from DVI, that it can't be required for HDCP because the model I'm looking at mentions HDCP without carrying HDMI. Does that mean a graphics card with DVI could carry a valid HDCP signal to ann HDTV through a DVI cable?

 

phew!

[raven3x7]

Currently they are saying they are not gonna enforce hdcp atleast until 2010. Besides the TV you linked is HDCP 1.1 compliant according to the specs so it might even work with hdcp. as for gaming, i dont think many pc games will support the tvs natural resolution, so games might not look so good if they have to be run in an emulated resolution(its just a guess though, maybe someone else has tried it).

[slug]

Appparently it is a legal reguirment of the 'hd ready' label in Europe to be HDCP compliant, I think the problem was mainly with the first wave of HDTV's, which were mostly in the US and were not HDCP compliant but did not reach Europe.

 

As for game res, the thing I am trying to be assured of is that games will work fine through the DVI socket seeing as the resolution of the HDTV is above 1280, I'm not expecting it to somehow be increased, I am happy with 1280, this is why low end projectors and non HD LCD TV's are not suitable for running PC games at decent res, seeing as PC games usually look bad at 800x600. (I am hoping that the 720p 1280i thing about HDTV is not related to this, it is somewhat confusing in that I believe that this number denotes the height rather than the width of the picture, thus 720p actually refers to a 1280 width, Anyone?)

 

I suppose the pressing question is whether there is a big difference between 8ms and 10ms response time, and whether either of these are adequate. aria.co.uk carry a number of HDTV's in the price range I'm looking at with 8ms response. I'd imagine that it will be adequate for PC games, seeing as the xbox 360 is meant to be fully interfacable with current HDTV's and aspires to very high quality pictures.

 

I think there are a lot of similarities between shopping for HDTV's and drowning.

[raven3x7]

 

As for game res, the thing I am trying to be assured of is that games will work fine through the DVI socket seeing as the resolution of the HDTV is above 1280, I'm not expecting it to somehow be increased,

 

Im not sure if you're familiar with TFT technology. Basically TFT devices only have one resolution, every other resolution is emulated resulting in fogginess and quality loss. So if your game cant run at WXGA(1324x924 if i remember correctly) picture quality will actually be worse than on a PC monitor. link TFT technology.

As for GFX cards supporting 1280x1024+ resolutions any card with a Dual-Link DVI output will do . That includes the entire GeForce 7(nVidia) series and most of the X1000 series(ATI)

[slug]

Does this mean that DVD's will look bad on an HDTV because it will need to emulate 720 width, come to think of it, I would imagine there is the same problem with computer monitors (I do use a 19 inch TFT)

 

That's unless I'm missing the point, and the graphics card makes the appropriate changes. My graphics card is ATI and has a DVI output and has all the settings between 1280 and 2048 (god knows what thats used for) so I assume that if the HDTV is set for exactly the right resolution the graphics card will size everything appropriatley as it would for a pc monitor, rather than there being any unpleasant resizing by the display device.

 

Thanks for all the input.

[bones2097]

8ms is prob the best you'll get with a TV.....

 

this might help...

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3118_7-6358806.html

 

not!! im confused cus both the tvs you show are limited to 75Hz????

and i've seen computer monitors with a response time of 2ms??? so whats that for???

 

maybe it one of those useless benchmarks that tell the ideal of the system but never

actually do it... like hdd's supposing to do 100mb/s......

 

i duno i'd say go for the expensiver one,,, look at the specs the screen is slightly bigger, has a 15 pin vga socket, hdmi,

better pixel pitch (what ever that is??????).. for a 100 pound more i'd say go for that... how long will you keep 2-3-5years???

[slug]

I'm with you on the benchmark hypothesis, the only game I checked stopped at 75hz and thats not too old. Sufficed to say PC games will probably look OK at 8ms to human beings, menmbers of the fly community may want a better response time.

 

I'd probably want to use it intensively for a good 3 years, but may get seduced by something else in that time.

 

So it seems that screen size muxt be studied beyond the inches given!

 

What would be a good idea would be checking This page at Aria, especially the Hyundai 32 inch A321 which has the 8ms response and HDMI, and confusingly puts its screen size nearer 80cm. all at 75 pounds cheaper than the Eversham higher spec model.

 

I would then check independent reviews of Eversham against Hyundai, and go for the latter if they appear to of comparable quality, in the area that only reviews, not spec can advise.

 

It would be useful to know whether Aria would be a better route on account of offering models with higher spec cheaper, or whether they are crappy brands and Eversham win through this, quality and free delivery plus free breakdown coverage for 3 years.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Hilander72]

If I understand you correctly, you're going to us it for gaming and not watching TV?

 

For gaming most regular LCDs (even the cheapest ones) will do just fine.

 

If you're planning to invest in a set that will not become obselete very soon you're going to have to invest a lot more than £500-£700.

Sets with 1920x1080 still cost >£1500 and HDTV broadcasts have not even begun here, yet. I see no advantage to rush out and buy a set that can show a superior quality, but one has to wait a while to see that or buy expensive HD-DVDs while waiting.

[slug]

I'll use it for gaming, DVDs and standard TV for the time being.

 

I can't see how the cheapest LCD tvs will be ok for PC gaming when they have a standard resolution of about 800 pixel width, significantly lower than the 1280 you get for pc games. I would imagine that they'd be ok for ps2 and old xbox though.

 

You are right about rushing out to get something that is to be used for something that does not exist yet, especially when its usually a good idea to wait for technologies to mature. The thing is that I want something bigger to watch films on now, 19 inch TFTs are good for 4:3, acceptable for 16:9 but use bearly half the screen for 2.35:1 which is just infuriating, you can scale it up to 16:9 but the overall feeling is of being cheated. For this reason I'm going HD now, its true that SD LCD TV's operate within DVD perameters but it just seems a shame when you can get something that is effectively a big HD computer monitor in the same range.

 

I'm not actually overly dedicated to the gaming side, its just that it would be best to make full use of the technology. FPS's would be better in widescreen though, would feel more real and less like you're wearing blinkers.

 

[MrDad]

Ah crap!

I thought they'd abandoned the whole HD DVD copy protection built into the display device thing because it was going to piss off anyone who'd already bought a HDTV that wasn't compliant.

They're putting it off in the hope most people will have one by then.

 

So' date=' to go bluray/HD, this would require a new graphics card AND HDCP compliant TV, (I"m assuming here that HDCP and HDMI are one and the same)[/quote']HDMI and HDCP are not the same. HDMI is a variety of AV connector like SCART or S-Video. HDCP is a copy protection system.

 

I'm just about ready to give up' date=' or assume that I'm gonna definitley need something HDMI compatable if I want a TV that isn't gonna be totally useless when bluray/hddvd become in any way popular.[/quote']The TV you selected has a DVI connector. You will need an adapter to connect to an HDMI output.

 

To be honest' date=' I'm only interested in Bluray/HD if there is some way around the copy protection. I'm not paying good money for rereleases.[/quote']You'll have plenty of time to consider it.

 

 

Edit)

 

I see what you mean more now, that HDMI isn't really different from DVI, that it can't be required for HDCP because the model I'm looking at mentions HDCP without carrying HDMI. Does that mean a graphics card with DVI could carry a valid HDCP signal to ann HDTV through a DVI cable?

 

phew!

Both DVI and HDMI can be HDCP compliant but they are not required to do so. As for HDCP graphics cards, I'm not sure there are any at this time but they could make them in the future.