LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[krispyk]

Ok, I found this today on trawl around the net.

29 inch CRT 4:3 that is 'HD prepared'.

http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/2/2...12_dfu_fra.pdf

If you scroll down there are instructions in English and references to the UK in the manual which would suggest that this is due for release in the UK.

On another note the Samsung slim HD CRT appears to be available in 21 inch, 29 inch ( 4:3) and 32 inch wide sizes.

http://av.samsung.de/av_lineup/lineup.htm

Keep clicking on the picture till it cycles through to the Slim Fit CRT's.

No guarantee that these will make it here but as this is a German presentation there may be hope!

Can i suggest that everyone bombard Samsung and Philips with e-mails!

[Yoshimax]

HD owners - My Samsung 41" should be with me shortly - What am I to do about DVD playback ?

I have a chipped xbox1 with media centre I was hoping to dload HDTV of shows from the states (i.e 24/Lost) and watch them via that - will it playback the files ? What about my PC will it be up to the task ?

What about these DVD players that upscale the image ? Are they worth it or will I just sit it out for the 360 HD-DVD drive which will be cheaper & more convenient ?

Also, what's the consensus regarding VGA over component ? Samsung owners care to comment on the best picture provider ?

Sorry - so many questions now I've taken the plunge.

[sj33]

Depends how anal you are about your DVD Playback.
I watch DVD's all the time, and do a lot of encoding myself... if there's a problem in the image, I see it. I'm sure that goes for many other people here too.
If your the kind of person who really notices image quality issues, it's worth getting an upscaling DVD Player like the Oppo. Hardware deinterlacers/upscalers/image processing connected via DVI-D results in far superior quality.

But DVD is still DVD, the Oppo doesn't change that fact. If you just use your DVD Player to watch movies on the weekend with your girlfriend or something, don't bother.

The 360 HD-DVD player is irrelevent here, that's for HD-DVD's. The 360 DVD Playback is 'good enough', has Prog. Scan too, but is about as good as a low end Prog. Scan player - heck, it's a software player, it doesn't have the fancy bits the Oppo etc has.

Your XBox will be no good for HD footage - it just doesn't have the processing power required. Nor will most upscaling DVD Players (Oppo included). However, I just watch them on my PC connected via HDMI (thiough DVI and VGA will be fine).
I'm actually not buying a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player at all - just going to build a new machine nearer the time capable of running 1080p H.264 decently.

[Yoshimax]

Cheers Shakey - Nicely answered all I need to know. I'm a "casual" DVD watcher so I'll stick with ****ty player/360/xbox1 for that and I can bring the PC through to watch HDTV then - will sort out the cabling and **** required for that !

Thanks for the info buddy most appreciated !

I did read that you can use component on the xbox1, set it to 480 or 720p whatever and then Media Centre would stretch/expand the image to fill the screen ??? I'll read up on that.

[mid]

Media Centre will indeed play back as 740p over component. The problem is that a 700MHz Celeron isn't even close to being powerful enough to play back a 1280x720 avi file without framedropping like a bastard.

It can upscale standard-def images to 720p, but the scaling is probably worse than what your TV will do internally, so there's little point.

[Yoshimax]

Glad I asked you guys Must get my head round all this stuff. I kinda figured the XB1 wouldn't be up to the job as :

a) More people would have been on here going on about it.
b) My PC struggles at times with the higher res outputs - there was a HD movie of PGR3 before launch that crippled it !!

[HaHaUK]

Anyone know if theres such a thing as a DVD/HDD recorder with upscaling capability for a decent price?

[sj33]

Question!

I know you can't really buy 1080p sets at sensible sizes right now. However, since I'm going to be using my PC for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray playback anyway, I'm considering getting a 1920x1080 PC monitor. More and more PC screens have HDCP now after all.

I was looking at this screen -

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/2560_1600_gaming_preview/

Very nice and all... but does anyone know of a screen of similar size, but 1080p native, HDCP, and DVI/HDMI?
When screens of such a resolution and small size are avaliable in the PC world, I'm beginning to think there's little point getting an LCD TV over an LCD monitor if your PC is your main source.

[MrSpiggott]

sony MFM-HT75W

Just bought this little TV from Sainsbury's for ?299. It was originally going to be used as a spare portable in a conservatory and an occasional PC monitor, but it has far exceded my expectations.
It's 17in widescreen with a resolution of 1280x768. All the usual inputs, RF(for the onboard tuner), composit, SVHS, component(which is able to downscale a 1080i input), 15pin analogue PC input and DVI (which, according to online reviews, is HDCP ready).
The response time is, according to the spec, not the best. The review on TomsHardware a year ago said it was pretty much useless for games. Knowing this I wasn't expecting too much when I tried running FarCry on the PC. It's one of the few PC games with a proper widescreen mode and has lots of very dark and very light areas to test for smearing. I was amazed, the screen looked fantastic, especially in the brightly lit opening levels. If there was any smearing it was very marginal(note. I was testing this on a bright day). I'm currently running a, admittedly rather old, 19in Sony 400PS with BNC inputs and I thought it looked better than that. I've seen worst smearing on LCD monitors with alleged better responce times so I can't really explain why this one looked so good. Looking at the date of manufacture in the menus it said it was built in March of 2006, so maybe the specs of the screen have changed?
Next I tried the progressive output from a Pioneer DV-565A DVD player through component. The colours and detail in 'The incredibles' was far better than I expected with virtually no signs of artifacts, although I think a lot of the problems associated this upscaling SD were hidden because of the size of the screen. Next I tried a few movies with darker scenes such as the opening of Lord of the Rings. Some detail is obviously lost, as with all LCDs, but considering its cost I was very happy.
For its size the speakers are also very good.
I am so impressed with this set that I will now be using it as the main display for the XBOX360 and Playstation3 when I get them. Well at least for a couple of years until I get a large HD main TV.

[ucci]

Anyone know if theres such a thing as a DVD/HDD recorder with upscaling capability for a decent price?

Might be relevant to your request Hasan..

http://www.tmfsolutions.co.uk/homecinema_video_vone_SZ1350.htm

You can connect a usb HD. Might not be what you were after though.

[IanE]

Question!

I know you can't really buy 1080p sets at sensible sizes right now. However, since I'm going to be using my PC for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray playback anyway, I'm considering getting a 1920x1080 PC monitor. More and more PC screens have HDCP now after all.

I was looking at this screen -
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...aming_preview/

Very nice and all... but does anyone know of a screen of similar size, but 1080p native, HDCP, and DVI/HDMI?
When screens of such a resolution and small size are avaliable in the PC world, I'm beginning to think there's little point getting an LCD TV over an LCD monitor if your PC is your main source.

If you have the money, go for that one - the new 2407 (24") Dell has HDCP as I think the one you're looking at does too.

[sj33]

I'm extremely tempted because I can. But common sense is telling me to wait until I have some 1080p stuff to actually watch.

I suppose I don't necessarily need a 1080p native screen, in the same way I don't need a 480-native screen to watch common XviDs.

[Garf]

I picked up a 360 premium the other day, and now realise that the crappy old TV it is hooked up to is not up to the job.

Thinking about getting a smallish LCD (the 360 lives in my study), which will be used solely for 360 gaming - no movies\DVDs\use as a PC monitor.

Would something like this be any good for the 360 via VGA ? Asus PW 191

Or am I better of spending a bit more on this Tosh to use via component.

Failing that, anyone recommend a 19\20" LCD that is suitable for the 360 that is around the 200\300 quid mark ?

Cheers

[EvilBoris]

Vga will get you a better picture anyways for the 360, not only that but PC specific monitors tend to have a faster response time.

Go for the first one

[EvilBoris]

I'm extremely tempted because I can. But common sense is telling me to wait until I have some 1080p stuff to actually watch.

I suppose I don't necessarily need a 1080p native screen, in the same way I don't need a 480-native screen to watch common XviDs.

I'm saving 1080p for a few more years, going to 720p has been enough of a jump to last me a while, I'll go 1080p when the TVs are about the same price I paid for my current set.