Your HD Experience

[Jase]

Want to hear something funny?.. Australia recent started advertising about HD products.. Ha!.. How long has HD been out for?.. I'd say YEARS..

- How is your HD experience?

- Can you tell from standard TV to HDTV's? - if so how?

- I will be getting a HDTV soon.. I haven't got one because my friend who lives next door has one and my experience was simply IMAXish.. Just without the 3D.

[petroid]

I've had a HDTV for a while now and I got Blu-ray drive for my Media Center this year. It's awesome! Still only a 5.1 sound system though...

[Jase]

I've had a HDTV for a while now and I got Blu-ray drive for my Media Center this year. It's awesome! Still only a 5.1 sound system though...

So what do you use to view media?.. a Normal TV now or?.. also Blu-ray DVD drives are the new thing eh?.. how much will one drive set me for?

[Arkos Reed]

once you go full HD, you can't go back, it's that simple

I can't watch DVDs anymore, I just can't stand the low definition

[x9248]

I love watching HD channels... too bad my cable company only offers very few of them.

Also, normal non-HD channels look like rubbish... even worse than it would on a standard TV. Maybe it's just me tho :p

[HoochieMamma]

46" LCD Samsung connected to a self built Media Center. This accompanied by my new ADSL2 connection will make it easy for HD media to be directly focused to my eyes!

Telling SD from HD is like talking about the difference between black and white.

PS: Aus has been advertising HD stuff for a long time now, nothing recent about it.

[petroid]

I got my combo Blu-ray/HDDVD/DVD-RW drive for under $200. I rent movies from Civic and Video Ezy. I also watch the free to air DVB-T high def channels. The channel Ten loop is awesome in my area! Everything runs through a computer running Windows Vista Media Center.

I have a 32" LG LCD panel and my parents have a 42" NEC Plasma display. Both look awesome especially when using HDMI cables! (The plasma is better for movies though due to it's superior black levels) My sound system is a Logitech Z5500d.

[MrKuro]

I've had HD tv's for many years now .. mainly been a pioneer man, but i have had a few great panasonic plasmas .. I used to think i was blessed to have my pio 6010, but my new toy a 60'' Pio Elite pro-151FD kuro plasma is just the closest thing one can get to perfection.

I'm have a full complement of HD sources (1080p/720p x264 downloads, full HD satellite subscriptions, Many Bluray discs, HDDVD, OTA, 360, ps3), and very rarely watch SD sources anymore (although with the pio sets and their excellent scaler, those dont look that bad)

Once you go high definition, its very hard to go back.

[DELTETHISACCOUNT]

I've switched to HD last year as far as gaming. When it comes to movies, I'm not going to switch to Blu anytime soon. Upscaled DVD's still look glamorous. (Y)

[tuckeratlarge]

Recently had Sky+HD installed so I could see the wonders of HD on my 40" 1080p Sammy

WOW

Will not be getting Blu-ray until the players come down to ?50 and the discs are the same, or cheaper, than present day DVD's - upscaling is OK for me.

[morganpugh84]

I just bought a 42" 1080 plasma and PS3 so the HD experience is still very new to me :)

Overall I love it however there are a few things to comment on -

1. When sitting on my sofa, which is about 13 feet away from the tv, I cannot tell the difference between 720 and 1080. I can when closer but any closer and the screen is too big to be comfortable. On smaller screen sizes this difference is even more difficult to tell so the 720 vs 1080 thing is rather pointless.

2. Black and white levels are important. I went with plasma because every single LCD I saw was just mediocre. I'm not dissing LCD totally there were a few really nice ones but for a good LCD I was looking at spending ?2000 where as a stunning look plasma was only ?1000.

3. Burn in on plasma hasn't been an issue for me. I was really scared it would be a problem as I play games (so the HUD etc) and my daugther watches kids tv channels with horrible solid block colour logos (like Disney and Nickelodeon) however I have no image burn at all so I don't worry about it at all no:):)

4. SD does look rather poor on it. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly the screen is so much bigger. Secondly plasma (and LCD) are not as forgiving as CRT sets. They are sharp and show flaws. Luckily I don't watch much TV anyway so this isn't a problem for me but if I did I would probably not bother with an HDTV until pretty much everything was HD.

5. BluRay is gorgeous but upscaled DVDs are about 90% of the quality as well. I have a PS3 and BluRay look awesome but upscaled DVDs look almost just as good. A lot of people think I have put a BluRay on when it is just an upscaled DVD which just goes to show you.

6. Again 720 vs 1080 gaming is no different. This is mainly due to the fact no games are actually rendered in 1080 (or 720 for a lot of games) but are instead upscaled once in the frame buffer. Don't get too caught up in the whole 720 vs 1080 thing it isn't worth it.

7. Wii looks kinda crappy on an HDTV even via component. While I quite like my Wii it looks better on my SDTV via RGB SCART than the HDTV via Component. It is a shame but as it is only 480p it isn't going to look all that great on an HDTV set. The colours, etc. are good but the image is a little fuzzy due to the image being upscaled.

Part of the HD experience is also sound and I have a Onkyo SR606 receiver which I am really happy with. For speakers I have Jamo A10's which sound excellent. I originally had a standard ?200 "home cinema" kit but this is a world apart from that. Watching some films is totally different with a higher quality setup, the little sounds you miss can add a whole new dimension to a movie much like going from SD to HD. A lot of people disagree but that is usually because they have never experience a proper setup audio system. My room is not big enough for 7.1 to be well balanced so I am just using the setup as 5.1 but it sounds superb. Really worth the money and I am glad I spent longer saving to get the better setup now.

Hmm I think that is about it. Overall I am very happy with HD however I would be happy to go back to SD, and often do, for SD broadcast content as it looks poor on a decent HD set.

If you are looking at buying a HDTV I highly recommend the Panasonic plasma ranges or if you can afford it the Pioneer 9th gen Kuro range. While the Pioneer specs are not always as high as a competitors they destroy them quality wise in every single w:) :)

[Glorious]

I started last year with a 32" Samsung LCD and Sky HD.

This year I've got a 40" 1080p Samsung LCD, Sky HD, Xbox 360, PC w/BluRay connected via HDMI to TV and SPDIF to 5.1 speakers.

Cannot go back to DVDs :(

[bloodrain]

If my memory serves me correctly, HD has been around since the early 1980's. I think around 82' was when it was first introduced.

[morganpugh84]

If my memory serves me correctly, HD has been around since the early 1980's. I think around 82' was when it was first introduced.

HD has been around longer than that it is just they keep redefining what HD is when a next iterration of it comes along :)

1080p has been around since the late 90s but not much before that as there was no equiment which could actually handle 1080p back then. I remember reading an interview with George Lucas from 98 or 99 about when he first saw 1080 a year or so before and was amazed at it. Now if he only first saw 1080 in around 97 not many other people will have :)

[CPressland]

It's quite simple really, set your screen resolution to 640x480 for a few hours and try and use your computer, once you set it back to 1280x1024 or higher, that's the difference between HD and SD :D

HD Pron FTW

I totally notice the difference.

[morganpugh84]

It's quite simple really, set your screen resolution to 640x480 for a few hours and try and use your computer, once you set it back to 1280x1024 or higher, that's the difference between HD and SD :D

HD Pron FTW

I totally notice the difference.

Technically you are right but not many people watch tv at the same distance that they use a computer so it isn't the greatest comparison. Try sitting 8-10 feet from your monitor at those two difference resolutions with the image scaled to the same size and see what you think for something a bit fairer.

[uniacidz]

Want to hear something funny?.. Australia recent started advertising about HD products.. Ha!.. How long has HD been out for?.. I'd say YEARS..

- How is your HD experience?

- Can you tell from standard TV to HDTV's? - if so how?

- I will be getting a HDTV soon.. I haven't got one because my friend who lives next door has one and my experience was simply IMAXish.. Just without the 3D.

What you mean 'Started'? You been living under a rock or something?

HD in Australia been out for ages. sigh

[deuz]

^ yeh when i read the op's post i thought the same thing.....we pretty much are in line with the US and europe i think there'd b like a 4-5 month delay between new models(tvs) being released there and here( of course US is ntsc and we're PAL, so idk if that makes a diff in time).... but full hd is pretty much mainstream now in terms of price point now in aus

[Jase]

What you mean 'Started'? You been living under a rock or something?

HD in Australia been out for ages. sigh

To be honest I don't watch Australian TV. The only show I watch is 2 and a Half men, Friends & The Simpsons.. I think the Australian Media have gone too far with Reality shows and killed all the networks, and it put me off TV full stop.

I recently saw on TV how they where advertising 10 HD, "The world is amazing in HD" - now this is new right?.. I mean the networks finally caught on hell now they have TIVO coming to Australia.. that's like 7 years late right?

^ yeh when i read the op's post i thought the same thing.....we pretty much are in line with the US and europe i think there'd b like a 4-5 month delay between new models(tvs) being released there and here( of course US is ntsc and we're PAL, so idk if that makes a diff in time).... but full hd is pretty much mainstream now in terms of price point now in aus

We are not inline at all with other countries at all.. HD is pricey still! anyways back to what I was saying about TIVO, pretty much everyone in the US has TIVO but in Australia it will cost around $700-$800.