I sell TV’s (Pioneer Elite, Marantz, Fujitsu, Director Series Hitachi and other premium HD TV’s) to peddle my way through school. I was very excited to find material on a reputable website to back my claims against the immidiate necessity of 1080p, high contrast ratios (do you agree the human eye can only see 300:1?), and refresh rates–to name a few. For that, I thank you. I think it’s sad that most retailers will jump on the numbers game and use the hype to sell the customer rather than what’s really behind the numbers. My questions to you are these; when do you think 1080p will actually be a broadcast? Will the technology change so much by that point that 1080p TV’s sold now won’t be compatible? Why would 1080P be such an issue when there’s hardly any 720P or 1080i being broadcast? There is so much mis-information on the internet it’s hard for the average consumer–especially if they haven’t purchased a TV in the past 10-15 years–to even know where to begin. This website is very straight foward and non-objective from what I’ve read so far. I’ve actually been referring customers who are new in the market to this website to help them make better informed descisions–especially when it comes to the amount of money some of them put into their systems!
One last thing, I read in one of the articles that it’s recommended for the customer to bring a DVD into the store as well as a player if necessary to test the refresh rate of the TV. Well that’s good advice I would also like to add that asking the sales associate to change the channel to a basic analog channel. In my area it’s news channel 3 that’s the worse reception that I can turn the TV to. Why? 1080P or I Tv’s have to show that resolution no matter what the source. When you look at a wall of HD Tv’s all on the HD source, it’s very hard to pick a difference from one to the other except for maybe color schemes–which most can be adjusted to your liking. What you see on an analog channel–not a DVD–is the scaler on the TV (or analog processor) going to work to make the picture the highest resolution. Most of what you watch regardless of whether or not you have blu-ray and an HD package through your providor is still analog–or 480i. The TV looks great in the store, but will look vastly different over your fire place when it’s showing a non-HD picture. The quality of the TV’s will jump out at you when they’re all showing regular 480i and this could help make the decision making process easier for you!
Good suggestions. Latest information, it will be years, I will guess 4-5 before the existing HD networks will switch over to 1080p. Tons of money has already been spend on 720p and 1080i and this equpment must be ready for replacement before I see changing the entire chain (cameras, switchers ,character generators and so on.) from one format to the other . Perhaps a future new HD network will jump in first.
The good news no one talks about is: all built-in and external HD tuners will accept any of the 18 ATSC standard formats (9 are HD) and convert the signal to what your TV accepts, so it will never go black or become obselete if a network changes over or a new 1080p network appears. The 1080p broadcast formats are 24 frames per second and 30 fps, so either one would have to be upconverted to at least 60fps (or else the image would flicker) The built- in digtial TV tuners in 1080p displays “1080p broadcast ready” today
The HD Guru
Leave your Comment