What to consider when choosing a HD set.

S0LE_SURVIV0R

What set is right for you?
I thought I would write this little article to help those who come to this site that are thinking of buying a HD set.

I have owned many sets, CRT's LCDrp, LCD, Plasma etc.

The first thing you want to ask yourself is, is this going to be a family TV?
The reason being is, although many plasmas have anti burn features, these sets can still get screen burn. Panasonic recently told me that they have had two calls about screen burn their latest generation Plasma line, and they were both 4.3 burn.
That is watching a non HD broadcast on a widescreen set. The picture doesn't fill the screen. Watching these broadcasts on a consistent basis will burn the side bars into the screen, known as bran doors, and the same can happen when watching letterbox DVD's or letterbox broadcasts as well.
CRT rear projection sets are very prone to screen burn as they do not have any anti burn features. Logos, even the baseball scorebord when watching the game can burn into thse sets.

Old fashioned tube sets are prone to screen burn but it would a lot of abuse to cause burn on these sets.
So, you don't want children playing video games or having the heavy Animal Planet logo on CRT RP or plasma sets for a long period of time. This is why I think these sets are best for adults.
DLP and LCD sets do not get screen burn.

Picture quality, pixel resolution
You may wonder what certain numbers mean when you see an ad for a TV like 768x1366 or 720x1280x 1080x1920.

The TV presents the picture to you in pixels, and each pixel is a picture element, a detail dot of the picture. The broad view is the more pixels, the more detail that is true on paper, for the most part, this isn't really the case because also depends on the pixel count of the broadcast signal you are receiving. They must work together with each other.

CRT rear projection sets and CRT tube set will display the broadcast signal without scaling it. A1080i signal will look better on these CRT sets over a 720p signal, not because the 1080i signal is better, but because these sets are still built in a native 1080.
But a 720p signal will better on 720p set than a 1080i signal will look on a 1080i set.
With CRT tube sets, the signal is sent to the screen in the format of scan lines, which are often visible to the viewer. You can also get a lot of screen glare with CRT sets and reflection issues.

DLP, LCDrp, Plasma, LCD flat are fixed pixel resolution sets.
Unlike scan lines, fixed pixel displays present a clean clear picture. The set will present all signals in the monitors native pixel format.
DLP VS LCDrp
DLP sets competition is the LCD rear projection set and vice versa. Both have great picture detail.
DLP has an all digital display where as LCD converts a digital signal back to analog. LCDrp however has the advantage in the field of color saturation.
Both sets are rear projection monitors.
Each consumer has a different taste when it comes to choice.
You can read a lot about the two, simply google DLP vs LCDrp to get some good reviews about the pro's and cons of both sets.

But the cream of the crop are both the hanging plasma and flat panel LCD .
These images are not projected. With these sets you are looking at the panel itself.
You may see many sets today with 1080p resolutions. 1080 vertical pixels and 1920 horizontal pixels.
It sounds good on the forefront but there are some issues about 1080p momitors that your local sales person may not inform you about.

One is that there is no 1080p signal broadcast to receive as of yet.
HD broadcasts are currently 1080i and 720p. 1080i signals are presented in fields of 540 at a time, 540 odd and 540 even. The i means interlaced, they are not together. This causes flickering and loss of color saturation.
When a 1080p set receives these 1080i signals, they convert it to 1080p, but it is not a true 1080p, if it were there would not be push for 1080p broadcast signals or 1080p DVD players.
The other problem is, if there was such a signal, sets like the SXRD 1080p can not receive a 1080p signal through the HDMI or component connection.
In such a scenario, it would break the 1080p signal to two different fields of 540 and scale it up to 1080p. So people thinking that they are ready for future 1080p signals when buying the SXRD better think twice.
Standard 480i digital signals are poorer on 1080p sets, (especially rear projection ones) then on sets with lower resolutions.
Why, 1080p is fixed pixel resolution. The set has pixels set in a fixed position and must present all signals on that count. This is because screen resolution does not present the broadcast signal in it's native format as CRT sets do. On 1080p fixed pixel sets, the set scales everything to 1080p, even the fields or 480i, which are in reality, 2 interlaced fields of 240i.
http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/DTV_Compression.htm
Imagine connecting a fire hose to the water connection on the side of your house. Imaging how weak the stream of water would be when it finally made it out? Now, connect a regular garden house to the side of your house and see how fast and hard it triggers out? Remember this scenario?

Now we have sets of the 768x1366...1280x720...1024x768 etc...

Remember, HD broadcasts are currently presented in 1080i and 720p.
Now these sets, 768x1366 & 720x1280,... are tailor made for the 720p broadcast signal. Such signals are brodcasted by ESPN 1& 2, ABC and FOX. 720p, p means progressive, unlike interlaced, which presents the picture in different odd & even fields, 720p presents itself in a painting of 720 at once, eliminating flickering, and providing breathtaking vivid color.

There is no doubt that 720p signal looks better on sets that have resolutions in the progressive 700's than on 1080i or 1080p sets. This is because the signal fits the sets resolution like a glove.
When these sets receive a 1080i broadcast, it cross converts it to the progressive 700's. Will look basically the same as the when watching the 720p ABC signal.
the 1080i signal is 30 frames per second, and 720p signal is 60 frames per second.
The 720p signal has 1280 pixels across compared to 1080i's 1920 across.

But the 720p signal is painted on at once rather than the 1080i's signal of 540 at a time.
If 1080i is converted a 720p/60 set, the 62208000 pixels from the 1080i's 30 frames broadcast will be fed into the sets internal scalier, the pixels will be scaled to you in 60 different frames of 921600 pixels or 62945280 pixels per second on a 768x1366 set.
There is enough power in the 720p signal to scale the fixed panel resolution to 768x1366.


So what is better, 1080i augmented to 1080p on a 1080p set, or cross converted on a progressive 700 set?
I will let the consumer judge that for themselves but personally, I would pick a cross converted 720p over an untrue 1080p.

So we have 720p signal better on a progressive 700 set, and the 1080i signal is arguable for the most part.

Now back to the standard signal, the 480i standard digital signal will look much better on TV that has a resolution in the progressive 700's than on 1080p sets.
Remember the garden/fire hose scenario?
Also, some set top boxes and DVD players have an up converting process, that will try to up convert the signal to the desired format.
This up scaling process works much better on 720p sets rather than 1080p. Although they don't fully convert a 480i to 720p on a 720x1280 or 768x1366 set, they do a much better job displaying 480i on a 720p set than displaying 480i on the 1080p ones.
Remember the garden hose scenario. The 480i has less of a hill to climb to 720.

So for standard signals, 720p or 768x1366 sets are better than 1080p.

But one can ask, what if there is a set that can someday accept a 1080p signal as we hear they are to come out?
One must still face that there is no current 1080p signal and realize that if there ever was, they should consider this....

"at the average viewing distance, with the average size of consumer HDTV sets, the human eye would not actually be able to perceive the difference in resolution between 720p and 1080p. This is because the 720p image "saturates" the perceivable resolution of the eye at this distance"
http://www.witwib.com/720p
"In a 50-inch plasma display with an array of 1366x768 pixels, the pitch of individual pixels is typically less than 1 mm (about 0.9 mm), which equals 0.039 inches. Do the math, and you'll see that standing 10 feet from a 50-inch plasma means you can barely perceive the HD pixel structure, and that's only if you have 20-20 vision."
http://proav.pubdyn.com/2005_January...rallaxview.htm

So knowing this and knowing that standard digital is better on 720x1280 & 768x1366 sets, there is no doubt what I think is better all around.

Seeing an ad for a higher pixel resolution like 1080x1920 on TV does not mean you are getting a better picture all the time.
More is not better when it comes to a TV's scale process sometimes, they must work together with the signal it is being fed.
Keeping that in mind.
We now have 768x1024 HD plasma sets. These are usually come in 37 and 42 inch plasma sets. (there are also ED plasmas in this size that have a resolution of 480x852, so please don't get these confused).
With these sets, you will get a HD picture as it is in the 720p vertical count that require TV sets to be labeled as HD, so any set that can provide at least 720p vertical is HD.

"Thus, it is the number of pixels on the vertical axis that really determines how much detail is visible."
http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/p...efinition.html
"In order for a plasma TV to be classified as an HDTV or HDTV-ready the television must be able to display a Vertical resolution of at least 720 lines. "
http://www.dtvcity.com/plasmatv/plasma-hdtv.html

But, you will lose some detail cutting it down from 1366 or 1280 across to 1024 across, but you are also up converting the vertical from 720 to 768.
But for the most part, it's really hard to see a big difference in the HD picture quality from the two sets, but a difference is there.
However, remember I mentioned some set top boxes and DVD players up convert? On the 768x1024 plasma I can see an almost 95% un conversion to the 720p signal with my anamorphic DVD's on my upscale 720p DVD player as well as set top box set at 720p on channels like MTV, VH1, FOX news and MSNBC, CNN, E, and some others.
I am using a directv box set at 720p.
So you must ask yourself, do I watch a lot of standard channels? If so you might want to go with a 768x1024 across plasma.
If you are going to watch more HD channels go with the 720px1280 or 768x1366 across sets as they will provide more detail with an incoming HD broadcast but will not up convert the 480i digital as well as the 768x1024 sets..

Remember you do get a good standard signal with the 1280 and 1366 sets too, but the 1024 sets really seem to take advantage of up converters, remember the garden/fire hose scenario?
Up converters work best with fixed pixel display monitors as it is.

Standard digital now looks breathtaking when up converted on a 768x1024 set. The once weak signal has come back to life.

As far what is better LCD flat or plasma?

Plasma is more delicate and could be prone to screen burn where LCD is not. LCD also has better anti reflective screens than plasma, say you don't want to see the lamp that is behind you reflected at you while your watching TV.

LCD flat and plasma are in competition with one another. Consumers choice. Punch LCD flat VS Plasma on a google search to get the pros and cons of both sets.

__________________
Sony 40 LCD flat panel XBR &
Panasonic 37 768p Plasma
HD TIVO
The human eye can barely perceive a 1366x768 resolution 10 feet away from a 50 inch
see http://proav.pubdyn.com/2005_January...rallaxview.htm


720p Fastest & Best Temporal Resolution




Sony
"The world's greatest high definition television"

borromini

Whew! Let's see...so what exactly are you recommending again?

__________________
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

LordGamer

This is the internet, not Border's...no one wants to read that much.

I kid, I kid. Nice post.

__________________
LordGamer Profile - George Carlin, R.I.P. 06.22.08

HD Qualifications...
-- Westinghouse 47" 1080p LCD (LVM-47w1)
-- Scientific Atlanta HD Receiver & DVR (8300HD), Comcast
-- Sony Playstation 3 -- Microsoft Xbox 360

Texaseagle

There is just ONE thing you didn't/forgot to mention.........

PRICES!!!!!
for all of these types of HDTVs.

fryet

Lots of good information in the article, however I felt at times you were pushing people in one direction. FYI - some benefits of plasma over LCD that weren't mentioned - richer color, better black levels, and faster response time.

borromini

...richer color is the only attribute that's debatable. I agree with the other two.

__________________
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"