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Disappointed with HD TV (I think)

Most HDTV's from the past 5 years should do both 720p and 1080i. The cable company will just pass through what ever the channel is broadcasting. So if it's 720p or 1080i the cable company isn't going to change the format.

Just because a network has cameras capable of HD doesn't mean they have the equipment to broadcast it. Networks have to spend $100s of thousands to upgrade all the equipment to be able to broadcast in HD.
 
MacNut said:
Most HDTV's from the past 5 years should do both 720p and 1080i. The cable company will just pass through what ever the channel is broadcasting. So if it's 720p or 1080i the cable company isn't going to change the format.
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Unless this has changed very recently, nearly all HDTVs at 32" or under are 720i/p. This is what I have. The TV can detect and display 1080i (at 720), but I've never seen any 1080 signals and I've had the TV for nearly a year now.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Unless this has changed very recently, nearly all HDTVs at 32" or under are 720i/p. This is what I have. The TV can detect and display 1080i (at 720), but I've never seen any 1080 signals and I've had the TV for nearly a year now.
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I have a 30" 1080i. It's a CRT not LCD though, maybe that's why.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Unless this has changed very recently, nearly all HDTVs at 32" or under are 720i/p. This is what I have. The TV can detect and display 1080i (at 720), but I've never seen any 1080 signals and I've had the TV for nearly a year now.
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There's not much point in 1080i on a monitor that size. You'd have to sit less than four feet from the screen to see the pixel difference from 720p. Unless it's a computer monitor, you're probably not going to do that.

There's a big misconception that 720p isn't "true" HD. It is. 1080i/p often does look better, if it was shot in 1080 originally, if your cable or satellite provider hasn't dumbed it down or compressed it badly, if you're sitting close enough to see the difference. In some circumstances 1080 has little advantage: if the program is in 720 and your monitor doesn't scale it well, if you have a cheap monitor, if you're sitting too far away.

There are so many variables to it, including the production value of the program. The one thing that a 1080i/p monitor really has going for it is that you'll get the full effect of Blu-ray discs. That is a big plus, since watching movies is one of the best reasons to have HD. But it often isn't a dealbreaker when you consider the price differences.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I'll check it out again, but I haven't seen it in that resolution here.



Maybe. Last I looked, only one 32" LCD TV made was 1080i and it seemed to be designed with gaming in mind. It's difficult to see the difference at that size anyway.
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Here you go- this one is similar to mine. I guesss CRT makes the difference:

http://reviews.cnet.com/direct-view-tvs-crt/philips-30pw9818/4505-6481_7-20315491.html

Thirty-inch wide-screen HDTV; 1080i- and 480p-display capability; Pixel Plus processing does a decent job with standard TV signals; computer input.
Click to expand...
 
IJ Reilly said:
Unless this has changed very recently, nearly all HDTVs at 32" or under are 720i/p. This is what I have. The TV can detect and display 1080i (at 720), but I've never seen any 1080 signals and I've had the TV for nearly a year now.
Click to expand...

My brother has a Vizio 32" TV that's 720, and it will tell you what the source is, even if it's 1080, but it will display it at 720.
 
yg17 said:
My brother has a Vizio 32" TV that's 720, and it will tell you what the source is, even if it's 1080, but it will display it at 720.
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Right, that's what my Toshiba set does. I just don't remember ever seeing a 1080 signal source in all the time I've owned it.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Right, that's what my Toshiba set does. I just don't remember ever seeing a 1080 signal source in all the time I've owned it.
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Oh, OK.

Are you using a cable box or a DVR? If so, check the settings in there, it might be set to output everything at 720p. I know with my TiVo, I can tell it to output everything at its native resolution (which is what I do since my TV is 1080p) or I can have it convert everything to 480, 720 or 1080i.
 
yg17 said:
Oh, OK.

Are you using a cable box or a DVR? If so, check the settings in there, it might be set to output everything at 720p. I know with my TiVo, I can tell it to output everything at its native resolution (which is what I do since my TV is 1080p) or I can have it convert everything to 480, 720 or 1080i.
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Digital cable box. I don't know how it's set up, and of course it comes with no instructions.
 
I got my HDTV in February and have been playing quite a bit of different content on it. For me, quality goes like this... SDTV<Handbrake rips<HDTV shows<<Blu-Ray

I just got a PS3 this weekend and wow, the quality is on just a whole other level.
 
The Charter guy just left after installing CableCARDs in my TiVo. I have to re-run TiVo's setup so it downloads the program info for the new channels, then it's HD time :D
 
Dumb question about HD....I was flipping through the channels and came across reruns of old Seinfeld episodes on. They were 16:9, and the TiVo program guide reported that they were HD. The picture quality wasn't terrible either. Was this really HD? I highly doubt stuff filmed that long ago was taped in HD.
 
yg17 said:
Dumb question about HD....I was flipping through the channels and came across reruns of old Seinfeld episodes on. They were 16:9, and the TiVo program guide reported that they were HD. The picture quality wasn't terrible either. Was this really HD? I highly doubt stuff filmed that long ago was taped in HD.
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Weird. I thought I read something before that said that Seinfeld was one of the first TV shows to be shot digitally on tape (DVCAM 4:3).. of course I could be wrong.

Anything shot on film way back in the day can be remastered to digital HD now, because film (even back in the day) is much higher resolution than even 1080p HD.
 
zioxide said:
Weird. I thought I read something before that said that Seinfeld was one of the first TV shows to be shot digitally on tape (DVCAM 4:3).. of course I could be wrong.

Anything shot on film way back in the day can be remastered to digital HD now, because film (even back in the day) is much higher resolution than even 1080p HD.
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Oh okay, maybe that's the case.

It was an episode from 1991 so I was a bit surprised that it was in HD
 
It could have been re-mastered maybe. Don't forget that they are on dvd now.
 
7on said:
Or that Film is generally a much, much higher res than HD.
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How are TV shows filmed? Are they on the same 16mm panoramic stock. Or do they have to be re-mastered. It would seem that a lot of older shows could be shown in HD.
 
yg17 said:
Dumb question about HD....I was flipping through the channels and came across reruns of old Seinfeld episodes on. They were 16:9, and the TiVo program guide reported that they were HD. The picture quality wasn't terrible either. Was this really HD? I highly doubt stuff filmed that long ago was taped in HD.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, all of the Seinfeld episodes were shot on film. Like almost all shows and movies, they eventually moved to a workflow of transferring the film to tape and editing it digitally.

I don't know how it would have been widescreen, as no Seinfeld episodes were shot or broadcast that way, AFAIK.

MacNut said:
How are TV shows filmed? Are they on the same 16mm panoramic stock. Or do they have to be re-mastered. It would seem that a lot of older shows could be shown in HD.
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It depends on whether the original film reels are available and in good condition. For editing purposes, most shows in the last 20 years were transferred to tape for editing, since it's easier in many ways than editing with film. I can think of three reasons why you wouldn't bother though:

1) Most TV shows don't depend on cinematography for their appeal, so higher resolution wouldn't yield much in the way of improved viewing experience. In fact, with some shows the extra resolution would reveal how cheap their production values were.

2) It would be very time-consuming and expensive compared with just sweetening the tape originals.

3) Old TV shows are in 4:3 and HD would require a 16:9 aspect-ratio. You'd be going through a lot of extra trouble to waste some of the screen's space.
 
Here is a good list of tv shows and what they are broadcasting in:

http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5119938-1.html

It could have been re-mastered maybe. Don't forget that they are on dvd now.
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Just because it is on DVD does not mean it will be automatically remastered by the studio for 16:9 or automatically be 16:9. There are plenty of tv shows that still have their native 1:33 (4:3).
 
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