Will DStv look better on a 720p or 1080p HDTV?

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feo

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OK, I was merrily doing shopping with the family in Centurion and decided to take a walk in to that audio/visual shop round the corner from Hyper (can't remember the name now). Anyway there were a few HDTVs mounted on the wall, 2 of which were 1080p, the rest were 720p.

I remarked to my mother that the 1080p ones would be sweet for console gaming, watching BR/HD-DVDs and PC stuff but not for normal SDTV programming like DStv. The salesman promptly proceeded to tell me that DStv will look better on the 1080p set because it has a superior resolution. Now question is, will it?

I got in to a debate with the guy and argued that DStv's signal is gonna have to get majorly upscaled to fit the 1080 screen and that most probably there'd be quite a bit of artifacting going on depending on how well the TV's built in upscaling does.

Anyway, (arf9999, TivoZA, PeterCH etc..) was I right or wrong?
 
how about a CGA monitor... I am sure it can do 320x288 resolution :D (alot of DSTV channels are that crappy)
 
Currently DSTV would probably look better on 720p. But remember they start launching HD channels in 2008 (I think).
 
currently DSTV = NO HD support so IMO don't go buy one just yet
 
Want to hear some irony?

I have an HDTV in my lounge which I won in a competition...

From DSTV.

*facepalm*
 
dstv broadcasts at a low resolution so any HD tv will look pixelated at true HD resolutions. This is because it will have to upscale the picture which will give a very blurry or grainy picture and until DSTV broadcast at 720p/i or 1080p/i its pointless buying a HDTV just for DSTV
 
DSTV are currently trialing HD. There's even a dedicated channel. They will probably have it up and running before 2010 so no need to rush out and buy anything.
 
Both will look equally cr@p. You're not going to get anything better out of the 1080 model, but the 720 model won't look better either.

Future broadcasts will be 720p (initially at least), so you should see if it's worth investing the extra in 1080p for console gaming and hooking up your notebook PC. How big a set are you considering?
 
Skeptik said:
DSTV are currently trialing HD. There's even a dedicated channel. They will probably have it up and running before 2010 so no need to rush out and buy anything.
Click to expand...
DSTV will have HD for the Olympics in August. Likely they will roll out from June onwards.
 
arf9999 said:
Both will look equally cr@p. You're not going to get anything better out of the 1080 model, but the 720 model won't look better either.

Future broadcasts will be 720p (initially at least), so you should see if it's worth investing the extra in 1080p for console gaming and hooking up your notebook PC. How big a set are you considering?
Click to expand...
Tight budget but ideally 42" would hit the sweet spot for me. 32 and 37"ers seem way too small for me.
 
dstv broadcasts at a low resolution so any HD tv will look pixelated at true HD resolutions. This is because it will have to upscale the picture which will give a very blurry or grainy picture and until DSTV broadcast at 720p/i or 1080p/i its pointless buying a HDTV just for DSTV
Click to expand...

So true..I have and LCD HDTV and DSTV looks very crap. Picture quality is very very poor. If you gonna be watching lots of DVD's go for it else stick with a plasma
 
They don't even have 1080P TV in America ... requires too much bandwidth
 
When DSTV's HD channels launch next year, it will be 720p. That will not change before you buy a new TV. So, for watching TV, the 720 is fine, though it won't look worse on the 1080p. If you're gonna be watching Bluray & HD DVD's, the 1080p is your daddy.
 
Yeah, 1080 isn't even the standard in the States. Ask yourself this, does a desktop wallpaper made for a 1024x768 desktop look better or worse on a screen running 1280 x 1024?
 
feo said:
OK, I was merrily doing shopping with the family in Centurion and decided to take a walk in to that audio/visual shop round the corner from Hyper (can't remember the name now). Anyway there were a few HDTVs mounted on the wall, 2 of which were 1080p, the rest were 720p.

I remarked to my mother that the 1080p ones would be sweet for console gaming, watching BR/HD-DVDs and PC stuff but not for normal SDTV programming like DStv. The salesman promptly proceeded to tell me that DStv will look better on the 1080p set because it has a superior resolution. Now question is, will it?

I got in to a debate with the guy and argued that DStv's signal is gonna have to get majorly upscaled to fit the 1080 screen and that most probably there'd be quite a bit of artifacting going on depending on how well the TV's built in upscaling does.

Anyway, (arf9999, TivoZA, PeterCH etc..) was I right or wrong?
Click to expand...

Hi,

Yeah they have a full 1080p SINOTEC for R15.999 at Makro too, it's 47 inches. The picture quality wasn't actually shabby.

Will DSTV look better? Well believe it or not, DSTV - after a while - does look better. It actually looks better on my HD Plasma - except you must
not sit too close :). You may need to calibrate your set but after a while you do get used to a big screen and things just look bad on a smaller screen
even if the resolution of the big screen is to small. I guess this is pretty subjective.

It all depends on how far away you'll sit from your set. Sitting far away everything looks good and HD looks like SD (and vice versa). If you have a large lounge get a big screen TV,
if it's pricey it will probably have a good upscaler and the picture will not
look too bad. However it won't be HD. And when DSTV does release HD,
you'll know because you'll need to buy a new decoder and maybe have to
pay extra, it will only be 720p. And.... that 720p doesn't mean that they're
using an HD source, they could just be upscaling much of their stuff.

HD TV's are dropping in price. Now you can buy a full HD set - albeit
from a Chinese maker for R16.000, you can buy a Samsung for R25.000.
Are they worth it? Right now - NO. I'd wait. By this time next year you'll
be able to buy the 'top of the range' HD set at 46/47 inches for
under R20.000 - probably closer to R15000. Chinese makes will probably
retail for under R10.000. It will make more sense to buy a full HD set THEN.
Other issue is what will you do with your set? If you have a PS3 and wanna game in 1080 really badly then the full HD set is for you. If you want to
watch movies - what movies? The BD / HD-DVD catalog is pretty meager
right now. Also decide now which region of (High Def) DVD player you
want to buy, Region 1 (US and Japan) or 2 (Europe and us).

Still if you really want HD wait till 50 and 60 inch FULL HD sets arrive.
The benefit of HD is in the total picture size - having an IMAX or cinema
experience in your own home. Watching a 42/6 inch set from far
away makes SD and HD look the same and defeats the purpose of an HD.

HD technology is still in its infancy. Players are slow and have issues,
TV's are still expensive and first generation. Every new generation brings
a drop in price and improved contrast/detail/colour reproduction etc.
 
feo said:
Tight budget but ideally 42" would hit the sweet spot for me. 32 and 37"ers seem way too small for me.
Click to expand...
For LCD you're normally looking at 40" or 46". 1080p is really noticeable on a 46", but on a 40" it's hard to see the difference at a normal viewing distance. Best value at the moment is not an LCD or Plasma but the Sony BRAVIA SXRD projection set. There are special offers around for R19K for 50 inches of 1080p goodness, high contrast ratio, 2.5ms refresh rate, minuscule dot pitch....
dotVIBE said:
When DSTV's HD channels launch next year, it will be 720p. That will not change before you buy a new TV. So, for watching TV, the 720 is fine, though it won't look worse on the 1080p. If you're gonna be watching Bluray & HD DVD's, the 1080p is your daddy.
Click to expand...
True... but I'd only recommend it if you're going to bigger than 46".

Fudzy said:
Yeah, 1080 isn't even the standard in the States. Ask yourself this, does a desktop wallpaper made for a 1024x768 desktop look better or worse on a screen running 1280 x 1024?
Click to expand...
um... worse? but video isn't static, and there are 1080p sources available. (FYI - SkyHD in the UK is running 1080i).
 
Runco 65 Inch, most probably the best in the world at this moment

I have watched some movies and broadcast sport on this here in the US, and it is unbelievable. Much too expensive for me, but quite a treat just seeing this quality. This type of quality will soon be available in SA, as the economies of scale kick in.

This Plasma with controller (at only 4.5 inches thick!) costs approx $18000.00 !!

http://www.runco.com/xp-65dhd.html
 
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