HD ready or full HD? That is the question on the lips of consumers as they struggle to come to terms with the HD revolution. <\/p>\n
Brad Buchanan, group buyer at Game, said there is some confusion between full HD and HD ready. <\/p>\n
“An HD-ready panel has a resolution starting at 720 pixels, which allows HD viewing. But the full-HD screens have 1080p horizontal lines. And the more lines, the better the resolution, resulting in better picture quality and clarity,” Buchanan said.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice is broadcasting an HD signal in its new HD PVR format but not in full HD of 1080p. An HD- ready television will provide a better image quality than a non-HD panel, though the full-HD screen will be much better but not fully optimised through the current HD PVR from MultiChoice.<\/p>\n
Buchanan cautioned that seeing is not necessarily believing, because some retailers have HD converters that result in extremely high-quality images with very good colour. “It is a programme the store runs and you will not get the image in your own home. Some retailers provide a warning notice explaining that people will not get the quality that they are seeing,” Buchanan said. He added that the only time South Africans receive full HD is when they are running input from devices such as a Blu-Ray player, HD games console, or HD still or video camera.<\/p>\n
Movies on Blu-Ray disks are full-HD DVDs. When the Blu-Ray disk is played on an HD player into a full- HD television with HD cables, people will be able to see the 1080 resolution. <\/p>\n
“People who are only planning to watch MultiChoice’s HD channel can opt for an HD-ready set. Consumers who also want to play Blu-Ray disks or use their display for other full-HD applications may want to pay the extra money for full HD,” he said. Buchanan added that price comparisons of the same manufacturer’s products show that full- HD screens tend to be anywhere between 25% and 35% more expensive than HD-ready sets.<\/p>\n
Andre Coetzee, national trainer and customer care consultant at Philips SA , said an HD signal could be broadcast in one of two resolutions, 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720.<\/p>\n
“An LCD television with a native panel resolution of 1920 x 1080 is better equipped to deal with an HD signal than an HD-ready television that has a native panel resolution of 1366 x 768, especially if the signal is broadcast at 1080p.<\/p>\n
“With a full-HD panel, there is one-to-one mapping of the signal to the LCD screen. In other words, for every dot in the signal there is a corresponding dot on the screen. An HD-ready panel, on the other hand, would have to scale a 1080p signal to fit it on screen,” Coetzee said<\/p>\n