Hbo Pq

[drdroo]

But then again I have - in the world of HD - a small 34" SONY CRT HDTV; and its PQ is always better than what I see when looking at bigger LCDs/Plasmas.

Yeah LCD seems to show bad PQ more than a Plasma or CRT.

For instance - SD on a CRT is pretty decent, on a plasma is ok, and it's tolerable or crappy on a LCD. My LG has XD Engine to help with SD some, but it still isn't as good as HD.

I can see artifacting and problems in HD worse on the 42 than the 32 I had, but still it's better than SD by a long shot. ESPN HD is pretty crappy though, like people said here.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Yeah LCD seems to show bad PQ more than a Plasma or CRT.

For instance - SD on a CRT is pretty decent, on a plasma is ok, and it's tolerable or crappy on a LCD. My LG has XD Engine to help with SD some, but it still isn't as good as HD.

I can see artifacting and problems in HD worse on the 42 than the 32 I had, but still it's better than SD by a long shot. ESPN HD is pretty crappy though, like people said here.

I will be upgrading to a larger set fairly soon, and know I will need to go to Plasma, and even then, I am sure I will think I had a better picture on my XBR CRT.

Alas, the stupid SONY set is not HDCP compliant, so its days are limited

 

[drdroo]

Why do you 'have' to go Plasma?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Why do you 'have' to go Plasma?

Well, I guess I could go to a projector setup; but I was taking what you said about LCD looking worse than Plasma; which was what I had believed from my own comparisons of the formats.

 

[drdroo]

I wasn't trying to knock LCD as much as suggesting that LCDs may show encoding problems more than other types (the less expensive ones especially). That's why I bought the LG above the other brands. It's better, but yeah it's still SD.

I still think for longevity and price/perf that LCD is a great pick. If SD goes to MPEG4 for with good bitrate in the future (which supposedly is still the plan), I suspect SD PQ will go up.

I take it you're not into LED DLP? I was playing with a Samsung LED DLP projection TV while I was picking up my LCD. I'm kind of impressed by the technology. I don't have that kinda room in here but the idea is cool.

They tell me that your eyes are the best things to use to buy a TV. I didn't use that concept though, I just saw the deal for the 32" for 900 bucks and set up an online pickup. The 32 ended up with a line through the middle and I exchanged it and paid 170$ difference for the 42 10 months later.

Then again, some of these retailers should be shot for their in-store TV setups. Horrible.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

To be honest, I haven't really started the process of seriously deciding what I want my next step to be. It won't be until late this summer after I move, that I will go for a new set. And much will also depend on if our new house has a good home theater setup.

although, I do know that I rarely watch ANY SD programming at all, so I am not that worried about SD PQ anymore. And when I do watch SD, I'll watch it on my SD SONY WEGA, which does look decent, most of the time.

But I feel like we have hijacked the thread a bit. Geez, if I were an admin at the other site, I'd have to delete my own posts.

 

[drdroo]

I don't think that you hijacked the thread really, I do think it points out that PQ is only as good as the device you're using to watch.

I am curious when we'll see ALL of the HBO channels up on the birds, but also when the HBO PQ bitrate rules go into effect. I think it was something like 8000 kbit CBR MPEG4. If it's STILL garbage after that (it should be passed through from HBO's uplink without recode I assume), then it's on HBO's side.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I don't think that you hijacked the thread really, I do think it points out that PQ is only as good as the device you're using to watch.

I am curious when we'll see ALL of the HBO channels up on the birds, but also when the HBO PQ bitrate rules go into effect. I think it was something like 8000 kbit CBR MPEG4. If it's STILL garbage after that (it should be passed through from HBO's uplink without recode I assume), then it's on HBO's side.

My biggest concern with HBO is them forcing DRM, which will mean that resolution will drop on my non-compliant HDMI connection to a lousy 480p.

But I too want more HBO feeds. I am paying for them I'd like to have the HD.

I was mostly joking about hijacking as I realized we were talking about PQ.

 

[drdroo]

Yeah dropping to 480p is also a bummer for people who are using component to feed a slave TV in another room (since they can't be in both at the same time) too.

The amount of PQ posts we'll see then is going to be a scary amount. They will have killed things for the DVI people too, since most people using DVI directly into their TV probably don't support HDCP either.

I figure once a new sat goes up we'll see the rest of the premiums go HD pretty early on. That's my hopes anyway.