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Well, firstly, you can get HD TV without subscription.

My thoughts are that at some stage it's possible that you'll need either to upgrade or replace your satellite receiver.

If so, it's more than likely that your replacement receiver will be equipped to receive HD.

If that happens, then your TV is, as it says on the box, ready for HD.

Right now, I don''t think it's possible to buy a new TV that's not capable to receive HD.

Regards - Tim

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Thanks all for your comments.  Sorry if I seem a bit dense, but there seems to be various choices of HD TV's.  Some say they are HD Ready, some say HD Ready 1080p etc...  What is the benefit of one over the other?  I do not plan to subscribe to HD channels, so will only be watching any free one's.  I have a DVD player but not Blue Ray.

 

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In a nutshell (and you're not being dense,  the terminology borders on the misleading)

HD ready means that the TV can display an HD signal if it's offered one.   That's all.   It doesn't mean that it can produce an HD picture from an aerial all on its own.

The figure 1080 refers to the nominal number of lines (cf 625 lines in our old Standard Definition).   The p and i refer to progressive and interlaced scanning.    Interlaced is what the current SD system uses (to reduce picture flicker) but in an ideal world progressive is actually better in the modern scenario.

If you're in France and just want to watch British HD channels free (currently BBC HD and ITV) then an HD freesat box hooked up via an HDMi cable to your HD ready TV surfices.    If you want to watch French HD via your aerial (only available in some areas at present) you need to check the TNT spec carefully for mention of TNT HD,  and specifically MPEG 4.

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Martin963 thanks for that.  When you say I would need an HD freesat box to hook up to, could I use my skybox, although this is not HD.  the Television I am looking to purchase will have a built in tuner (if that makes any difference).

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Thanks Anton.   Indeed,   what I meant was that you need an HD box if you want to see HD pictures,   but the systems are "backward compatible" in that you can use an SD box with an HD ready TV without problem (using the Scart sockets rather than the HDMi).

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Well not exactly,   I thought you were mainly interested in British stuff.

If you want French HD it's easy to buy a French TV that is not only HD ready but will work with TNT HD.    In fact I'm not sure that it's not a compulsory facility on the non-portable sets now.    Look for TNT HD badge,   and MPEG 4 in the technical spec.

For British HD (which in France is via satellite only) then there are a few sets that are "freesat HD" incorporated.     So you can hook a dish direct to the TV and watch JUST BBC HD and ITV HD.   (not ch 4 or ch 5 which are (shamefully!) tied in to Sky.

For Sky HD then you'll need a Sky HD box.

Keep asking,   it's complicated!

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[quote user="Loirette"]

What are the benefits of an HD Ready 1080p TV if you do not have a subscription to an HD service? 

[/quote]

Modern electronics are long lasting so whilst you might think you do not want HD at the moment what will you want in the future.

I remember back in the early 70s and people saying 'I do not want colour TV, black and white is ok for me'. But they eventually bought a colour TV.

The latest thing has superceeded HD TV, 3D TV (remember seeing a display of Sharp 3D TVs some years back that did not require glasses). At some point in the future, with the exception of a few, we will be watching our 3D TVs.

Paul

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....  and the picture quality will be abysmal as the bean counters refuse to pay for more spectrum but insist on ever more powerful compression systems to use the existing space whilst cramming in all the extra data required for HD and 3D.

I reckon (as do many others in the know) that HD will be the new SD in five years; (the BBC has already cut its Dsat bit rate on the HD channel from 16 to 9 Mbps).    Just as "CD quality sound" on sat and DAB radio stations has become mere "audio" and is truly terrible in most cases (insufficient bit rates coupled with mind-bogglingly severe dynamics compression),  and Freeview picture quality in Britain (which could be as good as TNT) has become laughably awful (if anyone watched the recent football on ITV Freeview they will understand what I'm talking about).

Yes,   progress will always be there but do the sensible thing (price wise) and remain in the rearguard rather than the ripped-off vanguard.

Incidentally,  on the Freeview subject,  we did buy a small LCD TV in Britain last autumn and the picture quality *is* abysmal on many Freeview channels and makes me wish for my 15" CRT back again (which masks some of the worst artefacts).   The only reason I don't put it back is that so much is now broadcast in 14:9 and 16:9 and  a 4:3 screen is under-used in terms of displayed area usage.

Is that really progress?   (Incidentally P2 this is *not* supposed to be a dig at what you wrote!)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for all the info.  Now moving on a bit......

We're looking at a Panasonic LCD HD Ready TV, which we'd be buying from the UK.

In the spec is says that the Integrated Tuner is PAL-I and DVB-T.    This will obviously be OK for our Sky TV but, will it cope with us plugging in the French Ariel and asking it to tune the digital (non HD) stations coming in terrestrially? 

  

A friend nearby has brought over a Sony TV and done just this, and it all works fine.  But we’d like to be sure before we spend!

 

Thanks!

 

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The PAL-I bit is the analogue tuner,   and suggests that the Panasonic would NOT work for French analogue terrestrial,  which in any case closes finally in Nov 2011 and may well have already gone in your area.

The DVB-T bit refers to the digital tuner,   and yes DVB-T is exactly what the French TNT system uses,   including for HD.

My only slight worry is that some of the ancilliary services (programme number ordering,   some teletext stuff) might not work,   but as there's next to no "red button" equivalent in France that's probably not a problem.    But you might find the channels are all in the wrong order  (with only 18 free ones would this matter?)

As I think might have been mentioned,   if you ever took the set back to Britain it would NOT work for the newly-introduced Freeview HD channels which use DVB-T2.   

Please ask if that's not clear,   but in essence you *should* be OK,   assuming your aerial is producing a strong enough TNT signal.    Have you checked that?

As an aside,  Sony's do tend to be technically truly international,   Panasonics less so,   in fact I've never seen any Panasonic stuff on sale in France.    It shouldn't matter in your case but.....     (and I put in the but just so that I can't be held responsible,    I'd like to say "you will be OK" but not having tested it myself I can't actually be that categoric).

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Martin

Thanks.   We haven't checked the signal strenght I have to admit, and actually have no way of dong that unitil a TV that can handle the signal arrives (or have I?)   I do know that we've gone over to TNT here, so no worries with that, and, the chances of us going back to the UK with the TV....... ?

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