Buying a new telly..... confusion..aaaaagh!

[pachapapa]

[quote user="teapot"]

[quote user="Martin963"]France is well ahead here then as (AFAIK) the first proper (ie in service) Freeview HD transmissions in Britain are due Dec 2009 from Winter Hill [/quote]

How very dare you sir [:D] What about the BBC/ITV collaboration for HD via the satellite, Humax etc, does that not count?

[/quote]

[:)][:)][:)]

TNTSAT services commenced in France in mid February 2009.

Humax WAZAT, a nose-spray, ah no, that's Humex.[:D]

I'd thought a young lad, like you, with the latest gear would have a LyngBox, at least!

But for potential viewers of TNTSAT HD in french, might be better to wait for the Neovia decoder, due out in autumn 2009.

Have a gander at the LyngBox...

http://www.lyngbox.com/downloads/docs/manual/lyngbox-lb-st1-manual-english-v2.0.pdf

[Martin963]

Pedant-swot mode on

TNTsat started in autumn 2007.   I think you meant to say TNTsat HD started this year (although if one had a Canalsat abonnement it was earlier).

Pedant-swot mode now off!

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Martin963"]Pedant-swot mode on

TNTsat started in autumn 2007.   I think you meant to say TNTsat HD started this year (although if one had a Canalsat abonnement it was earlier).

Pedant-swot mode now off!
[/quote]

Abject apologies.[:)]

TF1 HD, France 2 HD, M6 HD et Arte HD seront disponibles sur Astra dès le 15 février. EDIT 2009![:P]

[LEO]

Whether you are buying in the UK or France ;

Supermarket  / hypermarket much cheaper . The cost saving is likely to be 100 euros upwards!

The dearest place to buy a TV is a dedicated  TV shop!

[Martin963]

No need to apologise - pedantic-swot mode was firmly engaged!

[tel]

Hi Dave,

Have sent you a PM

 

Regards

 

[pachapapa]

@ TAZARA

Shopping in PARTH today.

If you are happy with SD then the Leclerc promo looks a good deal for a 32" LCD; Thompson not a bad "dalle".[:)]

@ € 369 not bad, better than your Hyper offer and with the Card anothe € 20 as credit.

http://www.promo-conso.net/article.php?x=lec260809_1_015

[Lorribee]

I agree with TEL, "As a general guideline, if you are getting a HDTV set which is less than 42 inch, you won't be able to notice the resolution difference between a HD Ready set vs a Full HD set. Thus, you will be able to get almost the same visual enjoyment at a lower budget if you buy a HD Ready HDTV (720p) instead."

We bought a 37" LG (Hd ready 720p) from UK (Richer sounds) We did not buy in France because of price and poor exchange rate. Although not full hd it is an amazing picture and works fine with our old Sky box. By the way friends of ours bought the same model but 32" and use the inbulit digital tune to receive French Tv using their rooftop aerial. it is very easy to adjust picture ratio using the remote, but you will have to put up black lines at the sides when watching older 4:3 programs. (unless you zoom in a bit)

[pachapapa]

Bully for you and when you get a NEW Sky Box with 1080i it will go a bomb!

Pity it wont work so well with your yet to be acquired Blu Ray Box.[:)]

Your friends will be watching MPEG2 and the 1366 X 768 16:9 scaling will be acceptable.

[Théière]

Great for watching "On the busses" re-runs and Dad's army [:D][:P]

[tel]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

Bully for you and when you get a NEW Sky Box with 1080i it will go a bomb!

Pity it wont work so well with your yet to be acquired Blu Ray Box.[:)]

Your friends will be watching MPEG2 and the 1366 X 768 16:9 scaling will be acceptable.

[/quote]

You do have a thing for Blu Ray don't you!

The OP and several others have been talking about HD ready and Full HD TV sets, NOT DVD or Blu Ray format disk players.  It will be many years before the majority of the public get a Blu Ray player, so watching Blu Ray movies on their TV's is not for the moment an option for most of us.  Broadcasting HD TV channels is still in the early stages with little choice for the consumer.  When HD becomes the standard for ALL TV channels I will consider upgrading my TV.   Regarding Blu Ray, till most of the movies are in Blu Ray only, I have no intention of spending a fortune on a Blu Ray player.

 

Regards

[pachapapa]

[quote user="tel"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Bully for you and when you get a NEW Sky Box with 1080i it will go a bomb!

Pity it wont work so well with your yet to be acquired Blu Ray Box.[:)]

Your friends will be watching MPEG2 and the 1366 X 768 16:9 scaling will be acceptable.

[/quote]

You do have a thing for Blu Ray don't you!

The OP and several others have been talking about HD ready and Full HD TV sets, NOT DVD or Blu Ray format disk players.  It will be many years before the majority of the public get a Blu Ray player, so watching Blu Ray movies on their TV's is not for the moment an option for most of us.  Broadcasting HD TV channels is still in the early stages with little choice for the consumer.  When HD becomes the standard for ALL TV channels I will consider upgrading my TV.   Regarding Blu Ray, till most of the movies are in Blu Ray only, I have no intention of spending a fortune on a Blu Ray player.

 

Regards

[/quote]

I have, of course, directed my posts to the situation in France...in total accordance with the section of the forum dedicated to French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone.

As a minor observation on the UK, my children collectively visited last week from the UK AND they were XTATIC about their 1080p plasma screens and bluray recorders.

Apparently it fits in with an PS3 on-line virtual game playing environment.

I am told that one can even play Blu Ray discs on it.

If you want further particulars I would be only too pleased to make a free fixed line call to the UK in order to get you up to speed.[:)]

 

[Martin963]

Your children would appear to cost you a great deal of money - or do they buy their own gear?

(Not of course that it's any of my business!)

[tel]

[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="tel"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Bully for you and when you get a NEW Sky Box with 1080i it will go a bomb!

Pity it wont work so well with your yet to be acquired Blu Ray Box.[:)]

Your friends will be watching MPEG2 and the 1366 X 768 16:9 scaling will be acceptable.

[/quote]

You do have a thing for Blu Ray don't you!

The OP and several others have been talking about HD ready and Full HD TV sets, NOT DVD or Blu Ray format disk players.  It will be many years before the majority of the public get a Blu Ray player, so watching Blu Ray movies on their TV's is not for the moment an option for most of us.  Broadcasting HD TV channels is still in the early stages with little choice for the consumer.  When HD becomes the standard for ALL TV channels I will consider upgrading my TV.   Regarding Blu Ray, till most of the movies are in Blu Ray only, I have no intention of spending a fortune on a Blu Ray player.

 

Regards

[/quote]

I have, of course, directed my posts to the situation in France...in total accordance with the section of the forum dedicated to French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone.

As a minor observation on the UK, my children collectively visited last week from the UK AND they were XTATIC about their 1080p plasma screens and bluray recorders.

Apparently it fits in with an PS3 on-line virtual game playing environment.

I am told that one can even play Blu Ray discs on it.

If you want further particulars I would be only too pleased to make a free fixed line call to the UK in order to get you up to speed.[:)]

 

[/quote]

Hi,

Plasma screens and Blu Ray recorders are available all over the World not just in France.  The main thread running through the posts in this section is about HD TV, not Blu Ray recorders, players or Plasma TV, neither of which has anything to do with what I highlighted above.

The OP and many others wanted information about HD Ready TV and Full HDTV.  Whether in France, Germany, UK or Timbuktu the information I posted was relevant to the OP's question.  It isn't necessary to patronise me with your offer to "get me up to speed" I can assure you I am probably well ahead of you, but then you will have to take my word for that.

Regards

[Wibblywobbly]

Might be a bit late with an addition to this thread but...

1080i - i = interlaced. This means that the signal displays 'every other line' of the picture. The tv then calculates what the missing line is based on the colours displayed above and below it. It does this so fast that you won't see it, but that is what it is doing.

1080p - p = progressive. This means that the whole signal, all lines, are received and displayed 'as is'.

The one to go for is 1080p as it is the only true HD display, and the only one that can display what is in the signal. All of those tv sets that you see at discount prices are low resolution, and 1080i. That is why they are cheap.

The catch is that by the time HD broadcasts are commonplace, the current technology will be old hat. For that reason a cheap 1080i set may well prove to be a good buy, it depends on whether you are likely to replace the set within 5 years.

3D tv sets are already in production and in use in Japan I believe?

If you have a 1080p tv and buy the right DVD player it will upscale all of your dvd's to 1080p when you play them, so you will get a higher picture quality. I have a Phillips jobbie that plays anything, and even has a usb stick socket. I can download a movie stored on my pc onto the stick, place it in the dvd player and watch the movie on the big screen if I want to..and it upscales it to boot. All very clever stuff.

Me? I am sat in the UK, and have a 32" Sony Bravia stuck on the wall that I haven't even powered up since mid-July, which is 1080p. What do I watch tv on? A 7" LCD screen that sits on my computer desk. The picture quality is astounding.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Rob G

[Stan Streason]

I came to this thread hoping to glean some advice but although I am not completely technically illiterate I am even more confused.

I need to buy a new TV for our French house, no bigger than 32inch. 

In France I have a Sky freesat card and get about 4 French channels through the standard aerial (should I be getting any more)?

Are there any partiular flaws in my statements below please?

At that size and with the transmissions I am getting I can get away with the lowest current spec tv with no problems.

All the local places I visit in UK say UK purchased TV's will not do PAL and SECAM so if I want to recreate just what I have I need to purchase in France (yet some people on here say otherwise).

Thanks

[Anton Redman]

At that size and with the transmissions I am getting I can get away with the lowest current spec tv with no problems. True

All the local places I visit in UK say UK purchased TV's will not do PAL and SECAM so if I want to recreate just what I have I need to purchase in France (yet some people on here say otherwise). Based on my experience of trying get accurate information in both the UK and France 9 out 10 shop assistants have no idea and simply bluff. 

Any TV which offers a choice of country which includes France and UK during the instalation process, check the menus for this, will receive both PAL and SECAM.  At a guess 95% of TV on sale in the UK will be dual standard because it is now cheaper than manufacturing sets for different European countries. However by the end 2011 it will not matter. France is implementing TNT (Television Numerique ) and switching off analogue. Any UK TV which can receive freeview will also receive TNT when it is in France. Just check that the TV still has a SCART.

If the standard aerial is indoors on top of the TV there is a chance you may need to move to an outside aerial or wait till analogue switch off before you can receive TNT.

[Wibblywobbly]

Anton is correct. Next time a sales assistant tells you that, ask him to put the tv in set-up mode, or ask to see the handbook. You will usually see an option that says 'Country', if you select 'France' it will set the tv for 'France'. You may also see other selectable options for Pal, Secam, NTSC etc. I have two tv's one is a 10 year old LCD, and one is a pretty new Sony Bravia. They will both allow me to select various transmission formats. Like Anton says, the manufacturers know that it costs pennies to make something that receives all broadcasts, rather than make umpteen tv's for all the different broadcast signals around the globe.

If you are in any doubt, simply contact the manufacturer via their website. They all have online help, and will happily tell you what's what.