Do you really need 1080?

Last update: 27 Feb 07, 14:10 ET

Not fast, step by step, HDTV comes to our life. It has begun in cable and satellite TV. Thanks to their endless war, we can enjoy high-definition channels for comfortable payments. Because of the second war – between HD DVD and Blue-Ray nobody know what type of player to buy, but there are  lot of accessible disks everywhere. For instance Netflix.com suggests over 200 BR DVD and "the full range of HD titles available at the moment they're introduced" (they say so).     So, it's not the problem, what to see. The serious problem – where? Forget about times, when big LCD TV you could see only in the house of Bill Gates and one half of your family room was occupied by monster CRT projection TV. Now you can choose! For better understanding lets enumerate possible HD variants:     a) LCD TV;     b) Plasma;     c) Projector;     d) Rear Projection TV (DLP, LCD or D-ILA).     The main question for me – 720p subj or 1080p??? From all variants above big $ difference is for Plasma TVs and Projectors. Only they have significant difference between 720p and 1080p models. There is no problem to find brand plasma under $1500. Full HD (or 1080p) plasma is at least 3 times more expensive. The price of 1080p projectors is so far from the reality and so close to stars.     LCD suggests us the cheapest Full HD. Lower than $1000. Could you believe that only 2 years ago! Rear Projection TVs don't "run away" too far in their prices and are real "kings of the high definition road" in price/inch ratio. For less than 17 "Franklins" you can buy beautiful DLP projection TV with a diagonal bigger than height of your 10-year-old son.     The picture will be only better. The LED backlight gives at least evenness of picture and guaranties us a real black color. To my mind, black (real black, not dark and very-dark-grey) is one of the main reasons, why people haven't thrown all their big CRT out of their houses. As for me I have good LCD 720p with excellent S-IPS panel and HDCP defense, but prefer to see DVD or usual (officially called SDTV) cable on my 27" Samsung.     For cable or satellite HD channels such as HBO HD or ESPN HD you absolutely don't need 1080p. It's even worse, nearly all of these channels suggest 720p signal and you have to suffer upconversion of picture. It's no difference where it'll be done – in set-top-box or in TV. The changing of format can't add quality, only make worse.     We have HD cable and satellite (in big towns – air) TV channels sufficiently long time. "In the pockets" of copyrights owners there are a lot of films, TV shows and sport matches in high definition. And most of them are also in 720p!     I haven't notice a lot of not-clever persons among them. Cruel and not thinking about customer's rights – enough, but not stupid. Do you believe that having a lot of materials in 720p owners will quickly start to produce 1080p. It's possible for films on celluloid. Not cheap but possible. But you'll never see TV-show or Super Bowl with "honest" 1080p if it was taped with 720p resolution.     Undoubtedly new films probably will be produced in Full-HD (especially by Sony and its friends from Blue-Ray community). Now "the HD membership card" for HD players isn't giant. $199 for HD-DVD player for Xbox360 or $599 for PS3 with Blue-Ray drive.     If you are morally and financially ready to see the world "with more pixels and colours", stop for a little and think – do you really need 1080p?          © Dr D & Dilby.com

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