Hd Tv

[naidraw66]

Got mine installed yesterday, Truesport HD looks pretty good with the US feeds, sadly HBO HD doesn't look quite as sharp especially with older movies. It can't come close to even 720p downloads and can't hold a candle to blu-ray.

Quite an improvement over the normal picture quality though. Even the other non-HD channels look a little fresher.

The decoder can be set to output 576i/720p/1080i so can be used with all TVs. It has component, HDMI, optical audio, ethernet and USB ports in the back.

Looking at the decoder output settings above, I take it these are inclusive of 1080p . . . . . . .

[quiksilva]

The manual says 1080i not 1080p

[astral]

If anyone who has the new box can plug the ethernet connection into their home LAN

and try to access the box, via Windows Explorer.

If you can see the stored video files, then they will be downloadable for archive.

I am assuming a PVR type box.

[naidraw66]

Heres an interesting article, It's put me staraight on a few things

1080i v. 1080p

There has been a lot of concern and confusion over the difference between 1080i and 1080p. This stems from the inability of many TVs to accept 1080p. To make matters worse, the help lines at many of the TV manufacturers (that means you, Sony), are telling people that their newly-bought 1080p displays are really 1080i. They are idiots, so let me say this in big bold print, as far as movies are concerned THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1080i AND 1080p. See, I did it in caps too, so it must be true. Let me explain (if your eyes glaze over, the short version is at the end).

For clarification, let me start by saying that there are essentially no 1080i TVs anymore. Unless you bought a CRT based TV, every modern TV is progressive scan (as in LCD, Plasma, LCOS, DLP). They are incapable of displaying a 1080i signal as 1080i. So what we're talking about here mostly applies to people with 1080p native displays.

Movies and almost all TV shows are shot at 24 frames-per-second (either on film or on 24fps HD cameras). All TVs have a refresh rate of 60Hz. What this means is that the screen refreshes 60 times a second. In order to display something that is 24fps on something that is essentially 60fps, you need to make up, or create new frames. This is done using a method called 3:2 pulldown (or more accurately 2:3 pulldown). The first frame of film is doubled, the second frame of film is tripled, the third frame of film is doubled and so on, creating a 2,3,2,3,2,3,2 sequence. It basically looks like this: 1a,1b,2a,2b,2c,3a,3b,4a… Each number is the original film frame. This lovely piece of math allows the 24fps film to be converted to be displayed on 60Hz products (nearly every TV in the US, ever).

This can be done in a number of places. With DVDs, it was all done in the player. With HD DVD, it is done in the player to output 1080i. With Blu-ray, there are a few options. The first player, the Samsung, added the 3:2 to the signal, interlaced it, and then output that (1080i) or de-interlaced the same signal and output that (1080p). In this case, the only difference between 1080i and 1080p is where the de-interlacing is done. If you send 1080i, the TV de-interlaces it to 1080p. If you send your TV the 1080p signal, the player is de-interlacing the signal. As long as your TV is de-interlacing the 1080i correctly, then there is no difference. Check out this article for more info on that.

The next Blu-ray players (from Pioneer and the like) will have an additional option. They will be able to output the 1080p/24 from the disc directly. At first you may think that if your TV doesn't accept 1080p, you'll miss out on being able to see the "unmolested" 1080p/24 from the disc. Well even if your TV could accept the 1080p/24, your TV would still have to add the 3:2 pulldown itself (the TV is still 60Hz). So you're not seeing the 1080p/24 regardless.

The only exception to that rule is if you can change the refresh on the TV. Pioneer's plasmas can be set to refresh at 72 Hz. These will take the 1080p/24, and do a simple 3:3 pull down (repeating each frame 3 times).

Short Version

What this all means is this:

• When it comes to movies (as in HD DVD and Blu-ray) there will be no visible difference between the 1080i signal and the 1080p signal, as long as your TV correctly de-interlaces 1080i. So even if you could input 1080p, you wouldn't see a difference (because there is none).

• There is no additional or new information in a 1080p signal from movie based content.

• The only time you would see a difference is if you have native 1080p/60 content, which at this point would only come from a PC and maybe the PS3. 1080p/60 does have more information than 1080i/30, but unless you're a gamer you will probably never see native 1080p/60 content. It is incredibly unlikely that they will ever broadcast 1080p (too much bandwidth) or that 1080p/60 content will show up on discs (too much storage space and no one is using it to record/film).

So all of you people who bought 1080p displays only to be told by the companies that you had bought 1080i TVs, relax. The TV will convert everything to 1080p. Now if you bought a TV that doesn't de-interlace 1080i correctly, well, that's a whole other story.

[astral]

I am afraid that the article is not quite correct.

It is written by an American.

All TVs have a refresh rate of 60Hz

He should have said that "all US tv's have a refresh rate of 60Hz".

The rest of the world uses 50Hz, which makes the maths for a 24fps rate very much easier.

Just speed it up to 25fps and all is in synch, with no jiggery pokey needed.

This is the way we have been watching cinema films on TV, since the 60's

In the bad old days the TV only displayed half the lines, every other line in the first frame

then on the next pass displayed the ones in between, giving a full frame in two passes.

The eye is fooled because it all happens so quickly.

Nowadays TV's refresh at 100hz, which means you get the whole picture in each frame,

which makes for a clearer image.

This technology has been available for at least 20 years, first on crt screen tv's and now on LCD and Plasma.

[naidraw66]

Thanks for the info, I just copied the article from the internet. I was also under the impression that most Tv models that apear in Thailand are US spec. Im probably wrong there to . . . . .

[gjoo888]

Well picture quality is much better. HBOHD looks good to me, sports looks brilliant. Im watching in 1080i so don't expect blu ray levels but it sure looks good. Switching between HBOHD and regular HBO (same programming) tells u all you need to know.. its quite simply worlds apart. Other channels (some anyway) look a little better than before, but not that much (well apart from Thai TV which for some reason looks much better).

Prefer the menu system on this box too, it keeps track of the channels that you watch most often so rather than go through the whole list, you can just skip between your favourites. They left a manual in English so will have some more playing to do and will look into the ethernet question and revert shortly. (edit just checked it says the ethernet is reserved for future use, yet the USB2.0 is for external storage devices, but I cant find a record button anywhere.. well not yet at least)

Bottom line, if you have an HD capable TV and you watch sports or HBO, get it. Besides the more of us who do the more channels we can expect later.

I had HD installed yesterday and the HD channels look fine, the Sports Channel is markedly better than the HBO Channel although I think part of the problem is that some of the movies are older movies and were not filmed in HD.

However, the rest of my channels are not nearly as good as they were before. The picture quality is not as sharp and the color is slightly washed out, I'd guess about a 20% degradation in quality. I've already called Truevisions to complain and a tech will be out tomorrow (or at least they said he would). When I switched from the HDMI input that was installed with the box to component video cables, the picture improved, but still not as good as it was before on the non-HD channels.

If anyone can be of help or has any solutions, please help.

Btw, if anyone is contemplating getting HD for the World Cup, we were told that the HD broadcast audio will be in Thai language only. Hopefully she's wrong, but she did emphasize that point before she accepted our order.

[bankruatsteve]

I tried to call Truevison's promotion number for HD world cup several times but couldn't get through. I can't make any sense out of their promotions though - it seems they are just trying to sell HD TV's. ??

Does anybody know what the "deal" is? I see TrueSports 1 will be showing the matches delayed. And now I'm watching it live on Thai TV Ch.3. But, is there some way to get the live feed with English commentary? I suppose the HD would be nice, but can we get Ch. 111 without the HD box?

[Jonny B]

ive tried calling them too, cant get through, guess people like me who dont listen to that promo stuff are all calling to ask where the world cup is and why the HD channel isnt working, now i know after reading this topic. just wondering how much it costs if already a gold member?

cheers

[bangkokrick]

ive tried calling them too, cant get through, guess people like me who dont listen to that promo stuff are all calling to ask where the world cup is and why the HD channel isnt working, now i know after reading this topic. just wondering how much it costs if already a gold member?

cheers

Ad far as I am aware for current subscribers on a gold package will get the HD box for 2000 Baht. New subscribers 4000 Baht. 1 month free for the world cup then 290 baht a month thereafter. There is a 3 day waiting list for the hardware in Pattaya, as per Truevision engineer that called today.

Cheers, Rick

[brewsterbudgen]

I tried to call Truevison's promotion number for HD world cup several times but couldn't get through. I can't make any sense out of their promotions though - it seems they are just trying to sell HD TV's. ??

Does anybody know what the "deal" is? I see TrueSports 1 will be showing the matches delayed. And now I'm watching it live on Thai TV Ch.3. But, is there some way to get the live feed with English commentary? I suppose the HD would be nice, but can we get Ch. 111 without the HD box?

No English language commentary is available in Thailand.

HD is only available if you subscribe to the HD package.

[Jonny B]

ive tried calling them too, cant get through, guess people like me who dont listen to that promo stuff are all calling to ask where the world cup is and why the HD channel isnt working, now i know after reading this topic. just wondering how much it costs if already a gold member?

cheers

Ad far as I am aware for current subscribers on a gold package will get the HD box for 2000 Baht. New subscribers 4000 Baht. 1 month free for the world cup then 290 baht a month thereafter. There is a 3 day waiting list for the hardware in Pattaya, as per Truevision engineer that called today.

Cheers, Rick

cheers mate.