High Definition content - what's available?

[NackNack]

I'm getting this lovely HDTV at the end of the month:

http://www.plasma-television.co.uk/s...sma-p-205.html

What exactly can I use on it? I want to hook my PC upto it for standard video, how does High Definition video work through it? I'm going to have to upgrade the PC anyway, but wondered how it would be set up.

Also, what is there that displays High Definition at the moment, aside from a modded/US Xbox? As I really want to show this thing off - PS2 at all? If not, what's the best connection for the screen?

I've also heard of DVD players that upscale to 720p, are they any good, and how good is upscaling in general?

Cheers!

[podavies]

Wow that expensive have you looked at RGB Direct it about £300 pounds cheaper. what is the Resoution of this screen is it true HD. does it support 720p 1080i

[indie24]

http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/PRC/PRC.s...oduct/PS42S5HX

cheapest i foudn it anywhere

[laser]

THere's lots of WMVHD DVD's about if you want to play hi-def content via a PC or you have one of the few DVD players which will play WMVHD DVD's.

Have a look at www.dvdboxoffice.com and search for WMVHD. There are other sites selling these DVD's but most are probably based in the US. You can also download demo WMVHD clips from the Microsoft web site.

Check out this site as well:

http://www.thehdforum.com

If you really want to test your plasma out try searching for hi-def m2t files from a Sony FX-1 hi-def camcorder. The files raw files are pretty big i.e. 1080i files will be about 80MB for a 15 second clip but the quality is fantastic, way better than WMVHD clips. It will at least give you an idea of what your plasma is capable off. You will need to run the clips from a fast PC though.

[Jim_Fear]

Originally Posted by NackNack

I'm getting this lovely HDTV at the end of the month:

http://www.plasma-television.co.uk/s...sma-p-205.html

What exactly can I use on it? I want to hook my PC upto it for standard video, how does High Definition video work through it? I'm going to have to upgrade the PC anyway, but wondered how it would be set up.

Also, what is there that displays High Definition at the moment, aside from a modded/US Xbox? As I really want to show this thing off - PS2 at all? If not, what's the best connection for the screen?

I've also heard of DVD players that upscale to 720p, are they any good, and how good is upscaling in general?

Cheers!

I was looking at some of the Samsung Plasma's in Curry's today...they're not bad, but in comparison to the others around it (panasonic, LG etc) it lacked something in the picture, the whole thing seemed flat (no pun intended ) they just didn't have the same "that looks superb" feeling to them.

And for that sort of price you could be looking at one of those rather tasty Hitachi plasma's, from the reviews ive seen on it everyone gives it top marks, I cant remember the exact model name but it was a 42" high def one and the name ended in 7200.

[NackNack]

I'm getting the screen for £1300 (which I haven't see that cheap anywhere else), I just linked to the screen so people knew what I was getting and could recommend based on that.

laser - how good would my PC have to be to play those files, and what do I play them in, is VLC fine?

[tscotsman]

i could have go it for £1500 but decided against it as I thought the pictures was (too put it not too mildly) crap when viewing either sky or dvd.

[NackNack]

I've already agreed to buy it, so please stop telling me how crap you think it is, I posted this topic asking what there is to display on this screen, I don't need comments like yours.

[dan1979]

If you want a decent amount of HD stuff the only option is illegally downloaded stuff ripped from American transmissions.

[NackNack]

What would I play ripped American stuff on? I have shows that say "HDTV" on them, but they're not particularly big files, cheers.

[ctf7]

your files are not big because only the source of them is hd

[Tony Hoyle]

Anything less than 8GB is probably not HD.. the best quality stuff (Gladiator!) is 20GB.

[laser]

Originally Posted by NackNack

I'm getting the screen for £1300 (which I haven't see that cheap anywhere else), I just linked to the screen so people knew what I was getting and could recommend based on that.

laser - how good would my PC have to be to play those files, and what do I play them in, is VLC fine?

As a minimum you would need a Pentium 4 (3GHz) PC or AMD's equivalent or faster with 512MB RAM and a good 128MB graphics card (not a budget card) and a DVD ROM or recorder if you are going to play m2t files. A lesser specification maybe OK for WMVHD files.

Recommended PC would be P4 3GHz or above, 1GB RAM and a 256MB graphics card with DVD ROM or DVD Recorder for replay of m2t files. This spec would be more than capable of playing WMVHD files.

I use Windows Media Player 10 or Nero Media Player (this comes bundled with Nero Burning ROM Software) and both play WMVHD and m2t files OK. I don't know what VLC is....


BTW this is the link for the hi-def camcorder footage. The duck and swan footage are the best.

[NackNack]

Heh, I tried running the Ridge Racer 6 HD footage on my PC, one frame a second, gorgeous! 1.3, 1GB RAM and Ti4200 128MB at the moment.

I'll look to aim above those specifications then when I get my computer.

VLC - VideoLan player, search for VLC on download.com, it's played literally every video file I've thrown at it, no need for codecs or anything.

[dan1979]

You're looking at somewhere in the region of 1GB for every 15 minutes of hi-def footage though 720p stuff is lower.

You don't need a PC that powerful to play HD stuff, I have an AMD2800 Barton with 1GB RAM, a Ti4200 (well until it died) with the right software it played 1080i 5.1 stuff perfectly.